Gainclone Cap Survey

PaulHilgeman · 17th February 2003, 05:46 AM

How much do you use?

What Brand?

What is your supply voltage?

What is the impedence of the speakers you drive?

Thanks!

-Paul

Peter Daniel · 17th February 2003, 05:54 AM

I don't see the need for more than 1000u per rail, per channel. That gives four caps rated 50V. They are allways from Black Gate, since using so little capacitance, allows to use better brand.
I tried both 18V & 24V on transformer and in both cases it sounded very similar, with 18V providing more bass. I used all kinds of speakers, never had a problem.

PaulHilgeman · 17th February 2003, 05:58 AM

Thanks Peter.

I am using 1000uF per rail per channel, random cheap 50V electrolytics. I may have to upgrade them sometime.

I was thinking that is where some of my bass has gone.

I did try a second set of cables, but it didn't do anything.

-Paul

Peter Daniel · 17th February 2003, 06:05 AM

I would try removing 15k resistor to ground after the pot. Maybe it makes your input impedance too low? I tried my gainclones with many different speakers, the bass was always fine. To get better bass, try lower voltage on transformer, 18V or less.

PaulHilgeman · 17th February 2003, 06:08 AM

Yeah, I did that already, it didn't help at all.

-Paul

pinkmouse · 17th February 2003, 06:57 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by PaulHilgeman
How much do you use?

2000uf per side

Quote:

What Brand?

Rubicon ZL for the electros, Evox/Rifa for the input

Quote:

What is your supply voltage?

24V ac

Quote:

What is the impedence of the speakers you drive?

8 ohm

I have 1000uf mounted on the psu pcb and another 1000uf mounted at the chip.
Bridges are made with On Semi 100v 10a Schottkys.

Cradle22 · 17th February 2003, 07:48 AM

Hi!

I use 1200 uF 50 V Panasonic FC for each polarity, and again 2 * 220 uF Panasonic FC in the transformer casing (for a little bit of smoothing before transferring the voltage through the cable to the clone)

Toroid voltage is 2*25 V, 225 VA (Nuvotem)

Speakers: None at all... Only built it for the fun of building, and for testing purposes... but I attached it to 8 ohms speakers (and blew my midrange woofer in initial faulty GC setup...)

Bye,

Cradle

Bricolo · 17th February 2003, 03:20 PM

only 1000µF per rail?!

I've got 6600 in my class A headphone amp!

JDeV · 17th February 2003, 03:48 PM

How much:
For supply:Started with 1000uf , 50V. Increased to as much as 35000uf, did not cause any audible improvement. Back to 1000uf.
For input: 2.2uf , 300V, WIMA MKS

Brand: Hitano (Very cheap)

Supply voltage: 15-0-15 Prim. 21-0-21 Sec. after standard 20A, 600V Bridge. Delivers 17Watt / channel, that is when it start to clipp. Run at about 30°C on smallish heatsinks.

Speaker Z: 8ohm

Get more bass then from my Aleph30/ XBoSoZ setup. Sounds extremely good for the price, but not the same as A30.

Cradle22 · 17th February 2003, 05:22 PM

Hi!

Quote:

Originally posted by Bricolo
only 1000µF per rail?!

I've got 6600 in my class A headphone amp!

If what I understood of this whole OPAmp stuff is right, then somewhat between 1000 and 2000 uF per rail is enough simply because the caps have a distance to the chip of about 0.5 cm to 1 cm, and the path in the chips is neglectible short...
And smaller caps are also faster. A lot of people mentioned here that increasing the capacity didn't improve sound at all, even if the caps were directly soldered to the IC pins, so why not stick to less, since I will also cost (considerably) less...

Bye,

Arndt

17th February 2003, 05:46 AM	#1
PaulHilgeman Account Disabled Join Date: Dec 2002	Gainclone Cap Survey How much do you use? What Brand? What is your supply voltage? What is the impedence of the speakers you drive? Thanks! -Paul

17th February 2003, 05:54 AM	#2
Peter Daniel diyAudio Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Toronto, Canada	I don't see the need for more than 1000u per rail, per channel. That gives four caps rated 50V. They are allways from Black Gate, since using so little capacitance, allows to use better brand. I tried both 18V & 24V on transformer and in both cases it sounded very similar, with 18V providing more bass. I used all kinds of speakers, never had a problem. __________________ www.audiosector.com “Do something really well. See how much time it takes. It might be a product, a work of art, who knows? Then give it away cheaply, just because you feel that it should not cost so much, even if it took a lot of time and expensive materials to make it.” - JC

17th February 2003, 06:05 AM	#4
Peter Daniel diyAudio Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Toronto, Canada	I would try removing 15k resistor to ground after the pot. Maybe it makes your input impedance too low? I tried my gainclones with many different speakers, the bass was always fine. To get better bass, try lower voltage on transformer, 18V or less. __________________ www.audiosector.com “Do something really well. See how much time it takes. It might be a product, a work of art, who knows? Then give it away cheaply, just because you feel that it should not cost so much, even if it took a lot of time and expensive materials to make it.” - JC

17th February 2003, 07:48 AM	#7
Cradle22 diyAudio Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Dortmund, Germany	Hi! I use 1200 uF 50 V Panasonic FC for each polarity, and again 2 * 220 uF Panasonic FC in the transformer casing (for a little bit of smoothing before transferring the voltage through the cable to the clone) Toroid voltage is 225 V, 225 VA (Nuvotem) Speakers: None at all... Only built it for the fun of building, and for testing purposes... but I attached it to 8 ohms speakers (and blew my midrange woofer in initial faulty GC setup...) Bye, Cradle __________________ *********************** A Sacrifice For Freedom

17th February 2003, 03:48 PM	#9
JDeV diyAudio Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Cape Town	How much: For supply:Started with 1000uf , 50V. Increased to as much as 35000uf, did not cause any audible improvement. Back to 1000uf. For input: 2.2uf , 300V, WIMA MKS Brand: Hitano (Very cheap) Supply voltage: 15-0-15 Prim. 21-0-21 Sec. after standard 20A, 600V Bridge. Delivers 17Watt / channel, that is when it start to clipp. Run at about 30°C on smallish heatsinks. Speaker Z: 8ohm Get more bass then from my Aleph30/ XBoSoZ setup. Sounds extremely good for the price, but not the same as A30. __________________ "Be carefull who's advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it." From Baz Luhrmann's - Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)


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17th February 2003, 05:58 AM	#3
PaulHilgeman Account Disabled Join Date: Dec 2002	Thanks Peter. I am using 1000uF per rail per channel, random cheap 50V electrolytics. I may have to upgrade them sometime. I was thinking that is where some of my bass has gone. I did try a second set of cables, but it didn't do anything. -Paul

17th February 2003, 06:08 AM	#5
PaulHilgeman Account Disabled Join Date: Dec 2002	Yeah, I did that already, it didn't help at all. -Paul

17th February 2003, 03:20 PM	#8
Bricolo diyAudio Member Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Grenoble, FR	only 1000µF per rail?! I've got 6600 in my class A headphone amp!

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