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

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At the risk of starting another cap war, I would like to introduce my new favorite, which might be completely unknown to those of you who care about such things.

Those of you who do not care, please withhold your sarcastic remarks. I am not the least bit interested in your engineering background, your skeptical nature, and your ability to determine every sonic aspect of a component based on a few measurements. If you don't believe in the fragility and fickleness of an electrical signal that is supposed to convey an emotion instead of a numerical value, please ignore this thread. In other words, put away your meters and scopes and listen to the music for a change, and spare us your pearls of wisdom and witty dismissals. I am well aware that the best cap is no cap.

In the process of building a pair of monoblocks, I installed many different brands of "identical" value (0.68mfd) caps in the DC blocking input section. The caps were always evaluated after sufficient break in (again, skeptics need not respond), which was determined simply by listening for when the sound of a new cap stopped changing. That time period varied for every different cap, from hours to weeks. Each monoblock always contained a different cap, so I was always comparing a different pair. I used stereo and monaural source material. Sometimes the stereo image was so badly affected that it was difficult to focus on the sound of each channel, but a monaural source always allowed me to focus clearly on the sound of each individual cap. Sometimes I would listen to only one channel at a time, switching back and forth after extended periods. I also switched amps from one channel to the other to ensure no room or upstream effects were distorting my tests.

After months of comparing, I finally selected the two which I thought sounded better than all the others: Mundorf SIO and Fostex copper/tin foil and film. These two caps are both superb components that competently convey much of the subtle information contained in music. The differences between them were far less than the differences among all the other caps I tried. After many hours of attentive listening, I developed a preference, but it was not a very strong one. Last night, I hosted two other audiophiles and we made a blind test between the two caps. We used lots of different music, stereo and monaural. At no time were they aware of which cap was in which amp. I swapped amps from side to side, and, once, didn't swap sides when I told them I had. At no time were they aware of my or the other person's preference. Their preference always followed one cap, despite my trying to fool them. All of us preferred the Fostex cap. We all agreed the difference was subtle, similar to that between two nice IC's or power cords, but significant enough to matter. Where the Mundorf was very detailed and allowed us to hear many volume levels and shadings of different instruments, the Fostex was similarly detailed yet smoother, with more spaciousness and depth, and somewhat better bass. The Mundorf was slightly flat in perspective compared to the Fostex, which gave more roundness to the sound of individual and groups of instruments and voices. The Fostex had a more realistic tonality where the Mundorf seemed slightly artificial.

I have never seen Fostex mentioned in any of the popular cap shootouts (where Mundorf SIO is usually rated very highly), so I thought I'd bring it to your attention. It's not a cheap cap, but it does cost slightly less than the Mundorf. I know there are lots of good film caps out there, and I didn't try them all. There might be better caps, but I think I'm done testing. I don't know where Fostex caps are available, other than Madisound.

Peace,
Tom E
 
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I hear the Russian FT-3 Teflon Caps are excellent.



Bought a few together with the even cheaper K40 Y9. Didn't like them at all, even after stripping the aluminium skin. The K40s otoh are really nice, though certainly not comparable to the very best, if forced i can easily live with them. The FT3 disappointment really surprised me, everyone loves them to bits. And it is the general character of sound that upsets me, not some lack of refinement. As this experience put me off experimenting with more expensive teflons it may be just the teflon "sound" that's not for me.
 
@Joachim Gerhard & Benchtester!

What actually makes theese PPS caps superior I do not know precisely, it might be due to mechanical properties, because they don´t seem to be that different from PP in other regards.
I´ve used them for decoupling purposes amongst others in a DAC project, with discrete analog design.
First we used Wima PP types, then we ran out of them, and we tried to use some Evox PP caps, but with a bad result, I do not know why, but these Evox types did not sound nearly as good as the Wimas did. So we did have to replace them with Wima´s, but then suddenly the idea about the PPS came up, because my pals instructor at the technical university some years ago said, that they were a lot better than anything else available.
So we ordered some and just tried, and that I can tell you we did not regret.

When first one have heard them, then suddenly one realises that most caps are noisy devices, polluting the music with some strange sort of echo or resonant behavior which surrounds everything.
The PPS does not do so, they are much quieter and non resonant in their sonic behavior, when used for decoupling.
I must emphasize though, that some of the PPS caps in this particular case, were used for other puposes than decoupling. Namely as upper frequency limitation of the shunt regulators for the analog stage in the DAC.

Later on we´ve used them for decoupling purposes in a discrete buffer in a power amp, where they also excel. So i´ve no reservations recommending them, the downside of this is, that you will not anylonger understand how all those nicelooking red caps found their way into your expensive high end gear:smash:

I can only guess what the reason for theese differences are, but I think that impedance must be the main reason, or maybe the linearity of it.

Anyway! I hope they´ll find their way into good hifi gear, because Wima also do make them, so that the manufacturers of expensive gear can keep on using the nice red caps they love so much. The SMR´s are boring grey:D
At least they could replace the awfull Tantalums used by i.e. Linn in the very expensive DS Klimax.
 
The best cap is no cap. Some time ago I was writing something about this here: SymAsym ohne Koppelkondensatoren « Beetle’s Weblog (Sorry, german only).

I had running my SymAsym with white Mundorf 10µF for DC coupling. My new linestage has no DC offset so I decided to get rid of the coupling Cs. What happened was somewhat stunning. Incredibily sonic improvement. I was totally out of my mind. I really wasn´t expecting that. Actually I was thinking my speakers are at their limits. And they are not.
 
The best cap is no cap. Some time ago I was writing something about this here: SymAsym ohne Koppelkondensatoren « Beetle’s Weblog (Sorry, german only).

I had running my SymAsym with white Mundorf 10µF for DC coupling. My new linestage has no DC offset so I decided to get rid of the coupling Cs. What happened was somewhat stunning. Incredibily sonic improvement. I was totally out of my mind. I really wasn´t expecting that. Actually I was thinking my speakers are at their limits. And they are not.

I agree completely with you!
We´ve brought it even further, because of all caps electrolytics are the worst ones, regardless af brand and type. They sound very different, but they are all of them a source of colouration.
Therefor we did build our DAC with a discrete analog stage with very slow servo circuits instead of using filtering caps, but in addition, we also implemented shunt regulators for the analog stage, which need no decoupling at all. So there is no caps in the PSU at all.
Unfortunately this will not work for a digital stage, as the DAC chips, up-sampling chip and the reciever chip all together has a demand for very fast power delivery, which even the fastest shunt reg. will not be able to deliver. So unfortunately decoupling is needed, and in strategic well chosen places, you can use film caps in stead of ceramics. PPS is IMHO the ones with the least flaws.
 
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T-cap from Tone Factory.
Do not know if they are available in the Western World, but according to Japanese ultra high-end audiophiles these are the real deal. The pic below is from the Robert Coda website. To get hold of these caps you would probably either have to eat raw fish or sleep with a geisha.:p
(Just found out that low value Vitamin-Qs from Tone Factory are available on eBay.)

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
 
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