Wima or Panasonic ECW Film decision

No bad choice either TBH.

I prefer PPP for this application and the ECW offers indeed a suprising package in terms of performance, size and budget. I would favour them vs MKS4.
The ECW sound quite transparent regardless the price in most applications TBH. Fab used to recommend them for his excellent amps as input DC blocking cap, the way I discovered them back then...

Currently I am using the CD C940 series everywhere I can, found them excellent with no negative at all. It is still affordable while I can't make any difference (or when I can that's because the others are worst) with boutique caps up to 10x the cost (and I don't care above that price range TBH for that kind of fine tuning).

The 940 are produced in large numbers from a large manufacturer, are quality consistant, offer a wide range of values and are not that expensive. They are admitelly quite a bit larger than the ECW (form factor), heavier, and of course a bit costiler. They are fine as signal caps and, for whatever it is worth, they are reputed one of the best bypass caps by that site that runs many comparisons of caps
http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Cap.html

Not saying I always agree with them but the C940 are for me the end of the line whatever audio application (very HF digital of course) unless someone comes up with an as good or better sounding product (unlikely to ear differences at that level) or rather more importantely at a lower price or with a smaller form factor (thinking large caps for louspeaker's filters, where cost and size hurt).

All IME

Have fun

Claude
 
Thank you very much Claude, that was a very exhaustive answer.
Size could be a problem and even with the panasonic i'm not 100% they will fix perfectly in my application, the wima are smaller.
I was curious about the quality difference between those two because i loved how wima sounded and i think the panasonic are just better spec wise.
Before doing a big purchase i came to ask here to have the confirmation, if you could suggest any other 1uf PP for the same dimensions (or almost the same) would be really good.
 
I sadly know no PPP cap that is significantly smaller than the Panasonic ECW. They are small and cheap for PPP caps.

When place is really very tight and sound "important but not utterly so" I do use (as you do) indeed Wima MKS (only as bypass of lytics).
Coincidence, I did so today, bypassing 220uF lytics with MKS 1uF (had many handy with this value) at the output of a "bypack headphone line".

If place is even tighter, think SMD boards etc., I used SMDs or 'usual' caps, preferably C0G (VG sounding bypass caps IMHO, but you won't find 1uF) or if no space X7R caps (lots of even with much higher values than 1uF) with good effect.

Good luck
 
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Polypropylene film/foil caps are always larger than the other film types. That is a pity, just like MKC is not available anymore as these were between MKT/MKS and MKP and were acceptable in size.

Using the physically large polypropylene capacitors can bring the issue that they pick up unwanted signals in devices where HF/RF is nearby. Sometimes it simply is better to use small(er) parts.
 
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This while 5 mm and even 2.5 mm 1 µF 50V Wima MKS caps exist! Maybe not at Mouser but thankfully there are other distributors. The 0.1 µF and 1 µF 50V Wima MKS in 2.5 mm pitch are plain good caps for decoupling power supplies in DACs etc. For coupling one better looks for polypropylene caps.
 
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They look fine as PS caps especialy for small units (pre, DAC's first PS stages) and have also a reasonably low ESR for that purpose...

Life expectancy looked a bit low initialy but then given the 125°C rating you need to readjust the nominal value and at the end for DIY audio purposes you are likely to end up with... a lot of hours.

All IMHO

Claude
 
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Sorry, I just wanted to say that they looked fine and that I would have given them a try myself, but I never so far so can't comment on first hand experience (whereas I can on the other recommendations).

Big values, that depends massively. For my heavily Class A biased power amp classical PS I purchased a few months ago 16 big classic lytics, the last ones, my requirement was very low ESR at low (audio) frequency, long life, high temp being between 2 big radiators... and a given for factor to pack them all while retaining a high overall F value etc.

Last year I purchased quite a few caps similar to the ones you asked about, 3000uF, for a SMPS filter of my own. Main requirement was low ESR but at high frequencies (read well over100kHz), and ability to handle high ripple etc., completely different

That's the way I chose higher values caps for PS & Co., depending on what I need them for. Based on that I go for reputable manufacturers, read the specs and also the threads just to make sure I am chosing amongst proven ones. Once done, depending on location, I can try bypassing these a way or another to see if things can improve to my ears or not. It is not mandatory but if done properly it gets the sound I want for cheap money vs very expensive caps.

There is not a standard cap for all, that doesn't exist, that's why cap manufacturer offer a wide range of caps series, often with different prefixes, depending on what you want the caps to perform.

Good luck

Claude
 
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I've already tried some and the 1uf wima was the best, that's why i'm going to buy them again (with panasonic pp alternative to compare). I really like their sound.
Absolutely to avoid any 0.01 c0g, atleast for me they were the armageddon in my setup. Those c0g killed the sound, completely (probably some kind of resonation)

I would like to thank Claude for all the answers and his/her suggestions, always glad to ear direct experience.
 
FWIW I much prefer the little Panasonic in the black plastic radial 2 long leads case ECW-FE...very clear, ligthy but not harsch...mix well with 716P or tin foil. As usual, relative on how it is used i.e. how is tuned your system. That is for signal coupling.
 
WIMA does makes a tiny 1uF PP cap, with 5mm lead pitch, believe it or not. Its the largest value in the MKP2 series, according to the datasheet. Frustratingly, these are not stocked anywhere in the USA. I ordered mine from this Taiwanese eBay seller. I think they are very good caps...a far cry better than the polyesters I compared with, but I don't know how they stack up with the larger polypropylenes mentioned above.
 
Mmmm, the datasheet says they exist but....they can't be found anywhere except at the Taiwanese Ebay seller. They seem original, I know the exact casing as it was also used for MKS2-XL. 14 $ for 2 caps shipping included is steep. However, MKP in 5 mm pitch and also in usable values are exactly what the doctor ordered 🙂

Sometimes interesting types (for audio) are produced by Wima in small batches and then abandoned as no one buys them. I bought a few of those batches in the past.
 
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+1 on everything Jean-Paul said, with though a doubt re originality as I have seen no one else selling them, and Ebay well is just Ebay so I prefer to steer clear.

Also agree that the ECW F(E) series in black is great. Can't say if better than ECW, haven't compared directly, but for sure a best buy aswell... and at that level, TBH, air gets thin to hear objective differences.

Claude