How come my gssl sounds better without the bypass caps in the audio sections?

[Lowfreq]

Hi all,

I've always found my gssls to have a slight smearing in the high frequencies that bugged me, so after reading some posts by Kingston, I decided to whip out the bypass caps in the audio sections to see if it made any difference. I'm using Nichicon PW elecs and Wima polyprops.

GSSL input and output are filled with 100nF bypass caps for the electrolytics. They actually degrade audio signal quality, especially if you have even halfway decent electrolytics. They should be removed.

Wow, it did!! The smearing of the sound is gone 

Before I whipped em out I kept switching between an itb mix with and without the gssl inserted on the stereo bus. There was a definite difference that I could hear, and my wife picked it out in a blind test everytime.
But after removing the film caps, the difference between gssl inserted and not inserted was minimal at best. My wife couldn't pick which was which, and they sounded really close to my ears. (no compression used, just running signal through the unit)

So i'm confused...... I thought the polys were there to help the sound. To help in the "air" frequencies? After doing a lot of searching and reading, it seems to be something some people say helps, while others say it doesn't.

Also, if I'm using my gssl on an insert only, and there's no chance of 48v hitting it, can I get away with using a jumper instead of the 22uf and 100uf electrolytic caps (film caps are not an option.. too big). What is it protecting it from? And what about the 22uf between the input 5534 and the vca?

Or are these electrolytics not really hurting the sound at all? I kinda thought they were the caps to avoid in your audio path if possible.

 

[QUEEF BAG]

i have had a similar experience on some occasions.

i put some polystyrine caps across a few caps in the master section
of a trident 80B a number of years ago...

at first it was like    wow  that IS more top!  cool it worked!
then more like  wait,  that's kinda edgy,  not smooth... 
then took 'em out.  much better.
these days electrolytics are so much better that those of yesteryear,
in most cases for audio it is not needed.  a different story in the middle
of the last century, and even towards the end.

i'm not sure of the mechanisms of bypass caps hurting the sound in some cases,
and not in others - heard it a few times though.

 

[reanimatorstudio]

If your wife said so it's true. You can really rely on such an opinion. A blind test with my wife: she could pick a minimoog over a voyer even when she was reading a book, no matter what sound. The only thing she had to say was: like or dislike.
I didn't install electrolytics but large Evox  MMK27.5 226J63F13L4  (RS stocknummer 298-0239). Sorry never compared with electrolytics.

 

[MikeClev]

As I understand it old electrolytic caps would have more significant ESR than today's caps and so bypassing with a small film cap would help lower impedance at high frequencies.

Also years ago circuits involved a lot of low impedances, ie 600 ohm line impedance and so a few ohms of ESR at high frequencies would make more of a difference than in todays circuits with good caps with sub 1 ohm ESRs working into 10k loads.

So perhaps in circuit where impedances are low, bypassing with a good quality film cap is worth trying...

 

[Lowfreq]

It must be a wife thing then  ;D

If your wife said so it's true. You can really rely on such an opinion. A blind test with my wife: she could pick a minimoog over a voyer even when she was reading a book, no matter what sound. The only thing she had to say was: like or dislike.

The thing I like is that she's not biased, or suffers from "this sounds better, coz it's my latest toy" syndrome