Power supply filter caps?

[Chadwick]

You know

It would be interesting if the size and cost of high quality orange drops became resonable to use for filtering as well as blocking.

I love trying different filter caps out. Each one has its own flavor. I just love the ones from Antique Electronic Tube Supply [a couple blocks away] http://www.tubesandmore.com/scripts/...tem=C-ET16-800 I couldn't find them just now but the red versions of those are even cooler.

Very bouncy, jumpy, responsive.

I once got the idea to sue oil filter caps and they sucked... slow, smooth to the point of dead. Still unique but I prefer the common ones better.

Actually that might be interesting to those looking to sample something other than the usual can caps. Non polorized air conditioning oil filled caps. I have some if you want them. lol.

[R.G.]

I love trying different filter caps out. Each one has its own flavor. I just love the ones from Antique Electronic Tube Supply [a couple blocks away] http://www.tubesandmore.com/scripts/...tem=C-ET16-800 I couldn't find them just now but the red versions of those are even cooler.

Very bouncy, jumpy, responsive.

I once got the idea to sue oil filter caps and they sucked... slow, smooth to the point of dead. Still unique but I prefer the common ones better.

Actually that might be interesting to those looking to sample something other than the usual can caps. Non polorized air conditioning oil filled caps. I have some if you want them. lol.

I'm curious - I've measured the actual characteristics of electros and film-in-oil caps several times and the film-in-oil caps always come out as "better" caps. That is, there is lower leakage, lower ESR and ESL. They're more pure capacitance, at least the samples I measured. That doesn't square with making an amp sound "slow, smooth to the point of dead".

Do you have any measurements that support this, or is it based on a few listening tests?

I can't think of any way that a worse power filter cap can make an amp sound livelier except if the amp was getting poorer filtering and this was letting it feed back through the decouplers and sound livelier by being nearer oscillation, more poorly damped.

Did you for instance try putting external resistors in series with your oil caps to see if you could make them sound more like electros?

Just curious.

[Chadwick]

Oil caps

Ya, it was one of my 'no comprimise' amps and like you I looked at the best of the best on paper but it didn't sound good to me.

Have you used them in an amp and played them? I used 5 of them, two big ones for the center tap and screen grids, three little ones for the preamps. All ojs for the blockers and oil cans for the filtering.

Its not absolutely horrible, I used the amp for some time and recorded but when I built a one with cheaper caps I liked it better. It sounded rounder. I should also point out that the comparisons were different amps though with so many of the same mods and tweaks on the same scheme I still feel confident in my judgment of the caps.

When talking about 'better' components I think high figh guys and mic pre guys have an easier time agreeing. When were talking about harmonics rich distortion from tube amps I kind of have to throw out multimeter when I'm listening and be honest about what I'm getting. My no comprimise amp taught this to me. So many of the things we love about guitar tubes amps were flaws that engineers tried their hardest to get rid of and now we celebrate them and recreate them. Like carbon resistors, with air pockets often, and value drift over time causing cool results. And cross over distortion from the phase interter. The often inconsistent quality of the copper windings in pickups and transformers..

There are so many 'better' components that I would agree to use all day long, but some just do something or sound more familiar.

So its all perception and you might love the way they sound but I really prefer those paper wax things to the oil ones no matter their better electronic charicteristics. I have no measurements to back that up.

I think they are worth the experiment though and shouldn't be ruled out of relm of possible happiness for some one, just not me.

[R.G.]

...

So its all perception and you might love the way they sound but I really prefer those paper wax things to the oil ones no matter their better electronic charicteristics. I have no measurements to back that up.

I think they are worth the experiment though and shouldn't be ruled out of relm of possible happiness for some one, just not me.

OK. I respect "I like the tone of X better, for no reason than it sounds better to me."

That is in fact the only good reason. 8-)

[Chadwick]

the preamp filter caps



Never made a proper head box so they are pretty beat up and crooked.