Capacitor Types Explained

[Arkless Electronics]

The mistake is thinking of "ceramic" as a single type. Avoiding them entirely just because some types are unsuitable for some applications is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. By the same logic, electrolytics should be shunned too since they are polarised and blow up if used incorrectly.

No mistake. I'm not writing here for other engineers and a comprehensive discussion of X7R, Z5U etc etc, piezo electric effects, temperature and voltage dependency of capacitance and which specific applications they can be used for is beyond the scope of this.

 

[Barrymagrec]

The mistake is thinking of "ceramic" as a single type. Avoiding them entirely just because some types are unsuitable for some applications is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. By the same logic, electrolytics should be shunned too since they are polarised and blow up if used incorrectly.

Having seen a large electrolytic unfurl itself up the wall behind the TV at an early age I wouldn`t dream of shunning them, far too much fun.

 

[sq225917]

Funny that Yamaha chose PIO for the xo in the ns1000m, and stuck with them right through production right up to the 10000 model in 95, 21 years.

 

[Arkless Electronics]

Funny that Yamaha chose PIO for the xo in the ns1000m, and stuck with them right through production right up to the 10000 model in 95, 21 years.

Still infinitely better than electrolytics of course and leakage not an issue in this application. The Japanese were into vintage etc even before us and my guess would be someone involved in the project specified them simply because some fave speaker of theirs from 1958 used them.

 

[Tony L]

The difference is yours is indeed opinion, and that of a technical lay person, whereas I bring electrical fact to the subject.

You bring the opinion of one electronics repairman. There are many, many highly successful and globally respected audio designers that fundamentally disagree with you. As I said, one opinion. It is for those reading this site to assess its credibility against others. The beauty of a free market is we all have that choice, though as site owner I will always advise people to faithfully restore rather than tweak, alter or botch their valuable classic audio kit.

 

[Arkless Electronics]

You bring the opinion of just one electronics repairman. There are many, many highly successful and globally respected audio designers (i.e. people who design stuff other people actually want to buy) that fundamentally disagree with you. As I said, one opinion. It is for those reading this site to assess its credibility. The beauty of a free market is we all have that choice, though as site owner I will always advise people to faithfully restore rather than tweak, alter or botch valuable classic audio.

Ah there we go... ad hominem.... As an audio designer I agree we can leave it to those reading such exchanges as to which has the greater credibility, the retired IT operative or the electronic engineer.

To faithfully restore or to modernise and improve in performance and practicality whilst keeping the essence of the original is no doubt a perennial debate in many subject areas. Some will want a vintage car to be original down to the crossply tyres, dodgy ancient brake linings and points ignition system whereas others will want to fit disk brakes, radial tyres and electronic ignition but leaving it looking standard unless you examine it in detail. Either is valid and of course down to requirements and belief systems of the owner.

 

[sq225917]

Electronics repairman, thats funny, says the bike salesman...

 

[Robert]

Yes, definitely. Rob did mine, so I’ve no idea what he used, though the combination of reducing the rumble filter and setting the loading for the Ortofon 2M Black I was using absolutely transformed it from something I’d not want to listen to at all to a phono stage I actually preferred with that cart to an EAR834P! I guess Quad designed it rather aggressively so as not to send a load of warp frequencies into ESLs. With the Tannoys the rumble filter just sat on bass dynamics, it just came to life afterwards. IIRC Rob dramatically reduced its effect rather than remove it entirely. He also recapped the whole preamp (Panasonic electrolytics IIRC).

IIRC I used Wima film caps for that, largely because Quad used film caps in that part of the circuit and also space it as at premium on the board, so you need a low voltage cap to keep the size down. Wima also make fine caps at non boutique prices.

Do caps sound different? - they certainly can and it depends entirely on where they sit in the circuit and the topology.
Sometimes they have little to no sonic impact, e.g inter-stage dc *blocking caps in solid state kit (as liberally peppered around in the Quad 34/44), other times they can send a circuit into oscillation, which can most definitely be very audible!
A good example of the latter is replacing electrolytic caps with film in power regulators, particularly around chip regulators where the wrong choice can introduce ringing. It might not blow the circuit, and it might still work but it won't sound very nice.


* I'm excluding old and dried-out caps here. Inter-stage caps will impact sound if they are degraded through age because the values can drift substantially.

 

[coredump]

Electronics repairman, thats funny, says the bike salesman...