Electrolytic vs polyprop capacitors

Puggie · 15th September 2005, 12:07 PM

I have searched and not found an answer either here or in the musical instrument section.

I'm building a Fender Champ clone, a very basic guitar amp with 6V6GT for the power section. The amp has a number of 8, 16 and 25uF caps in there, now the supplier of the kit supplies electrolytic caps for these positions, but I've been building passive Xovers recently so anything upto 60uF I automatically go for polyprop caps out of habit because they are what I have been using for the Xovers.

What would the effect be of replacing these larger value electrolytic caps with polypropylene equivalents? I'm building the amp chassis from scratch so space isn't an issue, there is only a few of them so cost is not a big worry.

what is YOUR opinion, will their be any improvement in the sound, would I loose any character of the amp etc. I'm not trying to make a carbon copy of the amp, just a decent small all vale amp with a good tone.

SY · 15th September 2005, 12:17 PM

For a guitar amp, I don't see much advantage. For a hifi amp, it might be worthwhile.

It would look cool (pp caps are MUCH bigger), and you might get better long term reliability.

Geek · 15th September 2005, 12:32 PM

Ditto what SY said.

A sound generator is somewhat less critical than a reproducer.

15th September 2005, 12:07 PM	#1
Puggie diyAudio Member Join Date: Oct 2004	Electrolytic Vs polyprop capacitors I have searched and not found an answer either here or in the musical instrument section. I'm building a Fender Champ clone, a very basic guitar amp with 6V6GT for the power section. The amp has a number of 8, 16 and 25uF caps in there, now the supplier of the kit supplies electrolytic caps for these positions, but I've been building passive Xovers recently so anything upto 60uF I automatically go for polyprop caps out of habit because they are what I have been using for the Xovers. What would the effect be of replacing these larger value electrolytic caps with polypropylene equivalents? I'm building the amp chassis from scratch so space isn't an issue, there is only a few of them so cost is not a big worry. what is YOUR opinion, will their be any improvement in the sound, would I loose any character of the amp etc. I'm not trying to make a carbon copy of the amp, just a decent small all vale amp with a good tone.

15th September 2005, 12:17 PM	#2
SY diyAudio Moderator Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Austin, TX Blog Entries: 1	For a guitar amp, I don't see much advantage. For a hifi amp, it might be worthwhile. It would look cool (pp caps are MUCH bigger), and you might get better long term reliability. __________________ “Listening to records is like ****ing a picture of Brigitte Bardot.” - Sergiu Celibidache

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15th September 2005, 12:32 PM	#3
Geek diyAudio Member Join Date: Sep 2004	Ditto what SY said. A sound generator is somewhat less critical than a reproducer.

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