Ceramic is useful for speeding up response of power supplies, parallel to the thousands microfarad power supply caps. Ceramic is useful in picofarad sizes for RF oscillation elimination. Ceramic NPO dielectric is not usually used for audio coupling caps, filter caps etc. There usually people use plastic film dielectric below 10 uf, like polyprophylene, polyethylene, polyester. Above 10 uf, electrolytic is required by size usually. When buying electrolytics, be sure to buy caps rated 2000 hours expected life or higher, and recently manufactured. Mark the plus end of the PCB before removal of electrolytics, if you get it backwards they explode. The selector table of your distributor should show the design life, if not you can download the datasheet from his link, or from datasheetcatalog.com. Size is important too, the datasheet will show that.
Silk has not been used as a capacitor dielectric since the 1920's, you should look at the datasheet to find out what it really is.
Dielectric is the film, paper, or plastic they put between the metalized plates of a cap. Electrolyte for caps, in english, is the fluid they put in an electrolytic cap (usually borax water).
Silk has not been used as a capacitor dielectric since the 1920's, you should look at the datasheet to find out what it really is.
Dielectric is the film, paper, or plastic they put between the metalized plates of a cap. Electrolyte for caps, in english, is the fluid they put in an electrolytic cap (usually borax water).
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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.
It's a free world, buy what you want. I've got a Sprague 516D108M050QS6AE3 I bought last year, 1000 uf @ 50VDC, 2000 hours life predicted. I've gotten 25 years out of sprague previously. Sounds like you are in europe, check the farnell.co.uk website for full list of what hours life are available for any given size and voltage. Then again the prediction isn't everything, either. I've gotten 25 years out of Sprague atomlytics, and they have no hour prediction at all. I've got an Apex Digital TV converter bought last year at W***m******, obviously had bad electrolytic caps the day I bought it because there are lines on the screen that go away after a ten minute warm up. Saving you money every day.
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Try a different supplier, the Silmic II does go to 63V in the 330uF according to the datasheet.
Also it was the attached part of the datasheet that made me lean towards the silmics over the cerafines. That and the tan theta being lower. The cerafines are the ROA series...
If you can't get the silmics in the size you want, rather than getting the cerafines you could consider a nichicon KZ. They go up to 100V in 330uF and are probably closer in performance to the silmic II than the cerafines (note I'm going purely off the stated tan theta on the datasheets here, not off any direct experience), apart from also being an "audio" marketed cap.
When I did my amp abiout 5 years ago, I used a mix of Panasonic FC's and rubicon ZL's I think (it probably took a month or two of agonizing over datasheets to come to that decision). I just used what I thought was the best for each particular section (out of what was easily available to me). I also replaced the larger ceramics with wima fkpII's in reality this probably made more of a difference than anything else
Tony.
Also it was the attached part of the datasheet that made me lean towards the silmics over the cerafines. That and the tan theta being lower. The cerafines are the ROA series...
If you can't get the silmics in the size you want, rather than getting the cerafines you could consider a nichicon KZ. They go up to 100V in 330uF and are probably closer in performance to the silmic II than the cerafines (note I'm going purely off the stated tan theta on the datasheets here, not off any direct experience), apart from also being an "audio" marketed cap.
When I did my amp abiout 5 years ago, I used a mix of Panasonic FC's and rubicon ZL's I think (it probably took a month or two of agonizing over datasheets to come to that decision). I just used what I thought was the best for each particular section (out of what was easily available to me). I also replaced the larger ceramics with wima fkpII's in reality this probably made more of a difference than anything else
Tony.
Attachments
Not pure silk but it's certainly part of the mix.
Aluminum electrolytic capacitors for audio applications - Features of the SILMIC series | ELNA
I prefer Silmic IIs over Cerafines.
rg12,
I would advise you to get a handle on the sonic signature of various electrolytics before you embark on replacing all those in your amp with just one type. Each type has a different signature which may or may not be to your liking, and if you stick with just one, you are going to hear that signature big-time. Mixing them up a bit may get you the best outcome.
As well as Silmics, I would suggest you consider Panasonic FC, FM and Nichicon KZ. Re the 0.22uF caps (which sound like coupling caps) I would simply replace them with MKP416 (a high quality polyprop film type from Digikey).
Whatever you choose, follow Indianajoe's advice and get the caps fresh from a large supplier.
I would advise you to get a handle on the sonic signature of various electrolytics before you embark on replacing all those in your amp with just one type. Each type has a different signature which may or may not be to your liking, and if you stick with just one, you are going to hear that signature big-time. Mixing them up a bit may get you the best outcome.
As well as Silmics, I would suggest you consider Panasonic FC, FM and Nichicon KZ. Re the 0.22uF caps (which sound like coupling caps) I would simply replace them with MKP416 (a high quality polyprop film type from Digikey).
Whatever you choose, follow Indianajoe's advice and get the caps fresh from a large supplier.
Yeah i know that, but i feel weird about just throwing some of this and some
of that without thinking what will sound how and where...
No I mean getting a handle on the sonic signature of various caps and arriving at a mix (or monoculture) that satisfies your sonic preferences. Mine is to try to achieve a level of neutrality with no predominant signature.
Absolutely, so long as its voltage rating is not exceeded.
It may well be your purpose. Mine is to try and diminish the sonic contribution of caps.
Unfortunately the reality is, that unless you have Two amps and make changes to one cap at a time, and can do proper A/B comparisons, you really never will know which cap made what difference if any. Even that is flawed, as it may be an interaction between multiple components that will have an effect.
When I did my amp, I did feel it sounded different and better, but I have no way of knowing whether it really did, or if it was a purely pshyco acoustic effect or even just inability to correctly remember how it previously sounded.
Tony.
Now im stuck...because using the same series for the whole amp isn't
recommended and even if i choose lets say two or three different brands or
series for the amp, i wouldn't know how to split them.
Here's the schematic for the amp and a pic of the top of the amp:
http://www.milkbands.co.il/Pioneer-SA-7300-int-sch.pdf
http://www.milkbands.co.il/P8080006.JPG
If someone maybe can take a look and tell me how to devide the sections
so i wont just throw one cap here and another brand there and make the
channels uneven or something.
Thanks alot so far.
recommended and even if i choose lets say two or three different brands or
series for the amp, i wouldn't know how to split them.
Here's the schematic for the amp and a pic of the top of the amp:
http://www.milkbands.co.il/Pioneer-SA-7300-int-sch.pdf
http://www.milkbands.co.il/P8080006.JPG
If someone maybe can take a look and tell me how to devide the sections
so i wont just throw one cap here and another brand there and make the
channels uneven or something.
Thanks alot so far.
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