Bo Deadly
Well-known member
Just how microphonic are MLCC capacitors?
I just bought a ReVox B77 reel-to-reel that has old Tantalum caps all over the place in the speed control, drive control, monitor amp, input amp, ... pretty much all of the boards. I'm thinking anything in the audio path should just be replaced with modern Tantalums or selectively film if there's room. But for everything else, why not MLCCs? The only downside of MLCCs that I know of is that they're microphonic. But for most things, does it really matter?
Is it possible that say an MLCC used to debounce a button or used as a timer could trigger unexpected logic from vibration like a solenoid closing or just knocking the machine? We're only talking about a couple of millivolts right?
The alternative is to use electrolytics which can be a tight fit or film which in many instances is just totally overkill or to just replace with modern Tantalums.
What do you think? Is there even a remote possibility that the microphonics of MLCCs could break circuits like those in the B77?
I just bought a ReVox B77 reel-to-reel that has old Tantalum caps all over the place in the speed control, drive control, monitor amp, input amp, ... pretty much all of the boards. I'm thinking anything in the audio path should just be replaced with modern Tantalums or selectively film if there's room. But for everything else, why not MLCCs? The only downside of MLCCs that I know of is that they're microphonic. But for most things, does it really matter?
Is it possible that say an MLCC used to debounce a button or used as a timer could trigger unexpected logic from vibration like a solenoid closing or just knocking the machine? We're only talking about a couple of millivolts right?
The alternative is to use electrolytics which can be a tight fit or film which in many instances is just totally overkill or to just replace with modern Tantalums.
What do you think? Is there even a remote possibility that the microphonics of MLCCs could break circuits like those in the B77?