Best electrolytic capacitors

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#1,801
andyjevans said:
Yes indeed. I use a 2 stage amp design. I tried out some higher mu output tubes like EL12n with drivers like EL33, and that was a different sound - dynamic with good bass. Then came back to the sweetness of the 300b. My problem with the 300b was finding a driver I liked the sound of and which had a mu of around 30 or more. I went through a procession of tubes I didn't much like and eventually ended up with some German Post tubes and one or two very obscure radio valves which were good enough to solve the problem.

I posted here to see if it would be a good idea to replace the reservoir cap in my HT supply with an electrolytic. But instead I bought some DC Link caps which should sound good according to feedback - 47uF, 900v. They're metallised polypropylene. I don't know what you guys think about the comparison of DC Link and Electrolytics for a tube PSU.
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Hi Andy! Nice to hear from you.

Interesting, I have many DC link caps also 900V from 2 different manufacturers. They are very fast, transient response is very nice, bass is tight but the upper mids and highs are too much. Those blending effects of the upper mids hindering a deeper soundstage. Without warm sounding smoothing bybass caps like Obbligato Gold, Arizona or Jensen it is problematic. Maybe you can get away without bypass caps and with the use of warm carbon resistor sound. Another solution is (depends on subjective liking) to use big Solen caps (100uF/630V) with Jensen 0,22uF bypass - that was the last combo I've used in my 300B monos (before I found out that a modded TPA3255 sounds better) Solen has more body and bass power than DC link and the typical MKP problem with the upper mids is milder. Another way to go is to use the obsolete German washing machine caps: Siemens/Epcos MKV. Unfortunately they start to leak oil, I had to throw away some of them.
 
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#1,803
TonyTecson said:
when people describe the sound as being bright or bassy or even dynamic, i wonder how much of that is due to the capacitor...
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Why do PSU caps alter the sound? Very easy question. Cos the energy comin out of the wall socket is the energy that is going in the end to your speakers! For tube amps espicially: PSU components are more important than signal components.



I.e.: 300B amp with mains transformer, choke and output transformer. Which one is the most important regarding sound quality? The choke! Second is mains and third the output transformer. If you want better sound with your tube pre or poweramp change your choke to Lundahl and you will be shocked!
 
#1,804
sumotan said:
Though bipolar caps are suppose to be non directional in reality they still do Bigun.
Use a Dvm to measure the voltage you'll notice that there is positive as well as negative readings depending on orientation of the probe. For you to test flip the orientation of the Muse cap around at the input of your amp, you'll hear a difference. One side will sound thicker but less clear the other side will sound much cleaner but leaner.

Cheers
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True!

I'm not a fan of the green Nichicon ES bipolar caps, vocals are nice. But freq extremes are lacking (big difference in bass versus Nichicon KZ). And soundstage rather small. Sounds like an old cap design and yes it is old school cap indeed. ELNA bipolars do sound better IMO.
 
#1,805
SinGun said:
If you want better sound with your tube pre or poweramp change your choke to Lundahl and you will be shocked!
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I have been writing the same for a long time. Lundahl have more misses than hits within their range but the chokes are indeed excellent. Perhaps because their PS chokes are designed the same way as their plate chokes. Much better sound than any choke Tango has ever produced.

About 10 years ago i started moving away from Lundahl to much larger amorphous cores which somehow offer not just better bass and dynamics but also an incredible feeling of space. The Lundahls are still indispensable in tight spaces.
 
#1,807
Indiglo said:
Lots of engineers at Nasa without Elon.......dont need to be a Elon to create or design anything.

Without engineers Elon would be just a dreamer.



Elon is just a sales and marketing guy just in the same way Steve Jobs was.
They just surround themselves with clever people.
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so was WJ Sanders, a Fairchild Semiconductors sales engineer who was fired out of his job and started his own company, Advanced Micro Devices......on an initial capitalization of just U$10k, i guess some people are destined to greatness....
 
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#1,808
SinGun said:
Why do PSU caps alter the sound? Very easy question. Cos the energy comin out of the wall socket is the energy that is going in the end to your speakers! For tube amps espicially: PSU components are more important than signal components.



I.e.: 300B amp with mains transformer, choke and output transformer. Which one is the most important regarding sound quality? The choke! Second is mains and third the output transformer. If you want better sound with your tube pre or poweramp change your choke to Lundahl and you will be shocked!
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i seriously doubt that, you can not pin the sound quality on just one component alone, as any amplifier is the sum of all its parts....
 
#1,813
May I ask for a quick advice ?

Application of electrolytics caps for DHT filament like Gm70 (20V, 3A):

SofarI tried Silmic (30000uF) vs. Mundorf Mlytic (132000uf, choke input): Mundorf heads and should above Silmic...Silmic to my surprise a bit brighter, hazed somewhat like DVD resolution...Mundorf much better resolved like 4k, finer, warmer tone and resolultion, very nice natural rendering how the tones gets created...

Silmic gets beter with LCRCLC, but tone wise cant match Mundorf.

What other caps should I try for this application ? Target is 1-2mV rest ripple, so those 132000uF might be necessary...(thats what PSUD says at least).
 
#1,816
I know FT produces all Mundorf caps...but sometimes with a bit different materials etc...nevertheless my desire is to compare, lets say half a dozen of the most promising candidates / types and than downselect...so try to shortcut the process a bit...
 
#1,819
Well, I talked with the owner of the company who produces actually the foils for Mundorf Caps, no matter what they are...as he does for Jensen, Duelund etc...but it is perfectly possible that other companies wind as well for Mundorf...as Mundorf is not a production company at all.

But to make my view clear: Mundorf was just a reference point. There might be much better components out there, I just wanted to have some suggestions what to compare...as I avoided lytics sofar as much as I could...

On the Tubecap side, Mundorf uses for example a mixture of PP and lytics with the result that they can dry out as well...soundwise I prefer the CDE 947D above any PP Dc-link cap, let alone Mundorfs.

Coupling Cap, I prefer Jupiter Copper/Wax...over Duelund CAST and Miflex KPCu, which I like as well better than Mundorf.
 
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