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

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Yes, well, I saw it like I was comparing one film cap to another. The Wima (thanks to being polyester & lower voltage) being tiny in size compared to the Solen.

But I didn't expect to appreciate such a big difference between two film caps.


I did use Wima MKP4 before, in an older version of the same DAC... was good, sure, but I don't recall being impressed with such a big difference, even if they came after the stock (chip-type tantalum? I'm pretty sure) output decoupling caps.

Well there is really big differences between caps and dielectrics, so I am not really surprised of the experience you´ve had.

Even smoothing electrolytic caps are very important parts, even though they are not really in the signal path. So everybody trying theese things out are in for a surprise, especially if the´ve got top notch gear to listen through.
 
Yeah, Wima is one of the best: see N°12:

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Even smoothing electrolytic caps are very important parts, even though they are not really in the signal path. So everybody trying theese things out are in for a surprise, especially if the´ve got top notch gear to listen through.
I completely agree. I like Rubycon's ZL, ZLH and YZH series's a lot because they perform great and don't cost like gold. I like to bypass them with (Wima, this time) film caps, too, and I hear the benefit...
 
Knowing you for an opamp expert the MKS2 is like the 709 of caps and the MKP caps are close to 5534. Neither the Solen nor the Wima are anywhere close to a LT1364, so using them together is a bit of a quality mismatch :)
Not sure I completely follow... and I'm using better opamps than the LT1364 now (preferred two LT1363 anyway) :)

Anyhow, the Solen MKP was the most I could fit inside my Super Pro DAC. Maybe there's even better, but it would be disproportionate with the price of the DAC itself...


Edit: oops, meant Rubycon YXH not "YZH"
 
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Btw. I just remembered an interesting experience with caps.
It was in an amplifier from Doxa, which is made in Norway by mr. Lauland.
The input DC blocking cap was a radial ERO MKP (probably 20mm) paralleled with an axial smaller some kind of paper in oil cap, I think.
Trying to bypass this DC blocking device could simply not be heard at all.
Lauland simply got together a pair of completely inaudible caps.
Really amazing I think, but that was how it was, and it really was not due to low resolution in the amp itself.
I talked to some other guys, who independently had the same experience, one could simply not hear if it was in or out.
First time ever for me, as well as it so far also has been the last:D

:deer:
 
They most certainly can be! :)

You are right!
If your amp or amplifying device is well done, your PSU will become an even more important part of the unit, and so will the smoothing caps.
By now I´m experimenting with a very nice switching amp, and guess what:D.
You can completely change the resolution and sound along with the smoothing caps.

So far Sikorel rules :)

:deer:
In our country the deer with the red nose is called Rudolph :D
 
Yeah... that of finding transparency by combining complementary-sounding things is a "fine art"... Something like that is possible with opamps too :)

Right you are:)
If I knew what kind of bypass he used, I´d tell you, but I do not remember, and they might also be obsolete anyway.
Still Í was pretty much amased, because I´ve always regarded input caps as an inferior solution to the DC problem.

Thumbs up to mr. Lauland for that.

:deer:
 
Right you are:)
If I knew what kind of bypass he used, I´d tell you, but I do not remember, and they might also be obsolete anyway.
Still Í was pretty much amased, because I´ve always regarded input caps as an inferior solution to the DC problem.

Thumbs up to mr. Lauland for that.

:deer:
And, correspondently, you would expect that multiple opamp stages would have to sound worse than a single opamp... instead it can be the opposite, if you really have a hearing so fine as to match different opamps so that their sonic characterizations counterbalance each other. Because an ideal opamp does not exist...just like a fully transparent capacitor, I guess :)
 
And, correspondently, you would expect that multiple opamp stages would have to sound worse than a single opamp... instead it can be the opposite, if you really have a hearing so fine as to match different opamps so that their sonic characterizations counterbalance each other. Because an ideal opamp does not exist...just like a fully transparent capacitor, I guess :)

Surely that also is a kind of art, but I do still prefer discrete design. It is both more simple, and if sonic disbehaviour occurs, you just start all over again:D.
But unfortunately due to overall low impedances, the surroundings (PSU, Servo circuitry, layout an so), have to be first class, as PSRR is pretty low compared to opamps.
 
Surely that also is a kind of art, but I do still prefer discrete design. It is both more simple, and if sonic disbehaviour occurs, you just start all over again:D.
But unfortunately due to overall low impedances, the surroundings (PSU, Servo circuitry, layout an so), have to be first class, as PSRR is pretty low compared to opamps.

Anyway I generally prefer to have just one opamp in the signal path after a (V out) DAC. The other side of the story is finding the DAC chip & opamp with the most perfect synergy ...something like CS4398 and OPA1611 for instance :)
 
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