Precision high quality Capacitor brands/sources

[jgwinner]

Folks:

I'm looking for some 'traditional' sources of Precision capacitors; i.e. 5%, good quality (low leakage, etc).

I know 'black gate' is pretty well recommended, I'm also looking at more traditional name brands that would be available at Mouser, allied, digikey, etc.

Any recommendations for brand?

Mouser carries NICHICON and some 5% ceramics.

I guess for power supply filter capacitors, it's not as critical, but I just like the idea of using parts with close tolerances, even if not as electrically necessary. I don't necessarily subscribe to any 'audio only' parts, if they are high quality capacitors, other areas in the electronics industry would use them I figure, and I could get them in bulk.

However, I don't want to start a flame war on this

== John ==

P.S. I did search ...

 

[HarryHaller]

Caps

Tolerence is not important for power supply caps.

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=3171

H.H.

 

[jgwinner]

Of course, but what about the other caps?

== John ==

 

[Thatch_Ear]

Nichicon has recently released an audio grade line of caps but I have not gotten any yet. I did go to the site and there are not any high voltage electros in the new line. Even with good electros if they are used in coupling a .1 or .22 prop parralled seems to help the sound. I use WIMAs a lot for that. I don't care for Hovliland but it could be just that they use silver plated copper multistrand wires and I think nothing can beat solid OFC. Or I don't want to like them. LCR makes a good product and it is not overly priced for high voltage power supply, comparable to Black Gate, at 1/10th the price. I have had both and I doubt a difference could be heard, but I am a strong believer in chokes in the power supply filter and that could be a big equalizer. I did recently have to recap a 45 year old amp that had multiple electro cans and I used high voltage snap ins(Nichicons) soldered with old solid WE copper wire under the chassis leaving the old cans in place and it is a bit noisy when warming up, but settles down and does a great job driving a big old 15"er I have in a folded horn under the TV. I do buy a lot of surplus like these snap ins at a place that buys NOS closeouts so I am always trying something new(that is old). I also shop at another surplus that has a lot of old Mil Spec stuff and if I have enough room will often use those old oil caps like Sprauge Vitamin Qs etc. Never noticed anything wrong with those but some can get really big for low mF if the voltage is high. One thing I noticed in an old Dynaco SS that had these huge 5K electros was that they had the wire wrapped aroung them acting as an inductor. Anyone see that or use that before? Interesting anyway.

 

[jgwinner]

Thanks, I'll check those out

 

[fmak]

Folks:

I'm looking for some 'traditional' sources of Precision capacitors; i.e. 5%, good quality (low leakage, etc).

I know 'black gate' is pretty well recommended, I'm also looking at more traditional name brands that would be available at Mouser, allied, digikey, etc.

--------------------------------------------

if you use BGs use the C, FK and N varieties; the ordinary ones are so so. The Elnas are cheaper and the stragets are fine where you don't hjave space.

 

[G-Daddy]

John

Sorry, this is a bit off topic, but I saw on another thread that you said you were interested in electrostatics, and also considering an opti-mos or leachamp to drive them. I would've emailed you, but alas your mail is disabled on this server.

Basically, I was wondering what you've learned of both electrostatics and amplifiers. I, too, am building a set of ESLs and intend to design an amp to drive them. At one time, I'd very seriously considered Randy Slone's Opti-MOS design; I use his book as a base reference for my amplifier understanding. But it occured to me that the common audio amplifiers are aimed at traditional speaker loads, and perhaps they could be improved upon for the specific requirements of electrostatics.

Have you looked into direct-drive setups? I'm currently researching the posibility of building a solid-state amplifier that can crank out the +/- 1kv or so necessary to directly connect to the driver stators (removing the transformers). I'm still in the layout stage, but there are some very interesting BJTs out there for weird industry usage that can handle 1500 volts for breakfast. It looks doable.

For ESLs a friend of mine has just finished a very impressive pair, and watching him every step of the way, I think I can handle a more difficult design without a warm-up. I'm conisdering a 72"x18" pair of flats this summer. Getting rid of the transformers, I'm hoping these speakers will be a little less difficult to drive than they are otherwise.

The whole thing is pretty exciting. Drop me a line at jonhan@cox.net and let me know what you've learned and what you intend. Perhaps we can swap research. Thanks
- Jonathan

 

[jgwinner]

Jonathan:

Whoops, I'll fix my email right away. Nice they don't expose it be default, I get enough spam

Good questions, maybe we should open a new thread. I'll reply separately.

 

[dice45]

David,

... those old oil caps like Sprauge Vitamin Qs ...

would love to sell you my stock of Sprague Vitamin Q.
Because i have them, don't use them, do not like sonics at all. Magnetic housing, and i do not like the sonic footprint of this.
Email me off-list if you are interested.
I was already pondering to sell them on ebay.