Yes mundorf MLytic is pretty good, the other that I like is Nichicon Super Through the higest grade version. Played with Silmic ll many times & I don't really like them especially the highs un natural & shut inn. Nichicon FG also not bad.
Maybe Selectronic: http://www.selectronic-kondensatoren.de/media/kondensatoren_audiocap.pdf
Does it really matter who winds for Mundorf ?
Raimund works with Home: Birkelbach Kondensatortechnik
All the foils come from there. Raimund and Holger B. work together on the materials and other are winding. Raimund than does marketing and sales for the products which have been developed that way.
Raimund works with Home: Birkelbach Kondensatortechnik
All the foils come from there. Raimund and Holger B. work together on the materials and other are winding. Raimund than does marketing and sales for the products which have been developed that way.
For the last C you could also try a Pan Fr that maybe can provide that trade off between resolution and warm enough.
Or from scratch:
On the first C you could use an Elna Tonorex or the Elna that has a violett casing or also a Cornell Dublier or A lelon long life serie.
For the second cap someting with a better ESR like a Panasonic FC (achtung : very clear and fast, you may not like or Pan FR (so here a Mlythic at the third C or the Super Trough Sumotan pointed out.)
my two cents, just based on what you said with the caps you tried.
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Great for all the input, I will try and report back...sofar I got/ordered:
- Elna Silmic II
- Mlytic
- Elna for audio
- AN Kaisei
- Nippon Chem Co SMH (measure really good)
- Nichicon different types, incl. FG and Superthrough
- CDE 381LX
- Pana FC
- BHC slit foil
- Kemet Alc40
- Philips 051
I wonder if I could have a kind of flywheel with a "small" Polyprop at the end like 200-1000uF before the tube socket...
I will play with different chokes in parallel. Especially low Rdc versions, Hammond, Lundahl, Custom-Made ones with Hib and Amorphous cores as well.
Its quiet a challange to get the tone right (easy with LCLC), but still get the transparency of the Regs. Sofar each time I took a reg out, I got a more musical way how the tone is generated, but at the same time some other effects resulting overall im a softer, blurrier image. Maybe it can be fixed with better caps and chokes, maybe I need a mixture of both...(either some regged stages ( I have three stages of DHT:801A/801A/Gm70)in the beginning and a passive in the end or regged and after that a Lc ).
When going LCL...what is a value for the last L to generate high enough impedance (simulating a bit the reg) ? Obviously I want low rdc and high L, which is a bit contradicting.
- Elna Silmic II
- Mlytic
- Elna for audio
- AN Kaisei
- Nippon Chem Co SMH (measure really good)
- Nichicon different types, incl. FG and Superthrough
- CDE 381LX
- Pana FC
- BHC slit foil
- Kemet Alc40
- Philips 051
I wonder if I could have a kind of flywheel with a "small" Polyprop at the end like 200-1000uF before the tube socket...
I will play with different chokes in parallel. Especially low Rdc versions, Hammond, Lundahl, Custom-Made ones with Hib and Amorphous cores as well.
Its quiet a challange to get the tone right (easy with LCLC), but still get the transparency of the Regs. Sofar each time I took a reg out, I got a more musical way how the tone is generated, but at the same time some other effects resulting overall im a softer, blurrier image. Maybe it can be fixed with better caps and chokes, maybe I need a mixture of both...(either some regged stages ( I have three stages of DHT:801A/801A/Gm70)in the beginning and a passive in the end or regged and after that a Lc ).
When going LCL...what is a value for the last L to generate high enough impedance (simulating a bit the reg) ? Obviously I want low rdc and high L, which is a bit contradicting.
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Not sure that they are well known, as from what I gathered from the one application that I had tried them (F&T) in, they didn’t sound so great. They are mid-grade general purpose caps that probably have great specs, and they did have nicely sealed ends...
It would be nice to know if they made other products.
It would be nice to know if they made other products.
I mentioned DC Link caps earlier in the thread, and now I have some to try out. To get a better idea what they sound like i used them as cathode bypass caps for my 300b outputs. Using a selection of opera, orchestral and Steely Dan tracks I then compared them with a few others I had to hand. In order of preference:
- Vishay DC Link Cap, 40uF, 900v
- ICW SA Clarity Cap, polypropylene, 47uF, 630v
- RS electrolytic 100uF, 450v
- ICW PW polypropylene cap, 40uF, 160v
- Aerovox motor run cap, polypropylene, 40uF, 450v
The DC Link caps were a clear improvement on all the others - audibly more detail and better timbre to voices and instruments and a generally more involving sound. The two ICW caps were similar to each other - smooth but flat and quite veiled in sound, rather boring in fact. The bigger Clarity Cap (it's very big in fact) was a little better but still rather flat. The RS electrolytic surprised me - it wasn't as smooth as the Clarity Cap but it had more life and was arguably more involving though a little coarser. This is just a generic old cap with many years on it. The motor run cap was flat and boring and a little coarser than the ICW caps but otherwise fairly similar to the PW cap.
