Resistor sound, minus snake oil.

Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
I use metal film resistors from vishay dale & multicomp (farnell) in 1, 2 & 3 watt range primarily. There were a couple of values of welwyn. None were made in any country known for cheating on the paperwork & shipping the reject bin.
The 500 mw ones are too short to hold off 160 vdc in a humid environment. Like the Ohio Valley. It rained every day last week & is doing it again this week.I certainly didn't use any resistor shorter than 3/4" long in my vacuum tube ST70 with 380 v B+ voltage.
 
Last edited:
I use metal film resistors from vishay dale & multicomp (farnell) in 1, 2 & 3 watt range primarily. There were a couple of values of welwyn. The 500 mw ones are too short to hold off 160 vdc in a humid environment. Like the Ohio Valley. It rained every day last week & is doing it again this week.
WOW that is some bad weather:) The vishay dale look like they are fairly big, something like 0.180 x 0.687 inch for the 0.75W. Isn't that a bit excessive?
 
The vishay dale look like they are fairly big, something like 0.180 x 0.687 inch for the 0.75W. Isn't that a bit excessive?
Air will hold off, not arc, about 1000 v/inch. When dry.
Dust is less of an insulator. I replaced a 1954 Wurlitzer vacuum tube organ in 2018 that was beginning to motorboat at ~20 hz, a very rude noise in church. The B+ electrolytic caps had been replaced in the 00's. I determined it needed a thorough cleaning, about a 20 hour job per chassis. Probably dust arcing across.
The US Navy knew this and had certain insulator length standards for parts when they still used vacuum tubes. Consumers on islands or coastlines have the same problem.
The reason the 1000 v PIV 1n4007 is such a joke. Succesful brands of TV's & CRT monitors like Siemens used inch long diodes with plastic rings in the case at those voltages.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Air will hold off, not arc, about 1000 v/inch. When dry.
Dust is less of an insulator. I replaced a 1954 Wurlitzer vacuum tube organ in 2018 that was beginning to motorboat at ~20 hz, a very rude noise in church. The B+ electrolytic caps had been replaced in the 00's. I determined it needed a thorough cleaning, about a 20 hour job per chassis. Probably dust arcing across.
The US Navy knew this and had certain insulator length standards for parts when they still used vacuum tubes. Consumers on islands or coastlines have the same problem.
The reason the 1000 v PIV 1n4007 is such a joke. Succesful brands of TV's & CRT monitors like Siemens used inch long diodes with plastic rings in the case at those voltages.
What a job, it have to be one of your more interesting and hard projects?
 
AN Tantalum resistors

I have found big differences in critical areas
For the input sections the Vishay naked resistors are very balanced and detailed
The Audionote new line of Non magnetic resistors is very good .the best resistors
Anywhere period for absolute detail in critical areas the Audionote Silver ,which use Tantalum but pure Silver end caps silver leads .They say the 2w sound best at $60 a pair very costly.
I will be using these in critical areas in my Lampizator dac
And the Copper version in other areas.i recently installed ver 70 resistors
In rebuilding my very respectable New Jim Fosgate Black ice f-35 fully balanced dual differential integrated amp. I used 10 Vishay naked on the input stage
15 a Takman Carbon film, 8 Amtrans, Kiwame for bleeder resistors,
And 34 Audio note non magnetic high Copper brass Tantalums . They sometimes get a bad rap. I spoke with Audio Note they stated, if the areas get hot they run in faster on average though 3-400 hours to fully settle in . I hear guys saying
A bit bright , after 3 days that’s not even close to full runin .i have just over 100
Hours and starting to open up nicely, also what many don’t realize these will expose power supply noise or transformers and weak links down stream ,and then go back to blaming the resistor. I have found on the lytic caps I put in .01 uf 3000 v Cornell Dubilier bypass caps do a credible job cleaning up high frequency artifacts.
 
Air will hold off, not arc, about 1000 v/inch. When dry.
Dust is less of an insulator. I replaced a 1954 Wurlitzer vacuum tube organ in 2018 that was beginning to motorboat at ~20 hz, a very rude noise in church. The B+ electrolytic caps had been replaced in the 00's. I determined it needed a thorough cleaning, about a 20 hour job per chassis. Probably dust arcing across.
The US Navy knew this and had certain insulator length standards for parts when they still used vacuum tubes. Consumers on islands or coastlines have the same problem.
The reason the 1000 v PIV 1n4007 is such a joke. Succesful brands of TV's & CRT monitors like Siemens used inch long diodes with plastic rings in the case at those voltages.
Not quite right.
The dielectric strength of dry air is approximately 3 kV/mm. Its exact value varies with the shape and size of the electrodes and increases with the pressure of the air.
So, where you got 1kV for an inch from, I am not at all sure.
 
