I use this kind of resistors routinely (2W pictured):
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
And yet still I have no offers to write for The Big Bang Theory. Go figure....
Anatoliy, nobody would approve your choice at russian forums. Instead of these, everybody would try to use C2-10, BLP, BC, C2-13, C2-14, C2-29 types.
C2-10 are limited by maximum resistance 10K, but they are at the first place for both tube and SS guys. The boron-carbon BLP are frequently put on the top by tube guys.
Last edited:
RIght, also that "nobody" like Allen Braddley carbon comp resistors. And similar American exotic.
Fortunately, there are still mentally normal people on some Russian forums. May be some of them even go to Audioportal, but it is hard to see them there.
Sad, I discarded a huge box of BLP resistors long time ago, I could sell them now.
"Resistance to evil is a moral duty"
PS, the best resistors are precision non-inductive wirewound, I like Rohpoint best, for high power Mills NI Wirewounds (or if you can get them NOS "Mint-Green" Painton Mil Spec) and AB Carbon Comp's for Stoppers (Base/Gate/Grid).
Last edited:
Unfortunately people here are doing a 'random walk' with resistor types. It is very difficult to tell what a resistor will do in an audio circuit, without trying it.
Back in the early days, when 5% carbon resistors were prevalent, like in the 1960's, pro audio and video equipment used Alan Bradley Baked Carbon resistors with some success. Then, precision resistors cost about 20 times as much, and were ONLY used for precision gain or attenuators. We had few complaints then. It was only when I started working with Mark Levinson in 1973, did we switch entirely to 1% metal film resistors. They had become somewhat more affordable, but they were not exotic, like bulk metal or glass cased.
I personally have many hundreds of many dozen different brands of resistors that I will NOT use for audio designs. It is just too risky. It would have been fun to 'unload' these resistors on the 'meter readers' here at a fair price, but I just couldn't do it. There is nothing 'wrong' with these resistors, they are mostly just an 'off brand' mostly, but some of the most 'exotic' ones like the glass enclosed types, I have had trouble with, sonically. Why is up for speculation, but that has been my experience.
Ed Simon has done the latest and best work on OBJECTIVE measurements of resistors and he has brought it to this website. I usually follow his advice on modern resistors, for production of the best audio quality components.
Back in the early days, when 5% carbon resistors were prevalent, like in the 1960's, pro audio and video equipment used Alan Bradley Baked Carbon resistors with some success. Then, precision resistors cost about 20 times as much, and were ONLY used for precision gain or attenuators. We had few complaints then. It was only when I started working with Mark Levinson in 1973, did we switch entirely to 1% metal film resistors. They had become somewhat more affordable, but they were not exotic, like bulk metal or glass cased.
I personally have many hundreds of many dozen different brands of resistors that I will NOT use for audio designs. It is just too risky. It would have been fun to 'unload' these resistors on the 'meter readers' here at a fair price, but I just couldn't do it. There is nothing 'wrong' with these resistors, they are mostly just an 'off brand' mostly, but some of the most 'exotic' ones like the glass enclosed types, I have had trouble with, sonically. Why is up for speculation, but that has been my experience.
Ed Simon has done the latest and best work on OBJECTIVE measurements of resistors and he has brought it to this website. I usually follow his advice on modern resistors, for production of the best audio quality components.
Following your advice on another forum, I bought in a local electronic parts store many values of MLT-1 and some MLT-2 resistors which are very cheap.
They are all produced in 1988. I know that they are 5% metal film types,but temperature co. value is not published.I have not yet tried them in my circuits.
What is so special about MLT resistors?
Tesla metalized resistors, high precision types TR161 - TR164 (0.25 - 1W), were produced in 5 categories of temperature coefficient.
0 ... 200ppm
1 ... 100ppm
2 ... 50ppm
3 ... 25ppm
4 ... 15ppm
http://katalogy.ic.cz/TR164.html
0 ... 200ppm
1 ... 100ppm
2 ... 50ppm
3 ... 25ppm
4 ... 15ppm
http://katalogy.ic.cz/TR164.html
You need to put this in perspective. Ed Simon's article in Linear Audio showed voltage dependent distortion of reasonable quality resistors to be tens of dB below the amplier linearity.
