Insomnia and High End Capacitors

[eriksquires]

For no reason other than insomnia, I put together a chart about the price of a range of "affordable" high end capacitors. I thought some one else might find this enjoyable, and maybe even useful. The choices were purely arbitrary, but I was focusing on foil caps, and the Duelund CAST I decided were just too ridiculously expensive to note here.

My sources were PartsExpress and PartsConnexion. Of course, if you know where to look some of these can be had at a discount. Some of them ARE at a discount, so I don't think the Duelund RS prices are going to stay this low forever. The Duelund PB Silvers are at a ridiculous discount as well.

 

[AuroraB]

Could you please define what makes a "High End Capacitor", except price and hearsay?

 

[infinia]

idea >normalize yer data to regular industrial PP caps. then plot

 

[eriksquires]

Could you please define what makes a "High End Capacitor", except price and hearsay?

Hi Aurora,

As I said, it was completely arbitrary selection of data points which I thought some would find interesting.

For the sake of this graph, I'll define it as something as expensive or more expensive than a Mundorf Supreme. The question of what "high-end" means in any context is for another discussion I think.

Best,


Erik

 

[eriksquires]

idea >normalize yer data to regular industrial PP caps. then plot

Oh, no. I have a much better idea. Let me give you the data, and you can it.


Erik

 

[infinia]

Oh, no. I have a much better idea. Let me give you the data, and you can it.


Erik

id rather trim my toenails than gaze at boutique parts price lists.
"that's not my bag, baby"

 

[eriksquires]

id rather trim my toenails than gaze at boutique parts price lists.
"that's not my bag, baby"

I'll take that as a qualified "maybe."

 

[AlexQS]

id rather trim my toenails than gaze at boutique parts price lists.
"that's not my bag, baby"

Occasionally I'll open the email I get from partsconeXion. It's not that I dream of ever buying anything from the list, but I love to chuckle at the huge discount offered on the speaker terminals, which are marked all the way down to $500 a pair! Such a deal

 

[tomtt]

Could you please define what makes a "High End Capacitor", except price and hearsay?

the science has been decided.

30+ years ago ...

Picking Capacitors - Walter G. Jung and Richard Marsh

 

[GM]

Call me old fashioned, but PIO is my idea of a high end cap and I'll accept the large size of industrial caps to keep prices in 'check': The "Sound" of Capacitors

GM

 

[infinia]

MKP1848 yum
I reckon it just looks plain-n-boxy for most

 

[eriksquires]

MKP1848 yum
I reckon it just looks plain-n-boxy for most

Tease, include a pic!

Erik

 

[eriksquires]

The day the socialist revolution comes money, gold and silver will be worthless. Fortunately for me I'm going to be sitting pretty with my cats, my guns and piles of film capacitors I'll trade for food, fuel and more guns.

I pity the rest of you.


Erik

 

[infinia]

Tease, include a pic!

Erik

like I said they aint pretty
http://www.vishay.com/docs/28164/mkp1848dcl.pdf

how many caps come rated for peak current? its poop unless it has dV/dt numbers written down. (I=dV/dt*C)

 

[dandee]

when you buy or build anything... use your Head.. Just because it cost more does not mean its better... and some of the things even if they are better are not worth what we have to pay for them...Unless you won the lotto and even then you still have to look at cost...somtimes the cost is not even in dollars.. its in stress.........
ya dont have to climb to the top.. but its nice if you can see the valley. !

I think... if you listened to a 10 dollar cap vs a 459.00 dollar cap.. they only thing I know for sure is you might get a headache after choosing the best sound. the 10 dollar one after you had spend your money on the ones for 459.00.. !!!!!!!

 

[infinia]

it's wishful thinking, the best speaker designers don't buy into it either. maybe unless some of their dealers insist. you know the same dealers selling these tweaks for all their "upgrades". all aboard the bandwagon as they say.

 

[xrk971]

These aint pretty either but for $11 they sure sound great.

And they take current like no one's business - multi HP, AC compressor motors running 24/7.

 

[dandee]

I would not have thought of that.. ... only thing i see is the value of +/- 6 %...

and I think thats good enough. ! and its 370 v?? do hear that ringing??
its every where I go...lol....

I have altec 19s... horn loaeded speakers... they are + 100 DB eff...
I had measured the horn voltage when it was loud enough to rattle my head...

I had to check the measurement 4 times.... I thought it was wrong...
some loud horn music.... .65 volts !! at the horn.......

The whole speaker when playing room filling music is under 1 watt......

But some of the older klipsc speakers used caps that looked the same...
prob made the same...........

 

[dandee]

I had worked with a large service company and we serviced Sony tvs... Plasma,,, LCD,,, Led...

I was doing a repair at a Hi end electronics store....

The sales Man was selling some speaker wire for like 10 dollars a foot...
i was looking at this wire..??? hmmmmm ..Dont get me wrong I like nice things...

I was thinking.. whooooo.... i found some really great extension Cords at the goodwill for 1 dollar each and have been using them for 5 years.

I am using it on my Altecs.. and really most of the time i'm running like .2 amps at 2 volts..... maybe I should be carefull.. ( lol ) I dont wana over load.. this is 15 A wire at 125 volts......???

Does different wire sound better?? maybe... but i'm not spending 10 dollars a foot to try it...lol......

 

[system7]

Erik and I were doing some measurements of thin aluminium foils and solid silver and brass plates too, with nearby coils as it goes, but we did find that thicker metal had more effect on induced currents. And high conductance also mattered.

This was a surprise to me. So I am much more open to the idea that thicker foils in capacitors might be a good thing at some measureable level. As it goes I use industrial grade 4.7Uf/ 630V power capacitors, because I have loads. I have some much smaller 250V Solens.

FWIW, a lot of cheap film types have a layer of aluminium so thinly electro-deposited that it is transparent. The downside of high value boutique capacitors is that they are huge, of course.

But, TBH if it's only 3.3uF or 4.7uF, they (630V) are going to be reasonably small. Like these, which are 3.3uF IIRC.

About £5.