Petp Capacitors-one Of The Best?

[audiojoy]

I wanted to share with the rest of the DIY community my experience with these capacitors, as I believe they are fantastic bargains bettering IMHO a lot of the exotica out there, but costing 'pennies'.

I first discovered them on EBAY several years ago, sold mostly out of the Eastern European/Russian community. I believe they are of military origin and in true fashion appear to be put together really well. I have been using them for several years now and have extensive experience with them. They are still sold as bulk buys on EBAY and cost 'pennies'

These caps mostly run from .001 to 22uf and voltages up to 1200v. They can therefore be used for tube projects as well as solid state.

I have used them in every type of electronic circuit that I have come across in my diy hifi adventures. They have never dissapointed. They bring great detail and neutrality to proceedings. But rather than go on about their sound i can perhaps best sum up their sound by the comparisons I have done with them

Audio note tin foil caps- petp was more dynamic and more detailed sounding probably equal in most other areas.

Jenson paper in oil caps - again a very similar finding

Sanyo's Oscon,the sanyo's sounded slower and less dynamic in comparison

Mundorf silver - the PETP matched it for detail and I believe was less strident and aggressive at the top end.

Black Gates - very similar sonic character, but the black gates had the edge for inner tonal detail.

Russian Teflon and PIO - again very similar finding as for the audionote and jenson paper in oils described above.


Still one of the best caps i have ever used for application in speaker crossover in which they are as good as if not better than the non polar black gates that cost a fortune.

The only capacitor I would probably prefer are the Audionote Copper paper in oils but not by a great margin. They tame the top end , bringing in more refinement and naturalness to the top end and midrange. So I guess if i were to criticise them then the top end needs to be matched a bit.

One of the all time great bargains in my book!

[jameshillj]

Ah, this is very interesting thing indeed. I was just about to spend a silly amount on 2 of those copper caps!

Is there any diffarence between the K73 -16, 11 and the P4 types.
Also, it seems Rifa has/is making caps with the PETP dialectric according to the eBay China source, yes?

It's curious to see the difference in price between the Latvian, Russian and other countries for the perhaps same caps. As usual, it's ther damn freight that's the killer.

[audiojoy]

I use mostly K73-16 but have used the others as well and have not been sure of a significant difference. The military PIO (which i see used on DIYaudio)are absolutely no where near the quality of the PETP's, which by the way are non polar.

I just bought 30 1uf 600v at 15us cents a piece, audionote tin/aluminium are over $30 each and the copper ones are $100 each. the Mundorf silvers are not far off those prices as are the jensens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[analog_sa]

Originally posted by audiojoy
as good as if not better than the non polar black gates that cost a fortune.

Non-polar BG cost a fortune? Not sure how to interprete this. The BG are generally much cheaper than any decent film for the same capacitance. And you actually prefered BG to Mundorf SIO?!

Never used PETP capacitors mostly because polyethylene terephthalate is some type of polyester. Otoh i've used other russian caps (FT3, K40-Y9, MBGB) and although certainly good value for the money they are ridiculously overhyped. Great if you're on budget or building for someone else though

[jameshillj]

Thanks Audiojoy,

Ordered a few different values of the K73-16 PETPs - It'll be interesting to hear what they sound like.

I've also heard that some ordinary Siemens stacked film caps can sound very good and they're not even propylene.

[mjf]

hello.
siemens (= epcos) has petp caps.
mkh,silver coloured,without coating,lead dist. mostly 7,5mm,cheap.................
greetings.........

[audiojoy]

Hi analog Sa

the m caps I have are labelled as 'supreme silver', i dont think that is the silver/oil version but i am not sure??

The BG non polars cost a small fortune compared to the PETP's

I too have tried many of the military caps the teflons are not bad at all, overly smooth but still very good in my opinion.. The rest are not very good including the PIO's I see used regularly in diy project pictures.

Also i mentioned in another thread some time ago last year about starter motor caps used in washing machines 50uf for high voltage 400v application from Ducati energia.I have used these in many valve amp applications again i noted a quality akin to black gates but for a few uk pounds!!! compared to £100 for the black gates.

[jameshillj]

I, too, have used the Motor-start caps particularly for speaker Xovers and p/s bipass - the NOS Rifa ones are better than the Ducati, if you can find them.
I have changed up from these (and Wima MKP-10s) to Clarity Caps, and then up to the present arrangement of AmpOhm PP plus red Jensens.
I didn't like the sound of the Blackgates either, in my setup and the dark green POIs that come with the Aikido kits retain a certain "choked off" characteristic that many people have found attractive.
Hopefully, these humble Petps will be a success in my system - they are quite cheap and with the combined freight, it turned out to be reasonable (from Ukraine to Oz, that is!)

[jlsem]

because polyethylene terephthalate is some type of polyester.

It is in fact MYLAR.

John

[oshifis]

They are all the same. Mylar is the trade name used by DuPont.