Nichicon KL or FG or Elna Silmic for coupling capacitors?

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#23
nigelwright7557 said:
If a capacitor is changing your sound then its faulty.
A capacitor should result in a perfect reproduction of the input to the amp at the output.
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@nigelwright7557 So I have done some tests to remove my own biases. Here is what I did. I used Capacitors A in all positions and recorded a few songs that were lossless .flac to .wav, so the recording should be 1 to 1 what came out of the DAC. Then I replaced those capacitors with Capacitor B and re-recorded the same songs, same with capacitors C & D etc. Then I listened to them and heard a difference. Then I played them for several people, including my wife (who couldn't care less) and did not tell them what was done, what to listen for or that there was anything different at all between the recordings. Everyone can hear it. The difference is not subtle. Here are some commonalities. Everyone who listened to the various recordings hates Elna Cerafine - thin bass and brittle highs. Some people love Elna Silmic II because it is warm and thick and relaxed while others think it is lacking detail. Everyone hears the same differences and the only difference is if they like it or not. It is not that there is no difference. I could do a blind test and pick the same recordings every time because they objectivly sound different. The sound is predictably different. The capacitors are not defective, they shape the sound. Elna Muse UES (the bipolar green) is the closest to neutral that I have found. Btw, my electical engineer friend would support your position.
 
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#24
I am about to make an order on Mouser UK for an RH84v2 Project.

Can you say how the Rubycon LLE caps compare to the others mentioned in the thread?
They seem to be low ESR and long life with 105oC:
Load Life 105oC and a lifetime of 12000 -20000 hours
https://www.mouser.co.uk/datasheet/2/977/e_LLE-1600605.pdf

RH84 V2 (C1) 100UF Coupling Capacitor
I have bought some Elna Silmic II for the 100UF coupling caps on the EL84.

I want to buy and try Nichicon FZ and FG as well.
FZ: https://www.mouser.co.uk/datasheet/2/293/e_ukz-3082249.pdf. These are available up to 100v
FG: https://www.mouser.co.uk/datasheet/2/293/e_ufg-3082295.pdf These are available up to 63v
Rubycon UKZ2A101MHM1TN https://www.mouser.co.uk/datasheet/2/977/e_LLE-1600605.pdf

I am looking at using them for the coupling cap on the EL84. Is it worth using 63v, 80v or 100v ratings or is that overkill for this position?

RH84v2 (C3) 10UF 400v Capacitor
I am also thinking of using the Nichicon LLE for the (C3) 10uf 450v capacitor on the RH84 V2, or I could use a 450v Kemet PEG124 Capacitor.
https://www.mouser.co.uk/datasheet/2/447/KEM_A4011_PEG124-3316431.pdf

I would really appreciate a steer on this as I am keen to order this week.

Thanks
 
#25
RH84 - rev2 CLC (1).png
RH84 - rev2 (1).png
 
#30
pelopidas said:
@nigelwright7557 So I have done some tests to remove my own biases. Here is what I did. I used Capacitors A in all positions and recorded a few songs that were lossless .flac to .wav, so the recording should be 1 to 1 what came out of the DAC. Then I replaced those capacitors with Capacitor B and re-recorded the same songs, same with capacitors C & D etc. Then I listened to them and heard a difference. Then I played them for several people, including my wife (who couldn't care less) and did not tell them what was done, what to listen for or that there was anything different at all between the recordings. Everyone can hear it. The difference is not subtle. Here are some commonalities. Everyone who listened to the various recordings hates Elna Cerafine - thin bass and brittle highs. Some people love Elna Silmic II because it is warm and thick and relaxed while others think it is lacking detail. Everyone hears the same differences and the only difference is if they like it or not. It is not that there is no difference. I could do a blind test and pick the same recordings every time because they objectivly sound different. The sound is predictably different. The capacitors are not defective, they shape the sound. Elna Muse UES (the bipolar green) is the closest to neutral that I have found. Btw, my electical engineer friend would support your position.
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It can be quite easily compared if you have the original lossless and other recordings though various capacitors, bring both in a DAW and line the timings up perfectly then phase invert the signal. any signal the same will be canceled out and if there's any difference it will be audible (residual)
 
#31
cbdb said:
So youve done proper blind testing?

It pisses me off when people who are clueless wen it comes to electronics spread audiophool BS. Like Sansui sound is from there PS caps, LOL. Even spreading the burn in myth. So I guess you dont know how a coupling cap works, or any other electronic part. Your opinions have no proof. Read Nelson Pass again and try to understand it.

For the record, I know caps do make a difference depending on where there used, like speaker xovers, but there are many applications in audio where any cap that has the right capacitance will be inaudible.

And you should tell NASA, LIGO, the military, etc about burn in, they could use a good laugh right now.
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The scariest part is too many are using components base on reading specs, wow it measure good, low esr etc but their effect on SQ in a circuit is another story
 
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