Conclusion - get some DC Link caps! The sound improved quite noticeably. I'll be ripping out all my ICW bypass caps, which have a good reputation and are sold as "audio" caps. Next test will be using them in my PSUs.
I couldn't do a shootout of the better electrolytics, since I don't have any, and I imagine there's room for improvement there. They were better than I expected, though outclassed by the DC Links.
.
- Vishay DC Link Cap, 40uF, 900v
- ICW SA Clarity Cap, polypropylene, 47uF, 630v
- RS electrolytic 100uF, 450v
- ICW PW polypropylene cap, 40uF, 160v
- Aerovox motor run cap, polypropylene, 40uF, 450v
The DC Link caps were a clear improvement on all the others - audibly more detail and better timbre to voices and instruments and a generally more involving sound. The two ICW caps were similar to each other - smooth but flat and quite veiled in sound, rather boring in fact. The bigger Clarity Cap (it's very big in fact) was a little better but still rather flat. The RS electrolytic surprised me - it wasn't as smooth as the Clarity Cap but it had more life and was arguably more involving though a little coarser. This is just a generic old cap with many years on it. The motor run cap was flat and boring and a little coarser than the ICW caps but otherwise fairly similar to the PW cap.
Conclusion - get some DC Link caps! The sound improved quite noticeably. I'll be ripping out all my ICW bypass caps, which have a good reputation and are sold as "audio" caps. Next test will be using them in my PSUs.
I couldn't do a shootout of the better electrolytics, since I don't have any, and I imagine there's room for improvement there. They were better than I expected, though outclassed by the DC Links.
.
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I don't imagine it's the higher voltage - it may be a factor but I don't think a dominant one. The DC Link caps just sounded different - more transparent, more detail, better timbre. I'd put this down squarely to construction and materials. I've now read up on DC Link caps and because of the demands of their intended use the construction needs to be high quality.
The DC link style caps tend to be targeted at SMPS and as such need to be very low ESR, high current capable and high voltage to take the 50-100Khz pulses with transients of current from the switching. If you look at the WIMA DC link 80uF MKS4 they have an ESR of 6mOhms for example.
So to me this means (a) they're very fast in responding to dI/dt (b) they seem to be non-polar in the main and (c) they take large voltage transients with ease. Also if you look at the ESR vs frequency graphs, they tend to have a number of ranges of lowest ESR to allow for filtering so be careful comparing apples and oranges in that regard.
As a coupling cap that low ESR means fast response without the ESR causing the slow down of the charge/discharge. However I suspect a good normal cap that has average ESR could be paralleled and still improve (ideal circumstances and we know every cap is not equal).
So to me this means (a) they're very fast in responding to dI/dt (b) they seem to be non-polar in the main and (c) they take large voltage transients with ease. Also if you look at the ESR vs frequency graphs, they tend to have a number of ranges of lowest ESR to allow for filtering so be careful comparing apples and oranges in that regard.
As a coupling cap that low ESR means fast response without the ESR causing the slow down of the charge/discharge. However I suspect a good normal cap that has average ESR could be paralleled and still improve (ideal circumstances and we know every cap is not equal).
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Juicy 1.3mOhm and seems relatively flat across the frequency range. 330uF is probably a little large for SMPS work, but for output caps in parallel they would be very good. I see at 85degC the current drops to 20A, so worth keeping them cool. £60 a pop
...which is cheap, believe me...when you consider what you get a bargain. 130uF /1300V is the smallest option I believe...which gave me a PSU which I can use anything with...started with 300B, went on to 845, 813,Gm70 at 1000V...no issues, pretty cool.
Think of them as an upgrade to BG and you have a big smile om your face. I tried as well Kemet, Ducati, Vishay and some other DC-Links as well from CDE other types. Nope...947D...and with the smallish current we ask them for they have room temperature...will last forever.
To make you feel better, study Aries Cerat price list....and look into their PSU...;-)
Think of them as an upgrade to BG and you have a big smile om your face. I tried as well Kemet, Ducati, Vishay and some other DC-Links as well from CDE other types. Nope...947D...and with the smallish current we ask them for they have room temperature...will last forever.
To make you feel better, study Aries Cerat price list....and look into their PSU...;-)
Blitz, do you mind giving a circuit diagram for your various capacitor test situations ?
For transistor high power supply applications the best I have tested are the Mlytic 4-pole types, but correctly wired, output and input pins seperatedly routed..the 2pole Mlytics have a flat soundstage compared to their 4pole brothers ( same value )
For transistor high power supply applications the best I have tested are the Mlytic 4-pole types, but correctly wired, output and input pins seperatedly routed..the 2pole Mlytics have a flat soundstage compared to their 4pole brothers ( same value )
An Aries Cerat ultra-expensive system is designed without capacitors in the "signal path" (from source to amp). Be aware that most people don't have good ears but if they do they will realize how damaging the capacitor is for audio. That's why there are so many ultra-expensive capacitors (I will be rich if I can sold all my Black Gate with the current market price LOL).
