Best sounding SS rectifiers?

[Kuro]

Any concensus on the best sounding SS rectifier?

I've been using Vishay HexFRED with excellent result. I read that Cree SiC Schottky is excellent too, but I haven't tried it. I also have some Diotec soft recovery rectifiers and they are good sounding too.

Has anyone done comparisons on these top notch rectifiers? Which one is the best?

[DJNUBZ]

I was just wondering this myself. I don't have enough experience myself to tell if one is better then another just yet.

[erin]

I think this thread is worth resurrecting.
It probably also makes a difference in what circuit they are being used.
It might be difficult to generalise about this.

I just tried 11DQ06 in my DAC power supply and they are a big improvement over 1n4007. No complaints at all (so far)

Also tried Fairchild stealth FFP08S60STU in my DAC Valve output stage power supply and I don't like it!
The bass has no attack. and the midrange seems to be too prominent. (gave them 2 days to run in )

I intend to try out a few different fast and ultra fast diodes in the valve (high voltage) supply and let people know what I think..

[!]

The fancy/expensive/unobtainable diode make and model always sounds the best.

[sawreyrw]

Does anyone really think they can hear the difference in a well designed power supply?

[!]

^ some claim they can and some claim they can't. Define "well designed" power supply. Does that mean it has RC filtering, snubbers, decoupling caps, LC filters, it's all on the same PCB or not, ground planes, 40X the capacitance it should need per current, etc. etc. etc?

[Minion]

I thought the idea was to not hear them at all ?? I personally have never heard a differance in diodes in a power supply ..... a 1n4007 sounds the same to me as some fancy schottkey diode ...... I guess I should get myself a new set of ears ......

[erin]

I didnt think there would be any sonic difference, but low and behold.... there was!
I was a bit surprised about this.

FWIW, the 11DQ06 only costs about 15 cents. I wouldnt call it fancy, rare, or exotic.

To elaborate, when I installed 11DQ06 in my DAC I noticed a considerable increase in clarity across all frequencies. I also noticed smoother (grain free) HF and mids.

The power supply in the DAC is fairly standard. Transformer> rectifiers > Caps > voltage regulators > rest of circuit.

I know a lot of guys here are into designing specific power supplies for specific uses, and in comparison, I guess this power supply is fairly standard.
Probably a PS using L C R filters will be less susceptable to mains noise and diode switching noise.

For me the 11DQ06 is a big audible upgrade to a "standard" power supply, and costs very little.

The Fairchild Stealth diode made a very big negative impact on the sound.
Music lost its "sparkle" and "magic" - eveything became too even sounding. No part of the music "jumped out" and the bass disappeared. yes the highs were smooth, but everything else sounded "wrong".

Really hoping some other guys can share their positive or negative experience with the "sound" of diodes....

[sandyK]

With projects using say regulated +-15 t0 20V
I prefer the SF11 or SF12. They have a maximum reverse recovery time of 35nS which is better than the UF400X series.
They also have a lower forward voltage drop than the 1N400x series at low to medium current.
It is also worthwhile trying a 470pZF across the outers of the secondary windings when using a 30VA toroidal. The 470 PF is close to the value posted in a chart in DIYAudio some time back.

[!]

^ Who cares about reverse recovery time with 100/120Hz rectified mains frequency? Also, nobody cares about forward drop voltage differences with +-15 to 20V (30 to 40V) rails on an audio amp.

(just my opinion, apparently someone does care).

Let's get down to science on this topic. "IF" there is a sonic improvement it will be had with soft recovery diodes and among them, the differences aren't much to consider, but that's only if the rest of the PSU and amp can't reject the switching noise which should easily be mitigated with an RC snubber subcircuit if a decoupling cap alone isn't enough.

If your supply is regulated, there should not be any sonic difference from a diode change unless there is noise the supply isn't designed to handle... hint: inductors

That's not to suggest a diode change can't possible effect sound, only that it's not a magic bullet but rather depending on what the weaknesses are in the design so it would be fair to say that other/different changes instead could make as much difference if not more, or of course we could idealize and say change the diodes, change the other PSU fault too, keep going until the pursuit of perfection leads to satisfaction... or frustration, or just enough time, work and expense that you declare the project done .

Overall I would have to think that if time is being spent on which diodes to use, that's time better spent on something else instead. Whatever diodes you pick, if you change them and the result is the exact same sound, a fair % of people will still declare it was an improvement because ego just causes people to think like this. I don't mean that it's impossible for there to be an improvement, rather that if you look at random changes people make, overall you'll find them declaring more improvements than not even though they were following time tested designs that were deemed good enough that nothing needed improved.