Want tighter bass, feedback and decoulpling?

[PigletsDad]

It is true as far as I know for all electrolytics , to a greater or less extent.

They depend on a reaction between a metal foil and wet electrolyte. The reaction forms an oxide layer on the foil, so one side of the capacitor is fairly conventional Al + Al2O3 or Ta + Ta2O5. The other electrode is a horrible slurry - the effective electrical position of the electrode depends on wet chemical effects like ion migration, surface charge layers and so on. Higher voltage caps have a thicker oxide layer, so the effects of the wet chemistry are diluted, but still there.

Tants give high capacitance in a given size because Ta2O5 has a high dieletric constant (about 25 from memory), while Al2O3 is only 5 to 6.

Mil-spec just means that they are made for a wider temperature range, and have to pass some ruggedness tests. With some products it just means that the manufacturer does extra tests, and fills in lots of forms - the actual product is often identical to the civil version.

 

[teddy_pardo]

Mil-spec just means that they are made for a wider temperature range, and have to pass some ruggedness tests. With some products it just means that the manufacturer does extra tests, and fills in lots of forms - the actual product is often identical to the civil version.

There might be different types of mil-spec tants, I'm refering to those axial capacitors, which are much larger in size than the normal tants (and cost accordingly...). Something like this. My experiance is that they sound different, and much better. I think that I read somewhere that they are built differently (wet vs dry)

 

[Mistrale]

Martin, thanks, yes, meant coupling, aka DC blocking iiuc. Am now suitably emboldened to try 'em !

PD, thanks for valuable explanations.