output caps, how high can i go on the vdc ?

[lesleyc]

hi, my first post. i am in the process of building my diy ht with 3 apa 150s and a soundcard as pre / pro. now i upgraded the parts in my source (x-meridian 2g) to elna cerafine for the psu caps and got some bursons / dexa in the opamp section. the output caps are what's bothering me. they are rated at 33uf 16v. how high can i go on the vdc rating (i'd like to upgrade them), without making it sound bad ?

thanks.

best regards,
les

[wintermute]

Hi Les, and Welcome to diyAudio. I'm not 100% sure how to answer your question, but the small amount I've read on the subject suggested that higher voltage caps had lower distortion than lower voltage caps.

From my own tests higher voltage caps (of the same uF value) seem to have lower ESR, whether the two are correlated I don't know. I think (from memory) that higher voltage caps also have a lower tan theta value, which is a measure of the dialectic losses, and I think related to the ESR.

I suspect that the only thing you would need to worry about is whether or not a higher voltage cap will physically fit.

Tony.

[lesleyc]

thank you very much for that reply. really appreciated .

[AndrewT]

Are you referring to the output caps of the transmitter (Meridian)?