Coupling caps suggestions

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I am interested in upgrading the signal coupling caps in my old Magnavox EL84 amp and was wondering what are some of the brands you guys are using? I really like the Auricaps but their prices have really sky rocketed recently. Orange Drops are okay but wanted something a bit better.

What other brands are out there and where do you get yours from?
 
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I second SY and Osvaldo's opinions above. I have no experience with the Obligato caps. Personally, I use caps with polypropylene dielectric for coupling caps as PP has very low dielectric absorption and low voltage coefficient, hence, won't cause distortion. If sized properly, I find that these types of caps are sonically transparent.

I tend to by the caps made by Solen as they have a wide selection of reasonably priced polypropylene caps. They're available from AES and the like places. The caps by Panasonic, Wima, CDE, are excellent as well. Look for caps that have low ESR (or low loss tangent).

~Tom
 
"Audio grade capacitor" are usually the worst example of how to manufacture a capacitor. As many "audiophiles" like prominent bass notes without regards to middle and hig ones, deliberately make them with as high ESR they can, forming a low pass filter with the input and output circuit capacitances. Definitively avoid using them.
 
I like Wima MKP10 caps. Low ESR and polypropylene dielectric. Besides the fact I've never heard them make any significant sonic difference compared to other (proper) PP caps, I prefer to work with them because of their radial connection, sturdy and PCB friendly housing, small footprint, and (for me at least) good price and availability (34 cents for 100nF 400V). They have never let me down, even after some serious abuse.
 
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It stands for Equivalent Series Resistance, gives an idea of how well or bad is a cap, the lower the ESR, the better the quality of it. It is a measure of the internal resistance of the foil windings. It is relationed with the heating inside the cap: given a RMS current in it, I, then I²*ESR will give a power loss inside it, and then a overheating depending on the internal thermal resistance. It is known that as a capacitor becomes hot, it is defective.
 
Can someone educate me on what ESR means and how it affects frequency transmission? It sound like I should look for low ESR caps for small signals. What about for power supply filtering? Should I look for low ESR as well as high capacitance?
ESR means equivalent series resistance. Less is better. More ESR usually means higher distortion.
 
ESR sounds sort of like a leakage current within the cap. One would think you would want a high Resistance to prevent current flow but I guess ESR is a measure of current flow vs. it being a resistance. Need to remember lower is better....

Can I assume lower is better for power supply caps too? Just making sure...
 
No, ESR is different than leakage resistance- it acts like (as you might guess from the name) a resistance in series with the cap, not in parallel to it like leakage. For a coupling cap in a competent circuit, where there's very little AC across the cap and the load resistance is high, the ESR is not very important- in power supply applications, it often is, and lower is not always better. But that's a story for a different day. :D
 
Religion have not a chance here...I like that :cool:
Actually, I know a bunch of audiophiles who seem religious about tube sound, tube types, speaker wire, speaker design, system design, music, etc. etc.. Our "Alter" is made up of things like poweramps, preamps, Turntables, DVD players, etc... We pray that our poweramp project doesn't blow up when we turn it on for the first time... Are we not religious???

From Google:
Religion | Define Religion at Dictionary.com

dictionary.reference.com/browse/religion


a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, ...

Some religious people don't even have a Hi-Fi. Not sure what's up with that.
 
From my experience i suggest Audiocap Theta or Multicap RTX. Both are tin foil, the Multicap is more transparent. You can get them at partsconnexion or soniccraft. Both have a 20 percent sale now till end of August.
I you want a warmer sound look for the russian K40 paper in oil at ebay.
If you have transparent sounding gear, you will hear the difference.
 
Orange Drops are okay but wanted something a bit better.

There are Orange Drops and there are Orange drops. Only 716P series parts belong in the signal path.

Soviet surplus K40 paper in oil (PIO) caps. have a large following and they are reasonably priced.

In plastic dielectric, insist on film and foil construction, if at all possible. If a large capacitance is needed, metalized polypropylene bypassed by polypropylene film and foil is a sensible choice. Neither space nor money are infinitely available.

In plastic film, the transparency "pecking order" is teflon, polystyrene, polypropylene, and the (inferior) rest. Other factors, such as run in time, enter into the selection calculus. MultiCap parts definitely exhibit low ESR and ESL (equivalent series inductance), but they are physically large and costly. RTX parts are polystyrene, which is heat sensitive. PPFX are polypropylene. FWIW, I favor PPFX for bypassing metalized polypropylene.
 
In plastic dielectric, insist on film and foil construction, if at all possible. If a large capacitance
is needed, metalized polypropylene bypassed by polypropylene film and foil is a sensible choice.


I second this, Eli.
E.g. CDE, SCR, Vishay-Roederstein and Wima (FKP1-FKP4) make nice film-foils. I prefer
Wima FKP3 on PCBs where applicable.
If some vintage look is a goal, consider to get some NOS Roederstein Ero KP1832/1836
for smaller values and Ero MKP1836/1845 for larger values. You'll likely find these with
a 1200 V rating for tube amps.
 
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