how much of a difference do film caps make in a passive filter?

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echoplex

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 29, 2011
Messages
195
Location
Germany
hi folks,

I recently purchased a Niio Analog Track Thickener.
It's a distortion unit with a pultec style passive EQ at the end.
Since I had to fix one potentiometer I screw the unit open and realised that some no-name cheap film caps have been used in that passive filter network.. for make up gain it seems two tl074 have been utilized (one for the low band, one for the high band)
So now I was wondering how much of a sonic differens it would make to replace those caps with some quality WIMA caps..
of course I'd chose the exact same values and voltage ratings.
is that worth the work or should I just leave the stock ones there?
Attatched please find a picture of the filter network and caps..

 

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Same material I would not bother. If you want to upgrade to polypropylene, silver mica or other material, that would have a bigger impact in the sound.
 
echoplex said:
hi folks,

I recently purchased a Niio Analog Track Thickener.
It's a distortion unit with a pultec style passive EQ at the end.
Since I had to fix one potentiometer I screw the unit open and realised that some no-name cheap film caps have been used in that passive filter network.. for make up gain it seems two tl074 have been utilized (one for the low band, one for the high band)
So now I was wondering how much of a sonic differens it would make to replace those caps with some quality WIMA caps..
of course I'd chose the exact same values and voltage ratings.
is that worth the work or should I just leave the stock ones there?
Attatched please find a picture of the filter network and caps..
I would suggest you do a recording of the unit as it is, then that you replace the caps with whatever fancy "audiophile" caps and do another recording. Then you could compare the two takes; I would bet you would find very little difference. However this difference may be worthwhile to you, or not...
That's the whole essence of rolling components, capacitors, opamps, inductors, whatever. What is a wothwhile improvement to someone maybe a waste of time and money to somebody else.
I can't criticize anyone that says capacitors X sound better than Y, as long as it's supported by some evidence, even if only subjective. What I don't support is people who roll components and think they make a valid comparison based on ayditive memory.
 
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