Actually, there's many, many different forms of polypropylene, too. MW distributions, MFRs, tacticity, branching, crystallinity, density... these all affect the mechanical, optical, and electrical properties of polypropylene. Not to mention the various surface treatments done before metallizing or wrapping.
Interesting topic; hope you don't mind a little ramble....
On the resistor front, I've always been partial to carbons (both comp and film) over metal, but synergy and voicing are everything. In other words, it's too simplistic IMO to say 'metal bad, carbon good' or the reverse - usually I use a mix of the two types.
IMHO it's best to build your amp then if it needs a sharper more analytical quality experiment with metal films (and conversely experiment with carbons if you need to soften and warm up things a bit) before you consider tube rolling. It's way cheaper and it does work! One observation here though is that the preamp load resistor seems to be critical to good voicing of an amp - I just experimented with 27k metal films for that role in my 6DJ8 and was thoroughly underwhelmed. Right now I've got some old timey 1W carbon comps there and it's much smoother and more listenable!
As far as caps are concerned, I'm too much of a poverty case to experiment with anything much more pricey than film and metal foil types like the Sprague Orange Drops and the ones that Parts Express sells as "Daytons". FWIW though, I've had good results bypassing conventional JJ, Sprague, or even Xicon electrolytics with the Orange Drops and Daytons. And, though it's not very 'boutiquey', I always use a nice Panasonic "X" class safety cap on the mains as an RF killer, along with a ferrite choke on the ground shackle at the HQ ground.
Maybe one of these days I'll be able to afford PIO, BG, Cerafine, etc. but for now, that's what works over here.
Peace, everyone.
All the best,
Morse
On the resistor front, I've always been partial to carbons (both comp and film) over metal, but synergy and voicing are everything. In other words, it's too simplistic IMO to say 'metal bad, carbon good' or the reverse - usually I use a mix of the two types.
IMHO it's best to build your amp then if it needs a sharper more analytical quality experiment with metal films (and conversely experiment with carbons if you need to soften and warm up things a bit) before you consider tube rolling. It's way cheaper and it does work! One observation here though is that the preamp load resistor seems to be critical to good voicing of an amp - I just experimented with 27k metal films for that role in my 6DJ8 and was thoroughly underwhelmed. Right now I've got some old timey 1W carbon comps there and it's much smoother and more listenable!
As far as caps are concerned, I'm too much of a poverty case to experiment with anything much more pricey than film and metal foil types like the Sprague Orange Drops and the ones that Parts Express sells as "Daytons". FWIW though, I've had good results bypassing conventional JJ, Sprague, or even Xicon electrolytics with the Orange Drops and Daytons. And, though it's not very 'boutiquey', I always use a nice Panasonic "X" class safety cap on the mains as an RF killer, along with a ferrite choke on the ground shackle at the HQ ground.
Maybe one of these days I'll be able to afford PIO, BG, Cerafine, etc. but for now, that's what works over here.
Peace, everyone.
All the best,
Morse
Component sound.
The reason why passive components sound different must be because of their non ideal characteristics. Like for example resistors. Apart from dubious things like crystalline or other forms of the raw material , resistors have inductance and miniscule capacitance(?). Put a resistor across the measurement terminals of - say - Clio and you will find that its value changes with frequency - even in the audio range. This is more signifcant for larger values I think. But I remember reading somewhere that above a certain value ( about 10K?) the impedance rises with frequency and below that value it drops with frequency. This will affect the system as a whole. Especially with negative feedback.
So is it better to use resistors intelligently in critical places and avoid the use of 'designer' resistors where these stray characteristics are 'designed' to be reduced and hence 'better sounding' and exhorbitantly expensive?
Cheers.
The reason why passive components sound different must be because of their non ideal characteristics. Like for example resistors. Apart from dubious things like crystalline or other forms of the raw material , resistors have inductance and miniscule capacitance(?). Put a resistor across the measurement terminals of - say - Clio and you will find that its value changes with frequency - even in the audio range. This is more signifcant for larger values I think. But I remember reading somewhere that above a certain value ( about 10K?) the impedance rises with frequency and below that value it drops with frequency. This will affect the system as a whole. Especially with negative feedback.
So is it better to use resistors intelligently in critical places and avoid the use of 'designer' resistors where these stray characteristics are 'designed' to be reduced and hence 'better sounding' and exhorbitantly expensive?
Cheers.
Well done Joel
Frank
I swear i never noticed the beeswax. But i was telling he'd come around. The Jupiters are also among my favourites, although i'd probably use them more sparingly than the Hovlands. I wouldn't be surprised if next week we read Joel's full review: Tango vs Tamura vs Nature Sound. And not even a 'thank you'...
cheers
peter
Frank
I swear i never noticed the beeswax. But i was telling he'd come around. The Jupiters are also among my favourites, although i'd probably use them more sparingly than the Hovlands. I wouldn't be surprised if next week we read Joel's full review: Tango vs Tamura vs Nature Sound. And not even a 'thank you'...
cheers
peter
Bees wax
I may be wrong, but I beleive that WE used to pot some of it's transformers in a type of bees wax. It has good electrical (DA) and mechanical damping properties. Caps are microphonic; vibrate one and look at the way it modulates a signal through it, so packing them in beeswax will reduce the effect of vibration.
I may be wrong, but I beleive that WE used to pot some of it's transformers in a type of bees wax. It has good electrical (DA) and mechanical damping properties. Caps are microphonic; vibrate one and look at the way it modulates a signal through it, so packing them in beeswax will reduce the effect of vibration.
paper in oil caps
Do the paper in oil cap have any shelf life? I have found some 60's vintage Caps of values ranging from very less up to 100uf 600volts in a local store. Brands are Phillips, Tesla, Siemens and some no name (but European origin) items.
They are never used, but it would help to know before paying good money.
Do the paper in oil cap have any shelf life? I have found some 60's vintage Caps of values ranging from very less up to 100uf 600volts in a local store. Brands are Phillips, Tesla, Siemens and some no name (but European origin) items.
They are never used, but it would help to know before paying good money.
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