Best electrolytic capacitors

[Bas Horneman]

As to the big ones (10.000uf)

Consider the Kendeil's as well. I've read good things about them. Don't let the fact that they are affordable fool you. It is one of the favourites if not favourite among the Naim "refurbishers" and I've read somewhere that even Naim themselves use them. But that is ofcourse just a rumour.

Modifying audio equipment: recommended components

[rdf]

Originally Posted by dtses

There are quite attractive AudioNotes on Partsconnexion ...

I'm a big fan of their smaller silver post when paired with the silver spade. Expensive, though IMO still a scorching deal relative to other product on the site.

Edit: looks like CMC makes a silver-over-copper post too at roughly half the AN price.

[Andrea:]

Originally Posted by dsavitsk

The Elnas, Muses, and BGs all have solid copper, or at least non-magnetic, leads. The lesser Nichicons, Panny FM and FCs, Rubycon ZL, etc. all have steel leads.

I'd think it's wise to choose capacitors by their estimated lifetime, rather than the metal their leads consist of

To me it's disappointing that the various Elna or Nichicon for audio are all specified for 85°C max and with a 1000 or 2000 hours endurance.



The Rubycon ZL sound quite good as power supply caps, anyway. And they last long. It think they sound better than the Panasonic FC or FM.

At any rate, wherever possible I prefer to bypass the electrolytic with a small Wima, polyester or polypropylene - just not too small, or it's useless.

[Jidis]

Hi,

What are most of you guys preferring on non-polars for passive crossovers? Ideally, I don't want something prohibitively expensive, as I may grab a bunch of different values to have on hand for testing. I've also got a DigiKey order in the build stage, so if there's a good one they stock, that would be easy, but I can make a second order if not.

Much Thanks!

[dtses]

thanks for Kendeil, I wish I could find all the caps in one place like on ebay...

there is one thing left that confuses me a bit
It's clear with Nichicon and Elna caps' polarity from the PDF info on Partsconnexion, but as to those blue Philips in my Rеstеk, do they have the same polarity as Elnas - side with "-" is actually + ? Couldn't find anywhere in the net, just a few records on this forum, that they have some tricky polarity

Could anyone advice pls?
as to the others black noName caps, the same technique as with Elna, Nichicon??

[Damon Hill]

How does tan d relate to quality? I'd assumed the lower the better, like DA and DF for film caps; higher voltage small caps have lower tan d and the "audio" caps seem to generally have a lower tan d than others, but not consistently.

Also note that Black Gates never had objective specifications like tan d and leakage, derating factors, etc. But even many audio manufacturers took them seriously enough to use in their better equipment.

I'm not clear on what the distortion mechanisms in small caps are, only that the graphite loaded electrolyte in Black Gates seemed to make some sense and there's no equivalent on the market (you'd think someone would be making a knockoff, but I haven't even heard rumors of Black Gate fakes). Electrolytics are hard to figure out from an objective viewpoint, other than we can't get away from having to use them even if just for power decoupling.

[analog_sa]

Originally Posted by Bas Horneman

I've read somewhere that even Naim themselves use them. But that is ofcourse just a rumour.

Certainly not a rumour. All the Naim pieces i've owned used them. Excellent caps.

[TheShaman]

How do those Kendeils compare to Sikorels?

[Kurt von Kubik]

Originally Posted by dsavitsk

The Elnas, Muses, and BGs all have solid copper, or at least non-magnetic, leads. The lesser Nichicons, Panny FM and FCs, Rubycon ZL, etc. all have steel leads.

This is not true.

Pannasonic FM features Copper leads, which all caps do.
A lot of them even OFC copper.
Btw. the panasonic FM is the electrolytic cap with the lowest ESR anyway.
You cannot fit steel to aluminium without a complex proces, så you´ll never find steel in places like that.

The coil is aluminium, and in larger cans the terminals are also aluminium.

[Kurt von Kubik]

for decoupling and bypassing purposes try out the Evox SMR polyphenylene sulfid caps.