Decent, reasonable GC caps/resistor survey:

[Peter Daniel]

Originally posted by glyphin
Now I might not be able to compare because I left out the input caps entirely - he won't trust the amp to not blow out his tweeters.

You will not blow the tweeters, as there is usually a coupling cap in a crossover with a tweeter. If anything blows it's usually bass driver as it doesn't have high pass filter.

I once blew both midbass units ($500 value), but the tweeter didn't suffer at all, when 40V DC hit the speaker.

[GrahamnDodder]

Oops.

Just saw my post #6. I meant 1000uf's where I said 100uf's. Hope my stupidity was obvious enuf.

GnD

[glyphin]

Millwood -
What speakers is your Radio Shack GC driving? The consensus seems to be the GC works best with efficient, high impedence speakers. Your observation that it sounds better at low volumes suggests your speakers aren't efficient enough. Parasound is designed for home theater so despite their lack of refinement they can at least drive tough loads.

Peter -
What caused DC to hit your speaker? I measured negligible DC offset from my DAC, so I'm just operating on faith that nothing disasterous is going to occur. *fingers crossed*

[Peter Daniel]

It was a faulty operation of my A75 amp, it wasn't GC.

I'm not really sure what exactly happen with the amp, but I had to replace one mosfet.

[millwood]

Originally posted by glyphin
Millwood -
What speakers is your Radio Shack GC driving? The consensus seems to be the GC works best with efficient, high impedence speakers.

I tried a pair of PSB alpha, and then some H/K computer speakers. Same thing.

[glyphin]

PSB Alpha's are a ported bass two-way design so they have a impedence dip to around 4 ohms at the port frequency. Efficiency is nothing special, around 88 dB.
http://www.hometheatermag.com/showarchives.cgi?170:3

[fmak]

For the decoupling caps, the Panasonic FC's are very good for the price.
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BG FKs are much better, Ns are fine too, as are Nihicon KZs.
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Black Gate NX-Q type

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Haven't found them to be magical , as some say

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For input resistor, I like the sound of the carbon film that I am using. I think that it is a good idea to mix-and-match resistors to prevent one type from having too much affect on the sonic signature.

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Welwyn RC55s are magnetic, they seem to sound ok but I prefer to avoid them. Dale RN 55Cs are better.

[Nuuk]

Welwyn RC55s are magnetic, they seem to sound ok but I prefer to avoid them. Dale RN 55Cs are better.

fmak, where do you get the Gales from?

The NX-Qs need a very long time to sound their best but when they do, it is worth the wait. I was 'lucky' to have had some for my GCs that had already seen service in another amp.

[analog_sa]

it certain sounds good, but nothing spectacular. I have at home a Parasound amp, a Sony AVR and a good old Kenwood stereo. The gainclone does not sound as clear as the others at high volume but at low volume, it is indistinguishable

Use supermarket parts and you get supermarket sound. I bet even the Parasound is using better components.

Capacitors

I have terminally given bypassing - it always sounds disjointed to my ears. Rather live with less bandwidth than unnatural sound. That said, i certainly haven't tried all bypassing combinations. Much easier to simply use std BG.

Carbons

The Rikens are probably the best value. Rich, smooth and powerful midrange. Deep bass. A bit of old-fashioned coloration in the mid. Can i live with them? Probably, but not using them to excess. You would certainly not call them fast.

cheers
peter

[Nuuk]

Having been unwaged for 16 years, I certainly have to work to tight budgets but in the case of the GC, I wonder just what is the difference between buying the cheapest parts and something that will give a much better result.

In the case of resistors, for people that don't have any parts to start off with, they will probably find that they have to buy minimum order quantities of standard items like carbon/metal film types. The total cost could even be a little more than buying just two resistors like the RC55s.

You could certainly spend a lot more on capaictors but for the GC we are only talking about three (that matter). Leaving out the very expensive types like Black Gates, a decent item will not cost very much more than the very cheapest.

So while I appreciate that people must work to a budget, and while I also understand the law of diminishing returns, I would say to GC builders, don't agonise too long over buying the better components recommended on these forums.

The difference in cost is nowhere near the value of your time in upgrading components after you have built a GC.