Best electrolytic capacitors

I bought a few of these a while back.I'm pretty sure they were left overs from original equipment manufacturer's production lines.They measured fine and sounded pretty good too.I often think there is an unnecessary paranoia which seems to define everything unusual as "fake" without actually bothering to check.
 
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Well manufacturers always have a specific way to label their products.
Goes without saying including the stamped markings on top of the cap.
Besides I only said it could be fake. Fake can also be original Elna Silmic Ars
but change & label Super Gold to sell at higher price. Your right though these Super Gold were made specifically for some OEM players. Hence very rare on the open market.

Cheers
 
The Super Golds were nowhere near as expensive as Blackgates.I was happy to spend a few dollars just for the experiment.The Super Golds were definitely a grade above the normal ARS types both soundwise and spec wise.They can easily be verified as genuine with a simple ESR test.The ESR value is always noticeably lower than a standard Silmic.
 
In my experience the actual ESR value has no particular influence on the sound quality.For example most film caps have vanishingly low ESR but still sound OK.I was merely quoting ESR values as a way of distinguishing the genuine Super Gold Simic vs the standard type.
The gold standard test of sound quality for any capacitor is a simple straight wire bypass at the input of your amp.Most caps even expensive boutique types fail miserably.
 
Btw SinGun
If you using cap as tuning tool there's no better then a sprinkle of BGs ya.
Though not so transparent, what it brings to the table is what no other caps can ever do.
The closest that I experienced is a Elna Silmic Super Gold. Never heard of it, its only for Jap market.

Soundstage is very important for me so BG is a no go, they destroy soundstage depth and put everything forward. Silmic II & Nichicons unfold much more depth and space.
 
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What are we talking about ? Smoorhing cap, local decouplung of aops, power amp transistors dexoupling, etc ?
Caps ref are never used alone, there are several in the path, and you have to mix. I never use a Pan FC alone for instance, there are alwayssome other brands in thedevice...that is a mix...even Black Gate can be too dry or something cold in some devices. There are no magic caps, justbad caps that are not working good very often like the rubycon za, zl you talked about...Some Pan FM can be very zingy and fatiguing as well in the upper mid, low treble...
As for esr...I do not stress around the concept but when the typology of thecircuitry needs it...I have tested some years ago all the polymers 820 uf 5.6 V of the market vs some pilymers with more voltage and lesscapacitance so very higher ESR... rich learning around an ESS dac chip...
 
Agree, I cant even use my beloved KZs alone. Its always a mix.

My last preamp (before I switched over to the dark side - opamps) was with tubes. I changed all PSU elcaps (expect for heaters) to MKPs & PIOs. Transparency went up by a good margin and it sounded clearer like lower distortion and better defined bass and more space and decay info.
 
In my experience the actual ESR value has no particular influence on the sound quality.For example most film caps have vanishingly low ESR but still sound OK.I was merely quoting ESR values as a way of distinguishing the genuine Super Gold Simic vs the standard type.
The gold standard test of sound quality for any capacitor is a simple straight wire bypass at the input of your amp.Most caps even expensive boutique types fail miserably.

True. If a cap fails this test it can still be used for sounding the amp. I.e.: The Soviet K75 hybrid cap play the music thru a pink glass, everything gets mellow and smooth with creamy lower mids/upper bass. They cheat. But for many people they are life savers.
 
The problem is that all capacitors introduce their own unique brand of colouration into the signal path.None are truly neutral.The challenge is to find the cap with the least offensive amount of added colouration.As Lynn Olson describes it---

"Caps measure almost perfect yet sound very different from each other, as well as having unmusical and mechanical-sounding colorations. Plastic caps, in fact, tend to sound like plastic foil or "tupperware" coloration. These colorations are nothing at all like speaker colorations or triode sonics, so they really intrude onto the musical fabric. Changing to Black Gate or oils just changes to another and even more obvious coloration."
 
Where did you manage to get them Phase. I had to get a Jap friend to purchase it for me.

Mine are just the ARS, not sure if they are marked as anything else. I got them from eBay years ago, and sound better than anything else I have found, but could be a little soft if not mixed with other parts in some equipment though. There were some pictures of disassembled parts on a Japanese site at one point, showing the unique wadding they used supposedly.
 
The problem is that all capacitors introduce their own unique brand of colouration into the signal path.None are truly neutral.The challenge is to find the cap with the least offensive amount of added colouration.As Lynn Olson describes it---

"Caps measure almost perfect yet sound very different from each other, as well as having unmusical and mechanical-sounding colorations. Plastic caps, in fact, tend to sound like plastic foil or "tupperware" coloration. These colorations are nothing at all like speaker colorations or triode sonics, so they really intrude onto the musical fabric. Changing to Black Gate or oils just changes to another and even more obvious coloration."

Olson is a very clever guy. I only disagree with him on the Jensen PIO issue. He hates them. Can't understand why.
 
Coloration, what is it, your source my source, your amp my amp, your speakers my speakers, your room my room . Its is a never ending argument etc.
What Im seeking is what sounds best in my set up. Every thing is colored we just have to find the right balance that's all. Pointless to argue about a cap or a resistor etc.
BGs aren't like what you said SinGun even the standard ones.