Well, since you know the secret that polyester can sound great these days, unlike yesteryear, I'd like to turn you onto these. Like two other guys on here are into them, posted years ago, but once you know... there is no need to waste money on poorer sounding pp/mkp etc, for a lot of extra cost and size.
Yeah, I've been wondering what we were going back and forth about. This stuff has been published for quite some time. I'm sure they had their reasons and they weren't for the highest fidelity.
That's what I'm trying to understand. This stuff is known and out there. Not exactly sure if we're talking past one another. My point had much more to do with "double check the DS of your parts" before you pull the trigger. There's all the fru-fru esoterica, which is whatever it is, but at least get stuff appropriate for the job. No controversy needed.
Daniel, I find the trouble is JC has selective post reading (like how some people have selective hearing). So I don't expect to see him reply to either of us, truthfully, but the odds increase if it's hard for him to miss.
If you search the rest of the DIYA forum, you find quickly everyone knows XR7 caps are only for very specific things, and have to be adjusted for voltage. At most sometimes they miss the appropriate size at a quick glance they took.
If you search the rest of the DIYA forum, you find quickly everyone knows XR7 caps are only for very specific things, and have to be adjusted for voltage. At most sometimes they miss the appropriate size at a quick glance they took.
That's the problem. You think Mylar (polyester) caps are the same as they all were in 1978.
I can swap between my little Kemet and a PHE426. The PHE426 is simply inferior, and I have no doubt a DBT could show this because it's just super obvious. One sounds authentic, one sounds like plastic.
The Kemet sounds most like the Jantzen Silver, to the point where I wouldn't be surprised if I opened the Jantzen Silver to find the Kemet. I've been into Jantzen Silvers lately, or even Superior (red), as a superb budget cap. But I want to try a REL sometime (Audiocap PPT Theta).
I can swap between my little Kemet and a PHE426. The PHE426 is simply inferior, and I have no doubt a DBT could show this because it's just super obvious. One sounds authentic, one sounds like plastic.
The Kemet sounds most like the Jantzen Silver, to the point where I wouldn't be surprised if I opened the Jantzen Silver to find the Kemet. I've been into Jantzen Silvers lately, or even Superior (red), as a superb budget cap. But I want to try a REL sometime (Audiocap PPT Theta).
That gets to the crux of it -- did moving to a servo actually *improve* things (and by what metric?) or was it just shifting things around design wise?
I mean it's fine to choose either way, especially if well-implemented. I'm pretty agnostic. It's certainly easier to design an AC-coupled design with a good-sized coupling cap.
I mean it's fine to choose either way, especially if well-implemented. I'm pretty agnostic. It's certainly easier to design an AC-coupled design with a good-sized coupling cap.
The mylar cap I like gives more micro-detail. It actually expresses the nuanced character of the studios that made album better than the PHE426.
I'll compare about dynamics, but I did not notice any changes.
But I guess technically it's a Metallized polyester, would that give the distinction of the same mylar concerns?
I'll compare about dynamics, but I did not notice any changes.
But I guess technically it's a Metallized polyester, would that give the distinction of the same mylar concerns?
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The mylar is masking something or compressing or adding distortion that is causing you to perceive more detail. I have a customer that has a phono preamp that I used a Mylar cap in parallel with a polypropylene cap so the bass would have some compression and distortion to fatten up the bottom a bit.
As others mentioned, C0G won't come in those values. The only "good" surface mount capacitor options in those values are going to be film. Do you know the package size? A picture of the PCB may help if you can get it. If they are 1210 or larger then you can probably find an Acrylic cap that fits. PPS are the "best" surface mount film caps for audio but physically are many times larger than any X7R.
25MU225MB23225 Rubycon | Capacitors | DigiKey
I am up to being convinced but...
Maybe it does induce a minor amount of distortion, but maybe that distortion is exactly what the music needs... The distortion was 0.01% in the "picking capacitors" fig. 5, btw. That isn't exactly enough to mean anything. I'd like to know how that could somehow translate into compression or loss of detail... The DA is higher that other films, but it's all under 1% for any film cap, where as the lytrics can creep up into many percents (probably 10's in some). And that is all based on OLD data, old capacitors.
... on the heavily loaded capacitor, right? Have about normal use, like 1uF + 100kohm? Any distortion above 0.0001%?? I do not think so. I was not able to measure ANY distortion for Vishay MKT1813 3.3uF (mylar) loaded with 4ohm and thus connected as HP filter.
Do the math. That 1uF is at least one order of magnitude overkill in this app. 0.1u is fine and available in COG/NPO.
Same for that 2.2u.
Jan
It does sound different, so, for whatever reason.... best picked for subjective preference to go with your project. I have to play around even more. I'm a sucker for wanting good timbre and texture (even if it has to be artificially helped along). This test shows what tends to be heard despite the test settings not reflecting audio use identically. The mylar are sharper, which can be really helpful at times, to display character better. PP can sound smooth, but sometimes you're wondering what is missing as it's a little flat. Teflon is very transparent. The polystyrene looks close to the teflon, but they are not cheap or easy to get (some of the few out there large enough to matter). All in all you have to wonder if some of the better caps, regardless of their material, wouldn't look more like the teflons.
Picking capacitors (fig 5)
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