Unless you use pathological resistors and/or pathological values, the notion that feedback resistor non-linearity does anything audible to an amp output is a nice story, but not more.
jan
Anatoliy, do not be so brutal.There is no any issue with BC resistors inductance. Wirewound resistors are good at definite positions, but even if non-inductive, they have clear issues with parasitic indactance and capacitance. With resistors, major issue is what materials and manufactiring technology were employed. You probably know, that for best old russian military parts, it was typical to find in parts such materials, as Rhodium, Platinum, Palladium, not mentioning Gold and Silver.
BC resistors of the years 1978 are non-magnetic, but the same of 1989 are already magnetic. C2-10 always where elite parts, BLP are very good sonically. MLT resistors never approached elite leage, they are just to dissipate heat on them.
Just from curiousity I have measured complex impedances of various resistors at few frequencies (impedance modulus R Ohms and the phase angle in degrees):
----------------- 100kHz 200kHz 500kHz 1000kHz
C2-10 0,5W 2103R 2100R 2086R 2035R
-0,01deg -0,02 +0,02 +0,05
BLP 0,1W 2915R 2911R 2892R 2829R
-0,01 -0,03 -0,04 -0,09
BC 0,25W 3381R 3377R 3357R 3286R
-0,03 -0,06 -0,09 -0,18
PTMN 0,5W 12107R 12280R 13290R 15720R
+1,08 +1,76 +2,50 -4,83
The PTMN resistors change their behaviour from rather essential inductive (the + sign of the phase angle) to big capacitive ( the - sign). There must be a resonant deep at definite frequency.
Non-wire resistors are useless to judge from measured parameters, they behave in sound schematics mainly depending on the materials they are made from.
Pavel, I am not sure that tempco parameter is the main for sound quality. It is similar to THD, it could be allowed to be higher, but sound details do not depend much on it.
Last edited:
Similar measurements for C2-10 0,5W of higher resistance:
20kHz 50kHz 100kHz 200kHz 500kHz 1000kHz
8624R 8622R 8620R 8608R 8546R 8330R
-0,01deg -0,03 -0,03 -0,05 -0,07 -0,37
Impedance is always slightly capacitive, they are designed for UHF applications.
Measurementwise, the MLT resistors are not bad, but it does not correlate with their sound effects. Here are measurements for 10K 0,5W MLT resistor:
20kHz 50kHz 100kHz 200kHz 500kHz 1000kHz
9968R 9960R 9966R 9954R 9888R 9658R
0,00deg +0,03 -0,03 -0,05 -0,06 -0,33
20kHz 50kHz 100kHz 200kHz 500kHz 1000kHz
8624R 8622R 8620R 8608R 8546R 8330R
-0,01deg -0,03 -0,03 -0,05 -0,07 -0,37
Impedance is always slightly capacitive, they are designed for UHF applications.
Measurementwise, the MLT resistors are not bad, but it does not correlate with their sound effects. Here are measurements for 10K 0,5W MLT resistor:
20kHz 50kHz 100kHz 200kHz 500kHz 1000kHz
9968R 9960R 9966R 9954R 9888R 9658R
0,00deg +0,03 -0,03 -0,05 -0,06 -0,33
Last edited:
Did you ever see the old Audio article "The Sad Tale of a 1/2 Watt Resistor"? Probably from the early '50s.
MLT and OMLT, 1/4 to 2 W
-60 to +20 deg C = +/- 1200 ppm
+20 to +125 deg C:
+/- 600 ppm (up to 10K)
+/- 700 ppm (10K to 1M)
+/- 1000 ppm (above 1M)
As you can see, there's nothing special about their tempco.
Let's move on.
Best,
Last edited:
Late night last night or I would have been up earlier. Went with Sonidos to see a GREAT show at Threadgill's.
Anyway, 12/57. If you have the Audio Anthology series, it's in Volume 4. The pathology was a bit higher than Ed's -140dB wonders. If the resistor is specified properly, VCR is much more important than tempco.
Anyway, 12/57. If you have the Audio Anthology series, it's in Volume 4. The pathology was a bit higher than Ed's -140dB wonders. If the resistor is specified properly, VCR is much more important than tempco.
- Status
- Not open for further replies.