"Best" film cap you've never heard of?

[Andrea:]

Originally Posted by sq225917

I genuinely believe they have been worth the price in this application.

It's fine, but I still believe I could spend that money incomparably better.

[QSerraTico_Tico]

Russian teflons add almost no coloration. Cheap too.

[sq225917]

I'm sure you could find a use for £100 that would provide you more satisfaction than a pair of capacitors- I couldn't find anything to spend £100 on that would give me greater enjoyment than these have.

I value the enjoyment I gain from Music more than almost anything else, and this has more value to me than expensive concert tickets as it affects 'all' my replayed music.

[Andrea:]

Originally Posted by sq225917

I'm sure you could find a use for £100 that would provide you more satisfaction than a pair of capacitors- I couldn't find anything to spend £100 on that would give me greater enjoyment than these have.

I value the enjoyment I gain from Music more than almost anything else, and this has more value to me than expensive concert tickets as it affects 'all' my replayed music.

Ah well, no doubt... concert tickets are just a luxury, and concerts mundane events... even last august's Leonard Cohen's concert I went to, in Venice. Whereas his music is one of the least mundane I know.


As I see it, it's a matter of proportions... you must really value an awful lot your affair with Music to let her spend your money that way

[ticknpop]

Andrea,
I find Solen MKP metalized polypropelene caps good value compared to bipolar electrolytics and poorer dielectric film caps like polyester , but grainy, dynamically compresssed, and unresolving compared to good film and foil caps ( polypropelene, polystyrene, and teflon). If you are happy enough with them that's fine, but there are better sounding, larger, and more expensive capacitors available for those willling to accomodate the cost and space.
I use all 3 dielectrics - teflon caps in the RIAA network, bias bypass, and tweeter caps, polystyrene in compensation networks, servos and r/c output network, and fim and foil polypropelene in bass and midrange speaker crossover. The system is totally DC coupled except for the speaker crossover - I could hear the improvement going from metalised film caps in each of these applications.

[Andrea:]

Bipolar electrolytics sound like crap compared to the Solen.

Did you use them in crossovers? A 2.2uF 250V Solen in the line out of my DAC is not grainy at all, and it's very resolving.


Edit: Admittedly before being burnt in they were just a little grainy and 'flat'.


P.S. I haven't only compared to Wima polyester, but also to Wima polypropylene (the latter being warmer and less impressive than the Solen at fine detail resolution & bass quality).

[Andrea:]

Bottom line, when I say the Solen are great bang for the buck, I really mean it.

[Andrea:]

Listening to EELS, Hombre Lobo & wondering... how can that guy hear a lack of smoothness in the Solen's?


To me these Solen caps are wonderful sounding and... they make a lot of sense, since they don't cost like a pair of speakers

[analog_sa]

Originally Posted by Andrea:

Bottom line, when I say the Solen are great bang for the buck, I really mean it.

You should have said so from the beginning

And so are 5532 opamps, that's why so many "high end" manufacturers use them.

I really stopped understanding the obsession with "bang for the buck" in diy. How many coupling caps can one possibly use so that the price really becomes an issue? How many preamps, amps, etc does one build? Are we talking 2 or 3 or are the numbers within the hundreds? Diy can never be cheap, unless one's time has no value, so does it not make sense to use the best or at least close to the best? I have drawers full of junk caps, accumulated over the years. Clearly most will never be used for anything, at least not stuff i would listen to. So, why do i have them? Because they were all "great bang for the buck".

[Andrea:]

Originally Posted by analog_sa

And so are 5532 opamps, that's why so many "high end" manufacturers use them.

Honestly no, when there's stuff like the ($.70) LME49723 around

Instead I don't know anything better than the Solen caps that costs the same.

I really stopped understanding the obsession with "bang for the buck" in diy. How many coupling caps can one possibly use so that the price really becomes an issue? How many preamps, amps, etc does one build? Are we talking 2 or 3 or are the numbers within the hundreds? Diy can never be cheap, unless one's time has no value, so does it not make sense to use the best or at least close to the best? I have drawers full of junk caps, accumulated over the years. Clearly most will never be used for anything, at least not stuff i would listen to. So, why do i have them? Because they were all "great bang for the buck".

I don't have so many bucks to spend..


BTW, Sonus Faber uses Solen MKP caps (in series with the tweeter; for the low-pass instead they use another type of film cap) in their latest "Liuto Monitor"... just that the large one is paralleled with a small (.33uF) one. Total cost is still bang-for-the-buck.