I know that we may be talking about so a little influence that no person can here it, but if the signal is very small, like in an amplifier and there are a lot of them, do thy then make any change in sound?
The other way of viewing this is that because there are a lot of resistors in an amp, that also indicates there are a lot of other parts in such an amplifier, and unless you can make all of those other parts 'blameless' then any comparison does end up turning to 'snake oil', as epitomized by dalas21's recent post.
 
I have found big differences in critical areas
For the input sections the Vishay naked resistors are very balanced and detailed
The Audionote new line of Non magnetic resistors is very good .the best resistors
Anywhere period for absolute detail in critical areas the Audionote Silver ,which use Tantalum but pure Silver end caps silver leads .They say the 2w sound best at $60 a pair very costly.
I will be using these in critical areas in my Lampizator dac
And the Copper version in other areas.i recently installed ver 70 resistors
In rebuilding my very respectable New Jim Fosgate Black ice f-35 fully balanced dual differential integrated amp. I used 10 Vishay naked on the input stage
15 a Takman Carbon film, 8 Amtrans, Kiwame for bleeder resistors,
And 34 Audio note non magnetic high Copper brass Tantalums . They sometimes get a bad rap. I spoke with Audio Note they stated, if the areas get hot they run in faster on average though 3-400 hours to fully settle in . I hear guys saying
A bit bright , after 3 days that’s not even close to full runin .i have just over 100
Hours and starting to open up nicely, also what many don’t realize these will expose power supply noise or transformers and weak links down stream ,and then go back to blaming the resistor. I have found on the lytic caps I put in .01 uf 3000 v Cornell Dubilier bypass caps do a credible job cleaning up high frequency artifacts.

And not one blind ABX test to try and prove this nonsesne.
 
And not one blind ABX test to try and prove this nonsesne.

A capacitor that gives a bright sound is a crap capacitor !
A capacitor that changes value/tone is also crap.
I want a capacitor that keeps its correct value for many years, if not forever.

As for none magnetic resistors, you get a magnetic field when current passes through a resistor.

So long as someone is daft enough to buy these audiophoolery components they will keep on selling them at daft prices.

I use metal film in my amps and they sound great.
 
I have read a lot about components, what people say and so on.
In the end have I chosen what I think are high quality, non snake oil components, and then have I tried to chose from about the same brand if possible.


Almost all: Vishay Dale CMF (Military RN and RL) Metal Film Resistors
Vishay Mills Wirewound Resistors, Non-Magnetic,Non-Inductive
Vishay BCcomponents Power Metal Film Leaded Resistors

Almost all: ELNA SILMIC II (RFS) MINIATURE ALUMINUM ELECTROLYTIC CAPACITORS FOR AUDIO
Nichicon UMP ALUMINUM ELECTROLYTIC CAPACITORS
Vishay BCcomponents K Series Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors for General Purpose
 
I was mostly refering to the resistor rant, but same can be said for any component. Nothings perfect. The aim of design is to minimize the inperfections that make a difference, and ignore the ones that dont, and there are many of these. People make a big deal about -140 db resistor distortion when a transistor has -10 db distortion. Reality check in order.
 
I was mostly refering to the resistor rant, but same can be said for any component. Nothings perfect. The aim of design is to minimize the inperfections that make a difference, and ignore the ones that dont, and there are many of these. People make a big deal about -140 db resistor distortion when a transistor has -10 db distortion. Reality check in order.

Any difference is a difference, but sometimes a slight difference isn't worth spending big bucks on.
 
I have read a lot about components, what people say and so on.
In the end have I chosen what I think are high quality, non snake oil components, and then have I tried to chose from about the same brand if possible.


Almost all: Vishay Dale CMF (Military RN and RL) Metal Film Resistors
Vishay Mills Wirewound Resistors, Non-Magnetic,Non-Inductive
Vishay BCcomponents Power Metal Film Leaded Resistors

Almost all: ELNA SILMIC II (RFS) MINIATURE ALUMINUM ELECTROLYTIC CAPACITORS FOR AUDIO
Nichicon UMP ALUMINUM ELECTROLYTIC CAPACITORS
Vishay BCcomponents K Series Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors for General Purpose

If you dont know what actualy makes a difference in circuit, only hurts the wallet to buy the above. But any thing marketed as "for audio" is an excuse to triple the price, do you think NASA uses resistors labeled "for space" or LIGO uses transitors labeled "for accelerators"?
 
Last edited:
Yes I know that there are a lot to lose by buying "audio" components, and I have looked at some of the sides that sells "special" components to $100 for a capacitor that should be made of moon dust, fund in Sahara, under a snowstorm. But no thanks. The Elna "audio" has not been a factor in my decision but the fact that they are smaller, have fine data, quality and is fairly cheep.
 
Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.