GRollins said:
Don't assume higher capacitance is always a bad thing. I've had at least one circumstance where the higher capacitance part sounded better.
Grey
Nelson Pass said:
If you prefer big bottom...
I kept meaning to get back to this, but got sidetracked. As I've said elsewhere, my comments on a higher capacitance part that sounded better were limited to the above 5kHz region. The devices in question were in a tweeter amp in a quad-amped system. As such, I have no opinion about the balance between the lows vs. highs...only the highs taken on their own merits (or lack thereof).
The question is why a higher capacitance output device might give better highs when--at least on paper--everything would seem to be against it. A partial answer can be found in that the devices were not being asked to handle the entire signal. Released from bass and midrange obligations, the front end no longer has to charge and discharge the Gate to the same degree. With that in mind, there's more current available and the Gate should be much happier.
And yet...a lower capacitance part should have been happier still.
Was I led astray by a painted hussy? Would I have married in haste only to repent at leisure? Would she have turned out to be a high maintenance woman once past the honeymoon?
All good questions. I've thought about this quite a bit since then and have reached any number of potential solutions, but none of them satisfy me. At the moment, I'm leaning towards the idea that the highs would have grown wearing over time. I'm not in a position to say for sure because I pulled out the high capacitance devices and put something else in. At this point I'm within striking distance of putting in an entirely different amp with an entirely different topology and entirely different devices. I hope to scrape together enough money (I've kinda bottomed out for the moment) to buy several different sorts of output devices with the intent to experiment. Full range performance is one thing--but what happens if I restrict my listening to the high end only? I don't know and am trying to keep from speculating until I get a chance to try the whole experiment over. It's an interesting question, to be sure.
Grey