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Input Cap upgrade.

S

Stream

Active Member
Hello.
I have Cambridge Audio Azur 340 amp. I have already replace almost all power supply electroytic caps from stock noname to Panasonic FM\FC, diodes to MUR860, half part of ceramique to epcos mkt. Now it's time to swap opamps and coupling caps...

Stock caps are 10uf polar electrolytics. R = 22k.

So... Input(coupling) caps.

I haven't got much money to make some experiments, so I want You to tell me Your advice...

I can place here Wima MKS2 MKT but only 1uF. It will get about 7hz HPF filter freq, but As i know it's recommended to have this value set to ~1-3Hz.

Also i can buy Black Gate PK 50V 3.3 uF for only 1 Eur\pcs. If it's good deal?

And the third: buy some (2.2-4.7uF) polyproplene cap. No doubt PP has the "best" sound, but it has higher price, and big size and so it will have too long leads. I think it's not good.

Thanks.
 
I would install "flying leads" in all places where you're going to be trying out new caps. It makes swapping them over so much easier. And the amount of different caps to try in each location, and thus combinations of caps is boggling. Tis a road to madness I tells ye.

I'd stick to 10uf for input coupling and try whatever you can get your hands on cheaply. Then you can start on the feedback caps, but then you'll have to revisit the input caps just to make sure.... oh but tis an endless spiral of DOOOM

;-)

Solen do a cheap range of PP caps, which are not offensively large in 10uf size. Likewise bennic. Whack 10uf into ebay and see what you get!
 
Hm.. You, know, I realy not sure it's genuine, but it sell in one (there aren't another, it's only one) diy hifi internet shop. It sells a lot of different caps - visaton, bg, elna,mundorf, janzen and many others... So i was realy surpriced when saw this BG.

The problem is, I want to recap not only my azure. Azure is quet easy to recap, so It wouldnt be a problem to Use any cheap PP, like this:
Intertechnik Audyn Cap MKP-Q4/Q6
It's also surprises whith it's price (like BG):
About 0.8Eur for 0.56 uF. And about 3Eur for 3.3uF. I don't know, maybe it's just mistake in their databasem but I'll try to get them.

But... continue. My friend (also diy-addicted :D ) ask me to upgrade his H&K AVR347 AV Reciewer. It has good bass, but lack detail in mids and HF compared to my Azure. So we want to make recap (Vregs caps, signal coupling caps, opamp local decoupling caps).

It has "Koshin" cap in stock. It seems that it's not some very cheap chineese noname cap, beacuse it has it's own site, where i can find some info about all types of their caps, but I think it worth to change them for Panasonic FC\FM.

BTW, will You surprise, if tell you, that Pany FC 1000uF\25V costs only 0.4EUR in one of russian shops? And I'm sure it's geniune... I used them in my Amp, and many other people bought them there...
Then about copling caps. Harman also need them :) It's has 10uF caps in stock too. But It woluld be hard or even imposibble to fit Polyprop caps there. So the only way is using That "mistyque" BG or wima 1.0uF.

About Ebay. Do You think that 10pcs of small polyester Wima (3.3-4.7uF) worth ~ 20$+15$ for shipping? I'm not...

P.s. You can see that BG and PP here:
http://www.samodelka.ru/goods/1416.htm
http://www.samodelka.ru/cats/189.htm
1EUR ~ 45r
 
My opinion is that the wimas will do better than any lytic cap. Forget all he mumbers paranoia, 3.3uF is fine. They are cheap too.

A bit later I want to try some bypassing with polypropylene, something small llike 33/330pF.
 
you can always put a couple of smaller uF values in parallel to make it up to 10uF, at least for experimentation
 
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