Capacitor usage jungle: lost newbie needs help

[GaryKrant]

Hi all: Considering me as the newbiest electronics learner, I would like to get some help concerning to capacitor type/usage relationship.

I'm dealing with a tube preamp & CDP upgrade and I find lots of infos about this or that capacitor on this or that place (not talking about sizes, only types), and I'm really confused about what type I must use, mainly having in mind that I want to learn, ie, I want to know -from a engineering/scientific point of view and not by personal sonic perceptions- why one cap is suitable for a given usage.

Let's start by power supply filtering: I can see that most caps are electrolythics in different qualities (usually Silmics or Cerafines, for instance, when talking about good caps). But, what about OS-CONs? Are Os-Con suitables for power supplies and are they better than conventional lythics. What distinguishes a Elna Silmic from a Os-Con to stablish that Silmic is better than a good quality os-con, even when talking about power supplies for digital -and not analog- circuits?

Regarding to bypass caps the doubts are the same, or similar: always lythics over -for instance- film caps? When dealing with a bypass cap, what parameters (ERS, for instance) must be given in mind?

And finishing with coupling caps (in the world of tube devices), I can find that usually MKx are used (if you haven't buck enough to get PIOs), but gurus tell you to use MKPs in the first preamp stages and MKTs in the second stages. Why?

Please, I would get some general addressing, some place where finding info (I've surfed this forum but all is very dispersed), or some explanation. Of course I know there's not a universal panacea rule, I'm looking for info like "use low ers type for bypassing is recomended in digital lines because..." or "os-con response is faster to conventional lythics, so it's suitable for psu's where current peaks are usual".

What I'm not looking for is things like "use Silmics because they sound better"... well, maybe that was true but what sounds good for you shouldn't sound better for me.

Thanks in advance.

Thanks in advance.

[Renron]

GK,
Nothing like starting off small...........jeesch.

I suggest you narrow down your scope of information input to one specific usage at a time. There is way too much to learn and understand in this very complex and not always agreed upon topic.
Pick ONE usage, do a search, read everything you can find, then ask questions.

For example, Power Supplies; have you looked up what the max voltage and Uf are for Os-Cons? It would take a very large amount of them to make up a power supply for say an F5! Most (not all) agree that larger caps are better then a bank of smaller caps for PS usage. I'll leave it up to the experts (I'm not one of 'em) to explain why.

If you pick a usage for the caps, understand WHY a particular cap works well, you'll understand why others don't. I enjoyed reading about XOver (coupling) caps and how some sound different than others based on their components. (no flames) I ended up buying Obbligato film for my XOvers due to the price and quality (very nice for the price) YMMV.

Lot's of information on your request. Try search again.

Ron

[GaryKrant]

I agree with you: a extremely large topic :-(

I'll try it again, but not now 'cause my wife is performing the thirth (and last) call for going to take lunch.

Thanks anyway RenRon