Which Orange Drop?

[tbryanh]

I don't know which Orange Drops to use.

Antique Electronics http://www.tubesandmore.com lists Orange Drop caps as follows

Type 715P Orange Drop Capacitors
Polypropylene film. +/-5% tolerance. Rated for 85° C Operation 600v

Type 716P Orange Drop Capacitors 400V or 600v
High performance version of the popular 715P series.
They are made from polypropylene film and foil with pure copper leads, making them ideal for high pulse current applications.
Rated for 85 degrees celsius operation. 10% tolerance.

Aiken Amps in "Where To Connect the Outside Foil on Capacitors" http://aikenamps.com/OutsideFoil.htm states that the Orange Drop 716P high-voltage units do not have an outside foil to shield the capacitor.

The article doesn't say if the Orange Drop 715P or the 400v 716P are shielded or not.

Is it important for a capacitor to shield?
Is one type of Orange Drop prefered over the other?

[soundmasterg]

I've used OD 715P's, 716P's, 225P's, and a couple other types too. The 715's and 716's are polypropylene, and the 225P's are polyester, and the dialectric (polyester vs polypropylene vs polystyrene vs electrolytic vs tantalum) and the type of construction (film/foil vs metallized) are mostly what makes the difference. Physical size also makes a difference. With caps the differences are subtle.....its not like you'll notice as big of a difference as if you change tubes or speakers or transformers. I'll use the 715P's for function places in the circuit, but I prefer to use 716P's for audio circuit paths, IF I want a polypropylene Orange Drop sound. Usually I prefer polyester caps and will use the 225P, or Mallory 150's, or Sozo's, or AES polyesters, etc.

Orange Drops aren't shielded and it doesn't really matter. All of them will work. Its best to get some of each type and try for yourself and see what sound difference there is. I prefer to mix and match caps types and brands sometimes.

[Manic]

I was also wondering which currant production caps have an out foil. Specifically ones that have an outside foil and dont indicate it on the cap. Back in the day I think it was more common to mark which end of the cap is the outer.

From the testing I have done, between 715Ps, 716Ps and BBQ 150 knock-offs (with are probably junk, the majority of the parts in the BBQ kit i got was junk, so I assume the caps could be also), I found that I agree with soundmasterg. I prefer the tone of the 716p's. To Me they had a lil more "air" to their tone and the highs a somewhat smoother than the 715's.

As for the BBQ 150's, which are the only brand of 150 style cap I have tried, I thought they were harsh as hell compared to the 715's or the 716's

[Enzo]

Outside foil doesn't matter in our applications. It matters in Rf situations. For example a bypass cap on a screen grid, the outside foil grounded shields the cap, if wired to the grid, it makes the wiring for that grid ever so slightly larger.

In a typical coupling cap in an amp, neither end is ground, the cap is more or less a wire to audio freqs. so wondering which end should be at the plate or grid is fruitless.

Line them all up facing the same way so your build looks more professional.

[Steve A.]

Outside foil doesn't matter in our applications. It matters in Rf situations. For example a bypass cap on a screen grid, the outside foil grounded shields the cap, if wired to the grid, it makes the wiring for that grid ever so slightly larger.

In a typical coupling cap in an amp, neither end is ground, the cap is more or less a wire to audio freqs. so wondering which end should be at the plate or grid is fruitless.

Line them all up facing the same way so your build looks more professional.

Enzo:

Well, in high gain guitar amp circuits, reversing the connections on an Orange Drop cap can increase or decrease the amount of parasitics between two components. Not necessarily a good or bad thing...

A visual inspection of the OD cap can often indicate which lead is connected to the outer foil and which is connected to the inner. I'd double-check this by connecting the tip of a 1/4" phone plug to first one and then the other terminal, to see which one would hum more. (EDIT I would be holding the cap in my hand and would ground the other terminal.)

Happy New Year and thanks again for all of the help you've given everyone here!

Steve Ahola

[Enzo]

Well, OK, but any shielding covers maybe an inch of radiating surface.

I'd be more worried about the wires connecting them.

[hasserl]

I was also wondering which currant production caps have an out foil. Specifically ones that have an outside foil and dont indicate it on the cap. Back in the day I think it was more common to mark which end of the cap is the outer.

From the testing I have done, between 715Ps, 716Ps and BBQ 150 knock-offs (with are probably junk, the majority of the parts in the BBQ kit i got was junk, so I assume the caps could be also), I found that I agree with soundmasterg. I prefer the tone of the 716p's. To Me they had a lil more "air" to their tone and the highs a somewhat smoother than the 715's.

As for the BBQ 150's, which are the only brand of 150 style cap I have tried, I thought they were harsh as hell compared to the 715's or the 716's

There is nothing wrong with the Weber polyester tubular caps, they are perfectly fine to use and sound just fine. If there was something harsh sounding about your amp it was something else.

In fact I'll bet you can't tell the difference between them and any other tubular polyester cap from any manufacturer in a blind test.

[Manic]

"There is nothing wrong with the Weber polyester tubular caps, they are perfectly fine to use and sound just fine. If there was something harsh sounding about your amp it was something else.

In fact I'll bet you can't tell the difference between them and any other tubular polyester cap from any manufacturer in a blind test."



Not to be difficult but Im goin to have to dissagree..IMHO the tube caps I got from BBQ sound harsh compaired to Oj's. I would put money on it that I could tell the difference, and not a betting man.

Since I have been trying alot of coupling caps throughout my amp, I leave the cap legs in the board and strap on new caps for a quick test setup.
It only takes Me 5 minutes to re cap all the coupling caps (5) in My amp. This is in an effort to not lose, in My head, what the previous caps sounded like during testing.
I believe its generaly excepted that OJ's and Mallory type caps sound different? To My ears the difference is that the Mallory's are harsher.

FWIW, C Smith

[hasserl]

Well, I don't want to be difficult either, but I don't know what you mean by OJ's in the first place, and second I was talking about Weber caps vs other tubular polyester caps, not Mallory's vs OJ's.

[Manic]

Oops, I meant Orange Drops. I'm a tad dyslexic. Sorry bro I misread Your post.