Read this young Jedi and you'll have a good start
Picking Capacitors - Walter G. Jung and Richard Marsh
Picking Capacitors - Walter G. Jung and Richard Marsh
Polypropylene and polystyrene capacitors are very good. They are especially suitable for use anywhere in the signal path, for example as filter capacitors, DC blocking capacitors or as integration capacitors in DC servos. The same holds for ceramic class 1 capacitors, such as NP0 / C0G caps.
Ceramic class 2 capacitors (X7R, X5R, Z5U, Y5V) are the exact opposite. They distort more than any other kind of capacitor, they are inaccurate and they have relatively high losses. Their low self-inductance and relatively high losses make them very suitable as supply decoupling capacitors, but they should not be used anywhere in the signal path.
Polyester capacitors are in between. They distort a bit, but you need pretty good equipment to be able to measure their distortion, and regarding accuracy and losses they are also in between the really good and really bad capacitors.
Ceramic class 2 capacitors (X7R, X5R, Z5U, Y5V) are the exact opposite. They distort more than any other kind of capacitor, they are inaccurate and they have relatively high losses. Their low self-inductance and relatively high losses make them very suitable as supply decoupling capacitors, but they should not be used anywhere in the signal path.
Polyester capacitors are in between. They distort a bit, but you need pretty good equipment to be able to measure their distortion, and regarding accuracy and losses they are also in between the really good and really bad capacitors.
It is difficult for me to put the types into buckets based on materials alone either, as there are just so many out there.
Better to emulate others doing modifications at first until you can form a basis for your own findings or personal tastes. Locations will vary as do requirements, as already mentioned.
It can be very rewarding however, have fun.
Better to emulate others doing modifications at first until you can form a basis for your own findings or personal tastes. Locations will vary as do requirements, as already mentioned.
It can be very rewarding however, have fun.
Well, some 2.2uF ERO MKC1862 just dropped through the letterbox, so I guess I'll find out for myself.
I had read that they don't suffer from brightness like you can get with polypropylene and polyester. In the output of my DAC, all the polyprops I've tried sound too bright, so I have Nichicon standard (The higher end Nichicon KZ sounds bright too) and It sounds very good IMO.
I had read that they don't suffer from brightness like you can get with polypropylene and polyester. In the output of my DAC, all the polyprops I've tried sound too bright, so I have Nichicon standard (The higher end Nichicon KZ sounds bright too) and It sounds very good IMO.
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