I am in the process of building an electronic crossover and will need some type of capacitors in the design. Everything that I have read about capacitors mentions that polypropylene, polycarbonate, polystyrene, metallized forms of polypropylene and polycarbonate and film and foil types of polycarbonate and polypropylene generally give the best sound. After pricing capacitors, I have found metallized polypropylene film and foil capacitors under the Part's Express Dayton brand for a pretty decent price. The .01uF 400V 5% caps are $.63 each in quantities of 10 or more and the .22uF 400V 5% caps are $.88 each in quantities of 10 or more. My questions are: (1.)are the Dayton caps pretty decent? (2. ) Is there a cheaper capacitor that will not degrade the audio signal soundpath? I know there are better caps but I need to keep the cost down because of a very limited budget. Any suggestions would be immensely appreciated.
Thanks,
Robert
Thanks,
Robert
Crossover caps
Hi
I can see that no one answered your quest yet and I'm surprised.
I have built quite some number of xovers over the years and
I've used the Dayton Caps all over. They are a very good value for
your money, I would say these are the best caps you can buy
within a budget.
I've also used Solen a tiny bit more expensive but excellent.
You can't go wrong with both. They represent excellent value/
quality.
Hope this helps.
Hi
I can see that no one answered your quest yet and I'm surprised.
I have built quite some number of xovers over the years and
I've used the Dayton Caps all over. They are a very good value for
your money, I would say these are the best caps you can buy
within a budget.
I've also used Solen a tiny bit more expensive but excellent.
You can't go wrong with both. They represent excellent value/
quality.
Hope this helps.
Electronic crossover not passive? if so, you can also
look at these sources.
www.mouser.com
www.digikey.com
www.alliedelec.com/
You can use the lower voltage ones /heh
I collected about $700 worth of capacitor samples
from these vendors for my amp project.
The problem is.. you can't always find the capacitor
value that you need for a given technology of capacitor
and/or the capacitor is too big to fit the pcb layout.
If you have a size restriction, check the dimensions
closely, otherwise you may find yourself using a huge capacitor
fit.. ie, I needed some 33uf capacitors, but poly caps are
too huge to fit my pcb... so you need a plan b....
These are cool, but they may come in large sizes and they
cost more. This is what exotic audio uses.
Film/Foil polypropylenes
Regular polypropylenes
These are smaller in value.
polystyrene
Metal versions - more mainstream in good/great gear.
Polyester - cheap/good gear
I've noticed that these vendors may have drastic price
differences for the same capacitors, so double check.
I created a price matrix for myself.. Depending on value
needed, you may need to buy from difference sources
for availability and to also save money since some
carry the same product with as high as 2x more.
Order catalogs and scan them.
P.S. I don't worry too much about brand names. Dayton
probably doesn't really manufacturer the cap anyways,
it's probably built by a real capacitor manufacturer with
their name on it.....
look at these sources.
www.mouser.com
www.digikey.com
www.alliedelec.com/
You can use the lower voltage ones /heh
I collected about $700 worth of capacitor samples
from these vendors for my amp project.
The problem is.. you can't always find the capacitor
value that you need for a given technology of capacitor
and/or the capacitor is too big to fit the pcb layout.
If you have a size restriction, check the dimensions
closely, otherwise you may find yourself using a huge capacitor
fit.. ie, I needed some 33uf capacitors, but poly caps are
too huge to fit my pcb... so you need a plan b....
These are cool, but they may come in large sizes and they
cost more. This is what exotic audio uses.
Film/Foil polypropylenes
Regular polypropylenes
These are smaller in value.
polystyrene
Metal versions - more mainstream in good/great gear.
Polyester - cheap/good gear
I've noticed that these vendors may have drastic price
differences for the same capacitors, so double check.
I created a price matrix for myself.. Depending on value
needed, you may need to buy from difference sources
for availability and to also save money since some
carry the same product with as high as 2x more.
Order catalogs and scan them.
P.S. I don't worry too much about brand names. Dayton
probably doesn't really manufacturer the cap anyways,
it's probably built by a real capacitor manufacturer with
their name on it.....
Well...
If someone from Jersey is kind enough to answer, how can a Noo Yawka not.
Dayton, the PartsExpress house brand, offers 2 different lines
1. Metalized polypropolenes
2. Polypropolene and tin foil caps. (listed as bypass caps)
The metalized polys cover a far broader range of values, up to 20mmf, 250v dc, where the foil caps are rated at 400v dc and only go up to .47mmf. There isn't a lot of price difference where they overlap, and if their larger size is not a constraint, you should consider the foil versions, which should be better. I've used the foll versions, and haven't really compared them to other caps, so I can't opine.
As you're building a line level crossover, if you need .01mmf caps (10nf, 10,000pf), or smaller, I'd suggest the Xicon foil and polystyrene caps which you can get from mouser.com at low cost.
And if you need caps below .0047mmf (4.7nf, 4,700pf), consider silver mica caps which are available from handmade -
http://www.hndme.com/storesilvermica.html
If someone from Jersey is kind enough to answer, how can a Noo Yawka not.
Dayton, the PartsExpress house brand, offers 2 different lines
1. Metalized polypropolenes
2. Polypropolene and tin foil caps. (listed as bypass caps)
The metalized polys cover a far broader range of values, up to 20mmf, 250v dc, where the foil caps are rated at 400v dc and only go up to .47mmf. There isn't a lot of price difference where they overlap, and if their larger size is not a constraint, you should consider the foil versions, which should be better. I've used the foll versions, and haven't really compared them to other caps, so I can't opine.
As you're building a line level crossover, if you need .01mmf caps (10nf, 10,000pf), or smaller, I'd suggest the Xicon foil and polystyrene caps which you can get from mouser.com at low cost.
And if you need caps below .0047mmf (4.7nf, 4,700pf), consider silver mica caps which are available from handmade -
http://www.hndme.com/storesilvermica.html
Thanks for the replies everyone! I think that I am probably going to order the Dayton film and foil because of the price. I will probably also order some polyester caps to build the first circuit for testing and then build another circuit with the film and foil caps. I love this site it is awesome! I have always had a love for audio and by far there is more information on this site than anywhere else.
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