stupid green question

[tmbg]

I'm shopping for green parts... most of the caps don't specify what type they should be... what type is best results?

Some just say "poly". Poly what? Polyester? Polyester film? Metallized Polyester? Polypropylene? Metallized Polypropylene? Polystyrene? Polymer?

Anyone recommend a good brand/series for the 'lytics? I want this pre to be RIGHT.

 

[Samuel Groner]

Some just say "poly". Poly what? Polyester? Polyester film? Metallized Polyester? Polypropylene? Metallized Polypropylene? Polystyrene? Polymer?

Polystrene & polypropylene are both very good. Polyester is almost as good. Metallized/nonmetallized does not mather.

That's why some just say "poly"... :grin:

Samuel

 

[Svart]

I'm slowly working on mine too, trying to finish 2 1176s(soon!!) a PRR varimu(soon too!!), 4 channels of forssell opto, various mic builds(some ribbons too) and various other things..

generally polyester is good and cheap with a smooth sound, polypro is a little more expensive with increased HF clarity. Polystyrene, however supposedly being superior to others tends to have a very clear HF, but rather tinny mids, at least to my ears. Polycarb is supposed to be good but just try to find some.

I use the panasonic polyester and polypros (non metalized if possible for me) you can get them from Digikey pretty cheap.

as for 'lytics I've been experimenting with three kinds, panasonic FCs, Nichicon VX and PWs. I like the FCs for guitar stuff because they have a clear high mid, I'm tending to like either Nichicon on the drums due to a more subtle sound.

still trying to get some time to get together TMBG! Maybe this week after work?

:guinness:

 

[tmbg]

oh totally, did you see my mic threads? I totally stocked up on cheap mics from GC, and I got most of my stuff set up. My SSL sounds great, I can't wait to stick my new green in front of it.

Go listen to the mic clips in the 'sound clips, anyone?' thread!

And yeah, we should get together this week, or this weekend. My fiance is out of town this weekend, and we'll probably be doing a bit more messing around in the studio!

 

[Svart]

Where is your studio again?

 

[tmbg]

haha my "studio" is currently in my apartment, in Smyrna.

 

[Svart]

sweet, it's better that way. you can get up and lay tracks in the middle of the night if you need to. mine is down on the south side, an hour away from me here in duluth so I'm not so lucky during the week. It's in the basement of a relative's house(for now, until i can work out buying my house) so i can go and spend the weekend if needed, plus it's somewhat in the country so loud, middle of the night sessions don't bother anyone. :green:

ah I work in Smyrna, so maybe this week after work? (>4pm)

 

[tony dB]

[quote author="Svart"]

generally polyester is good and cheap with a smooth sound, polypro is a little more expensive with increased HF clarity. Polystyrene, however supposedly being superior to others tends to have a very clear HF, but rather tinny mids, at least to my ears. [/quote]

Is it possible to get best of both worlds by putting of 1 of each in parallel?
Or does there exist another technique to get combinations of good/bad characteristics?

Some guruz shine plz :guinness:

Tony

 

[tmbg]

ah I work in Smyrna, so maybe this week after work? (>4pm)

I'm home from work about 6:30 every day, so any day that's good for you!

 

[Svart]

well I overly generalized, I apologize. to actually hear their "sound" you'd need to listen through dozens of them but, In this application you are really lowering ESR a bit and possibly improving frequency response (some dispute this) rather than coloring the sound. some like polypro do a slightly better job at it than polyester. however using larger plastic caps as THE coupling cap with no 'lytic you can hear them more easily. I recently bought an assorted bag of polyesters just for the 10uf polyesters. I paralleled them and used them for i/o caps. they do sound better than 'lytics but are HUGE compared to a lytic of even 100x it's value.

so in reality you can't really hear the difference unless you are using them like jellybeans or the original design was poor and you are "fixing" something by using these.

:guinness:

 

[tmbg]

ok another green question. Parts list says 'ferrite bead'... anything special about it?

 

[Svart]

not that I know of. you can experiment with core size and # of turns but I've had luck with other devices by just running the wire through it.. you might be able to get away without it too.

EDIT: I have a few small ferrite cores at work, I could drop them by this week if you want.

 

[peterc]

In the last BOM all the various types were in there. I use Rubicon YXF series electrolytics & polyprop bypassing caps, generally Wimas. In tube ccts I prefer polycarb Wimas, they sound a bit warmer to my ear, but when bypassing electros the type is much less critical soundwise.

For the feedback resistor bypass caps I ended up using polystyrenes as they all that that I could find for the 22pF apart from X5/X7 ceramics. However I did try some of the ceramics in place of the polystyrenes and could hear no difference.

Replacing an eclectro coupling cap in a tube cct with a poly is like lifting a sheet from the speakers! Huge diff.

The best I have tried are paper in oil caps (Atlas), tho'. I had put some of these into a Mullard EL84 amp, & loved the sound. Tried some Evox polyprops & suddenly sounded very wierd & honky... Put the Papers back in. They have this remarkable liquid sound to them.

Sorry for the OT

Peter

 

[Svart]

liquid sound? now that's something i GOTTA hear! :green:

 

[tmbg]

Svart, I got everything ordered now, including the beads.

BTW, I put together a Mouser BOM for this project, including all 1% metal films (which I didn't actually order for myself, I'm gonna match 5% carbons for mine). The total for all parts minus 5532s and sockets came to like $38 per channel. In 10-lots it's like $340 or so. Think anyone would be interested in putting together kits? I thought about using peter's gerbers and making a small run of PCBs for myself, might be interesting to order 10 or 20 preamps worth of parts and making a PCB/parts kit. Would that be stepping on toes at all? I'm not interested in turning a profit, just in getting the bulk prices cheaper so that I can build myself many many channels

 

[Svart]

ask this in the black market thread, maybe a poll?