Elna Silmic II or Elna Cerafine?

Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
Thanks man, i just ordered the caps and right after that i noticed this reply
from you.

This is exactly what i did, i don't have professional knowledge in electronics,
so since i didn't get a reply for this thread for a few days, i picked up the
scheme yesterday, printed it and sat on it for a few hours(!) and finally
i got to the same conclusion you just wrote in your reply.

Im learning alot from all this amp modding.

Thanks alot!
 
hi rg12

dont worry we all are still learning here
three years ago i didnt know everything about the audio
(maybe the saint, peter daniel and algar emi was very sad
when their receive my letter :D )

in audio world you will very lucky if you have friend in same hobby
you dont need to experiment all parts with your money

if i remembered all the things happen before
from smoking amp, blowing transistor, electric shoots, damage solder
was the unforgetable moment
 
why does someone keep saying electrolytics have a life span of 1000 hours ? Where did you get this information. I have a lot of 13- 20 yr old "top of line" equipment and wanted to know the lifespan of Caps - I came across a text book liek tutorial or manufactor page that stated Electrolytics have an electrical lifespan of apprx 20,000 under normal conditions. . . . 1000 hours huh ? If that were true I would be buying boom boxes for work every 6 months.. They last a few years till dropped a few times and then some...

Does anyone know of very small 25 volt films in 2.2uf for coupling. . . It looks like I am going to have to get SilmicII, perhaps toss in polystyrene bypass caps. . Does anyone know if .01uf styrene will have an effect and not be too much of a capacitence . . . My hobby is speakers so this coupling cap stuff is new to me . . .
 
Man, this post is so old that i need to do a recap again...(jk)

You can check your old electrolytics with cap tester and see if what
you say is true. It's not that they die after 1000 hours.

I don't think a cap manufacture will say their caps hold for 1000 hours
when they can actually last 20,000 hours.
 
Ex-Moderator R.I.P.
Joined 2005
for supply caps, I tend towards using new Panasonic FR

but my actual reason for posting now
it was a surprice to me reading about how they get to the life test
a bit different than I thought
and I guess different from what most people think it means

105degr means that the cap has been exposed to 105degr
but only shortly
once reformed to 'normal' 20degr, they should last the for the specced life
which means they are not supposed to work at high temperature for a long time
it only means they will still work if accidentally exposed to high temperature, for a short period

the really strange test is testing storage 'shelf life'
exposed to 105degr for 1000 hours
the reformed to 20degr, and it will meet the working life specs, like 10.000hours, at 20degr working temperature

its all explained in the spec sheet
http://docs-europe.electrocomponents.com/webdocs/0e4e/0900766b80e4e9bf.pdf
 
I pounded the net for some poly coupling/decoupling caps can't find anything small so I am going with the silmics II. . . .I am replacing every electrolytic cap in an Audiocontrol 24xs. Very tight quarters.. .But for $10 why not try it . It is either that or toss that turd cause it sounds like straight poo stock and 18 years old. .I might even tackle switching out all the ceramic discs with polystyrene....and I am going to try both dralorics and PRP resistors for the crossover frequency selection resistor arrays. I am trying to resolve a blurred image, dynamics and timbre. . . I'll let you guys know how it works...
out.. . .
 
Just a follow-up on an older thread

Hi all,
For historical reasons, just thought to put the link for Elna Silmic.
Aluminum electrolytic capacitors for audio applications - Features of the SILMIC series | ELNA
also here is the archived version from archive.org
Internet Archive Wayback Machine

Just incase the page goes missing.

Sounds very interesting indeed :)

Now what to choose, Elna or Nichicon or Sanyo? Hmmm...
Well for my 'eclipse' cmoy that I am preparing, I will need to go with either Nichicon or Sanyo OsCon due to size.

p.s. 'eclipse' is like altoids tin, just smaller and more readily available here in Australia.
 
Hi fragchamp,

can you please post the link of that website, since I am curious as to what set-up they used. I know for a fact that some electrolytes sound better than others and have observed though, that it all comes down to the actual design most of the times.

For example, if it is a low voltage headphone amp, it is better to use a lower voltage rating, closer to the maximum voltage that you are likely to see, since some electro's are just average and also the same stands true for some other types too.

