My new coupling caps are too big to fit in the box with the amp. A bit of an oversight.
Has anyone experienced sound degradation when using caps mounted externally. I'm only talking about extending the leads to around four inches in length.
I really don't want to make a bigger box unless as a last resort.
Has anyone experienced sound degradation when using caps mounted externally. I'm only talking about extending the leads to around four inches in length.
I really don't want to make a bigger box unless as a last resort.
If they are too big to fit in the box I guess you are talking about large electrolytic power supply smoothing capacitors. In my opinion they will already have a large series resistance and inductance so I would not think four inches or so of fat wire should make a difference.
See a thread on this forum (sorry dont have time right now to dig it up) on UCD snubberising (or snubberizing - not sure how to spell the plural) for a novel method of (and general information on) supply decoupling/bypassing.
See a thread on this forum (sorry dont have time right now to dig it up) on UCD snubberising (or snubberizing - not sure how to spell the plural) for a novel method of (and general information on) supply decoupling/bypassing.
Hi Trebla,
Is it practical to use these caps on the 'outside', directly at the RCA sockets, perhaps.
If you were to solder a male RCA connector to one end of the caps and a female to the other, with a short wire bypass for the 'return' or ground side, you could merely plug this arrangement in at the end of the interconnects, to see what this will do to the sound.
It wouldn't really add any extra signal path wiring this way, except for the caps' leads which you are stuck with, anyway, and extending the ground return by an inch or two, shouldn't have much effect on things.
If this worked to your satisfaction, no doubt you could either ensure the arrangement was insulated and protected with some tape, or even install them in another small external box, perhaps.
I wouldn't worry about the shielding aspect, unless all your interconnects are already fully shielded and you have experienced problems of this nature in the past, but it is almost free to try out, and without any major 'surgery' being needed to the amps themselves. If and when fully satisfied with the results, it would doubtless be preferable to eliminate the extra connections, perhaps by soldering the caps directly to the ends of the chosen interconnects and tidying this up, but trying things out in this way initially, avoids any 'irreversible' decisions needing to be made before you are fully aware of the results.
Apart from very 'sensitive' MC head amps, I have not even enclosed most of my audio circuits for many years, mainly because they sound better this way, and it allows easy mods to be made at any time, as a bonus. Needless to say, I have not had any trouble with any RF breakthrough etc., or I wouldn't do things this way.
I hope this helps.
Is it practical to use these caps on the 'outside', directly at the RCA sockets, perhaps.
If you were to solder a male RCA connector to one end of the caps and a female to the other, with a short wire bypass for the 'return' or ground side, you could merely plug this arrangement in at the end of the interconnects, to see what this will do to the sound.
It wouldn't really add any extra signal path wiring this way, except for the caps' leads which you are stuck with, anyway, and extending the ground return by an inch or two, shouldn't have much effect on things.
If this worked to your satisfaction, no doubt you could either ensure the arrangement was insulated and protected with some tape, or even install them in another small external box, perhaps.
I wouldn't worry about the shielding aspect, unless all your interconnects are already fully shielded and you have experienced problems of this nature in the past, but it is almost free to try out, and without any major 'surgery' being needed to the amps themselves. If and when fully satisfied with the results, it would doubtless be preferable to eliminate the extra connections, perhaps by soldering the caps directly to the ends of the chosen interconnects and tidying this up, but trying things out in this way initially, avoids any 'irreversible' decisions needing to be made before you are fully aware of the results.
Apart from very 'sensitive' MC head amps, I have not even enclosed most of my audio circuits for many years, mainly because they sound better this way, and it allows easy mods to be made at any time, as a bonus. Needless to say, I have not had any trouble with any RF breakthrough etc., or I wouldn't do things this way.
I hope this helps.
Thankyou Bob.
A bit of lateral thinking sometimes goes a long way.
Ill definitely give that a try.
All the caps I've tried so far have been mounted off the pcb without any problem, but these are much bigger and would need to have the extra length leads
Another way of doing it is to mount them horizontally above the pcb on some sort of support, so that half the caps protrude through the lid. This will either look quite cool or quite stupid but it would keep the leads relatively short. If i like them, I can always build another box when i've got the time.
A bit of lateral thinking sometimes goes a long way.
Ill definitely give that a try.
All the caps I've tried so far have been mounted off the pcb without any problem, but these are much bigger and would need to have the extra length leads
Another way of doing it is to mount them horizontally above the pcb on some sort of support, so that half the caps protrude through the lid. This will either look quite cool or quite stupid but it would keep the leads relatively short. If i like them, I can always build another box when i've got the time.
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