Is there any reason one shouldn't use film caps to bypass their bias resistors on a cathode bias SE Amp? I have had high grade electrolytics in my amp and was curious how much I could change the sound by going to a high grade poly cap. Is there some reason this is a bad idea?
I would be interested to hear why its a bad idea except for the much larger size of the film capacitor and the price and I would use polypropylene film , but maybe somebody has different ideas ?
Electrolytic capacitors exhibit larger inductance and resistance than a quality film capacitor but if an amplifier relies on those "qualities " to smooth off audio reproduction it might sound a bit too detailed , depends on your taste.
Electrolytic capacitors exhibit larger inductance and resistance than a quality film capacitor but if an amplifier relies on those "qualities " to smooth off audio reproduction it might sound a bit too detailed , depends on your taste.
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I've gone over to DC Link polypropylene caps as cathode bypasses. Best sound yet, best detail and instrumental timbre. They replaced quality audio grade polypropylene caps like Clarity Caps. Made by Kemet, Vishay, Oscon etc. Handy sizes, square or rectangular. OK prices, especially Kemet. These are industrial grade caps, not boutique ones.
You can just bypass the electrolytic cap with a 1uF film cap and get most of the result of all film for a fraction of the price.
Cathode bypass capacitance tends to be large, so doing that in film could get expensive, and space-consuming. The small film bypass cap around a 'lytic seems like a sensible approach.
Well, "sensible" and "fraction of the price" may point to bypassed electrolytics, but if you want the best possible sound my choice would be DC Link caps. Not that expensive and i have yet to hear better. They're actually not that big either and sizes like 40-50uF are quite small.
