Oil and metal film

[mhouston]

Has anyone had the chance to compare oil based audio caps with other quality caps? I am interesred in your comments about the sonic qualities of oil based caps.

[jacco vermeulen]

"oil cap" is a very general name, think you have to be more specific.
Oil filled capacitors have been around for quite some time and there've been a lot of recent year developments.
Whether the target is SS, Tubeys or LS crossover filter is also left open.

The high voltage rating, power handling, and reliability of oil filled caps make/made them nice for glassworks.
Many oil caps have an attenuation at higher frequencies, for a bunch of tube amps that can be a plus.
nos oil caps by LeClanché in Switzerland were pretty pleasing imo, but that's old hat talk.
About a year ago i revisited LeClanché, old stock mkp caps of the brand and their new line of foil caps do rather nice in solid state stuff.
I favor a combination of ptfe/polystyrene/kp/mkp caps, but the voltage rating limits it mainly to SS.

[mhouston]

I know oil filled caps have been around for donkeys. I have been in electronics/audio for 40 years. I’ve seen them leak. My base choice when it comes to audio coupling and input caps are Sprague orange drops. I find them good bangs for bucks. For a small 6T9 based amp I am about to build I went for Solens. I have been busting to try these caps for a while. I was ordering parts for another amp altogether and noticed they sold Solens too. So I snapped up a few bags full. But I guess in the end I will build something I just want to put oil in. I’m thinking oil and silver foil. I would also like to try copper and tin foil units.

Of late a I have built a few chip amps which are DC amps so no coupling or input/ouput caps required. I was wondering with any single amp you have built did you try different caps and if so did you compare oil with others and what did you find. I am busting to have a shot myself.

[AMV8]

Jacco

In case you have not tracked them down ( although you seem to have found most things ) LCR have a range of polypropylene caps that are 625 volt rated. Maplin sell them for around £5 for 8uf.

Don

[mhouston]

Do you have a link for LCR??

[AMV8]

mhouston

If you type "lcr capacitors" in Google it will give you links to both maplin and also lcr. When you see the maplin web page it will say polypropylene capacitors 250v but if you look at the picture it says 630 volts. I have bought a number of these and they are 630 v0lts and they work just fine - as all lcr capacitors do.

Don

[AMV8]

mhouston

If you have trouble with the links e mail me

Don

[ashok]

You are treading on delicate ground here.

My experience has been that you cannot make a sweeping statement about the sound of a capacitor without refering to how and where it is being used.

A cap that sounds best in one circuit implementation 'need not' be the best when used some where else .
The only way you can be sure is to try it out yourself. Sometimes a difficult and possibly expensive thing to do . But I think there is no way out.

Recently I tried an expensive film cap at the output of an amp. It sounded better than most others that I had tried. Then I decided to buy a larger capacitance ( x5 )value of the same cap to lower the low frequency roll off . It was a mistake. The larger capacitor was decidedly 'softer' sounding than it's lower value sibling.
The make and value is not important . Some other brand might have behaved quite differently.
The lesson is , pick the types you think are good and try them all in your circuit. Alternatively pick something that others prefer and stick to it.

I think there is no 'best cap' that fits all applications.

IMO paper in oils do sound very nice in tube circuits. And then again not all brands sound exactly alike plus you get lots of variations ( Cu foil , Al foil , Tin foil etc ).The same caps didn't make as great a difference in some ss circuits.
I have come across cheap electrolytics sounding very good compared to very expensive film caps. You MUST try the caps to know how it will sound in your application. It's TIY all the way !
Cheers.



( TIY - Try It Yourself )

[mhouston]

Thanks for your advice. I know where you are coming from (not sure where you are going but then again neither do you). And the best cap you have ever used/tried is...???

[jacco vermeulen]

Originally posted by AMV8
most things

Hi Don Volante,

a blind man does not even need a cane to find his way through paradise.

450Vac=635Vdc.
With 4 wheels instead of the mono-cane, a 25uF/635V and higher Polyprop foil KP motor run capacitor of Spanish origin does £1.35 overhere. (borrowed the £ sign from your post)
Posh blokes such as myself still retain that oldfashioned craving for fancypants labels though, awfull habit.

By chance, did you see the pictures of 8,500 obsolete 1% accurate stacked layer Polystyrene caps with axial leads from that friendly acquaintance flash by ?
An Orange head in audio parts nirvana could not resist the temptation of 3,500 items in a matching color either, the owner was only looking for a few top notch capacitors to serve life imprisonment in the riaa section of his Pearl Phono boards.

(a bondage masochist in solitude prefers TUY)