For too long, since 2001 actually when I got back in to hobby electronics, I found people "sw.??in" by so & so brand, and make or type etc, but then noticed a trend, that some types were always ahead for some designs, or excelled better at mid's & high's, while others were better at bass and mid's. I really got annoyed though in '07 when my pc's hdd threw a fit and karked it and lost all my data :-( I had actually just started adding to my file back then, if I remember correctly about Tantalum caps, that everyone use to ignore and look down on, but then the "Ruskie" and "U.S. Mil std" starting cropping up and at reasonable prices and some were "wet" tantalum, I did not get to finish my conclusions on them :-( Some things I read was that they were "harsh" but good for "heavy metal" style music, and that tried the "wet" ones liked them, and that they were as good as some electro's, but after the hdd failure, I lost all encouragement to start from scratch and I also did not have many of the cap's either.

A nice example is POI, nice for the higher voltages, average on lower. Some of the OsCons (Sanyo's) were great if you were using the 6.3v with a ±5v supply. Nichicon Muse FX were excellent general all-rounders, polysterine were good when you paralled with some other caps.

As for the Silmic II, I never got to try them, besides, I think they are newer anyway :)

Anyway, those are my 2¢
 
I saw the website where Silmic II was rated highest, above black gate etc I bought quite a few. They are very dull sounding, don't like them at all.

I dislike them too - it's a mystery to me why so many like them. Everywhere I've used them the sound has lost fine detail, and 'bite'. A sort of air-brushed presentation to the music. Lack of musical involvement. Far prefer the Cerafine caps, particularly the current versions.
 
I dislike them too - it's a mystery to me why so many like them. Everywhere I've used them the sound has lost fine detail, and 'bite'. A sort of air-brushed presentation to the music. Lack of musical involvement. Far prefer the Cerafine caps, particularly the current versions.

yeah me too the silmics took away the details did u compare cerafine with nichicon KZ?

overall i feel silmics fit at place you play at high volumes like use your full 100w rms amp potential you find it better...

but i was not happy with that super rounded sound...

i really have no idea why nelson recommend it.. it might be subjective but why will one love loosing details? or high frequency dynamics...
 
yeah me too the silmics took away the details did u compare cerafine with nichicon KZ?

overall i feel silmics fit at place you play at high volumes like use your full 100w rms amp potential you find it better...

but i was not happy with that super rounded sound...

i really have no idea why nelson recommend it.. it might be subjective but why will one love loosing details? or high frequency dynamics...

Agree with everything you say. Have used Nichicon KZ and I think they're very good indeed - very good 'organic' sounding midrange quality. They're my second favourite electrolytic (if one has no choice but to use an electrolytic) for signal path use. However I love the current production (black jacket version, from hi-fi collective) Cerafine, and I actually find these preferable to Black Gate N now. No ridiculous 'burning in' time either.

I must get around to trying a pair of cerafines back to back to make a non-polar capacitor. Might be better again ;)

John.
 
Last edited:
To get fresh caps, buy from an authorized vendor and pay full price. Stale caps come from resellers, surplus houses, e-bay, craigslist, etc. Authorized distributors will put a flag next to the part indicating a "sale" if the part is old. As I said, it is electrolytics that get old fast. Ceramic and film don't age much. If ceramic is cpo dielectric, use only for the purposes listed above. z5u dielectric is marginally acceptable for interstage coupling or rolloff filtering, but John Curl doesn't like even that use. Hours aren't real important on ceramic and film dielectric caps used in audio, the datasheet spec on film and ceramic are usually talking about radio transmission or some heavy current use. Expected life means a lot on electrolytic caps.

I am also in the process of replacing electrolytic capacitors in my whole music system (amp, preamp, players etc.) . Already purchased some caps from Ebay but after reading your post, it seems it was not a wise decision. Not being a professional in this area, am a hobbyist who does electronics when in personal need, wandering about the caps available in partsconnexion.com. Are they fresh out of factory or
old? And what about Elements14? All that I need to know
is the explicit names of some vendors selling fresh
electrolytic.

Thanks and regards
Roushon.
 
Parts Connexion has reliable parts.
Shelf life is pretty good for capacitors so no need to over-worry.

Not a very good idea to buy "boutique" capacitors on ebay as many sellers are from China which gives you a higher chance of obtaining fakes.

I bought Elna's from ebay before and received fakes.

Tim
 
Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.