Paul,
Thanks for providing the link to the Class D Basics article here. I had read it a while back when I was constructing my first pair of UcD monoblocks. It's a very well written article and a must read for anyone wanting to know more about ClassD.
I spent some time over the weekend putting back the stock cap in and doing some listening tests. Never have I spent so much time and energy debating about a measly cap! 🙂
As far as overall sound quality is concerned, the Auricap is clearly better to me. Relatively speaking, the sound is a bit 'dull' with the stock caps. Call it what you will - HF/RF distortion, my flawed hearing, subjective, unscientific assessment but that's what I have to report. Since I already have both the caps handy, the Auricaps would not have stayed a minute longer had I felt otherwise about the SQ.
I don't have a scope at the moment, but I did try out the FM Radio test - kept my FM radio right on top of the powered Monoblocks with the Auricaps in- nothing unusual to report here - the radio plays perfectly.
Btw, it seems you've missed this - the UcD Auricap is physically different from the ones warned against in Bruno's article - its about 50% smaller in size (and only just marginally larger than the stock cap) than the typical audiophile grade film caps. It doesn't have leads mounted radially in the typical manner, nor are they spiked and there are special twin leads to minimise loop inductance.
I do appreciate your enthusiasm and your pride in your knowledge on Class D. From a theoretical perspective and a generic point of view you are 100% correct, but your specific comments about the UcD Auricap are now coming across as factually incorrect and maybe even a bit biased (I can't fathom the reason for that) Your recent comments on generic audiophile caps make it even more misleading.
Consider this:
- A representative of Audience-AV has denied your claims about this cap in this very thread,
- you don't seem to be aware of the physical construction and dimensions of this cap
- there is no evidence so far to support that you have had any first hand experience with this specific cap in a UcD module.
All your comments on the use of generic audiophile caps in Class D, based on Bruno's article, are accepted but I think you should hold your fire on the UcD Auricap till you are able to substantiate it with some concrete information.
Your first post in this thread had me excited as I thought you were going to share some deep insights on the usage of UcD Auricaps and on improving on other aspects but I must say I'm disappointed.
Eva,
Thanks for your insights too, a bit extreme maybe (the 99.9% comment about Audio engineers - you need to read up on the topic of convergence and how it's changing the world around us 😉 ) and passionate, but nonetheless appreciated and theoretically speaking, absolutely spot on. As you very rightly mentioned - small electrolytics with narrow terminal spacing are much less inductive than big film capacitors. Do you reckon that e-caps could be a better choice in this particular application? The super e-cap config of Blackgates is claimed to be a stable capacitive load well into the Mhz range due to its inductance canceling effects.
Workhorse,
Thanks for providing comic relief to this thread, but really dude, it's not needed here.
Cheers!
Amit
Thanks for providing the link to the Class D Basics article here. I had read it a while back when I was constructing my first pair of UcD monoblocks. It's a very well written article and a must read for anyone wanting to know more about ClassD.
I spent some time over the weekend putting back the stock cap in and doing some listening tests. Never have I spent so much time and energy debating about a measly cap! 🙂
As far as overall sound quality is concerned, the Auricap is clearly better to me. Relatively speaking, the sound is a bit 'dull' with the stock caps. Call it what you will - HF/RF distortion, my flawed hearing, subjective, unscientific assessment but that's what I have to report. Since I already have both the caps handy, the Auricaps would not have stayed a minute longer had I felt otherwise about the SQ.
I don't have a scope at the moment, but I did try out the FM Radio test - kept my FM radio right on top of the powered Monoblocks with the Auricaps in- nothing unusual to report here - the radio plays perfectly.
Btw, it seems you've missed this - the UcD Auricap is physically different from the ones warned against in Bruno's article - its about 50% smaller in size (and only just marginally larger than the stock cap) than the typical audiophile grade film caps. It doesn't have leads mounted radially in the typical manner, nor are they spiked and there are special twin leads to minimise loop inductance.
I do appreciate your enthusiasm and your pride in your knowledge on Class D. From a theoretical perspective and a generic point of view you are 100% correct, but your specific comments about the UcD Auricap are now coming across as factually incorrect and maybe even a bit biased (I can't fathom the reason for that) Your recent comments on generic audiophile caps make it even more misleading.
Consider this:
- A representative of Audience-AV has denied your claims about this cap in this very thread,
- you don't seem to be aware of the physical construction and dimensions of this cap
- there is no evidence so far to support that you have had any first hand experience with this specific cap in a UcD module.
All your comments on the use of generic audiophile caps in Class D, based on Bruno's article, are accepted but I think you should hold your fire on the UcD Auricap till you are able to substantiate it with some concrete information.
Your first post in this thread had me excited as I thought you were going to share some deep insights on the usage of UcD Auricaps and on improving on other aspects but I must say I'm disappointed.
Eva,
Thanks for your insights too, a bit extreme maybe (the 99.9% comment about Audio engineers - you need to read up on the topic of convergence and how it's changing the world around us 😉 ) and passionate, but nonetheless appreciated and theoretically speaking, absolutely spot on. As you very rightly mentioned - small electrolytics with narrow terminal spacing are much less inductive than big film capacitors. Do you reckon that e-caps could be a better choice in this particular application? The super e-cap config of Blackgates is claimed to be a stable capacitive load well into the Mhz range due to its inductance canceling effects.
Workhorse,
Thanks for providing comic relief to this thread, but really dude, it's not needed here.
Cheers!
Amit
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