audiophile capacitor replacement

100uF is quite a big value for coupling unless the stage is driving a low impedance load. You cannot reduce the value otherwise the low frequency response will suffer. An alternative is to use 100uF tantalum bypassed by a few uF polypropylene, that should reduce the nonlinearity produced by the tantalum.

Unless you mean "decoupling" caps, in that case normal electrolytic will do.

Fred

Spend as much money as will please you. It won't change the sound at all.

John

Perfect sound is great if you have perfect ears.. I've heard that as one gets older, there is more hearing loss at the high end.... If one has damaged hearing then what's the point of perfect audio? After a hearing test some years ago...I was told I have some damage in the 3khz area. New audiophile project: Worlds largest hearing aid with gigantic capacitors :) If the genetic engineers turn into audiophiles, people will probably end up with 6 giant ears :) D from BC

If there is any measurable effects due to capacitors, the voltage coefficient is the place to start looking. Larger value caps will not make a difference, other than to push the lower frequency response deeper. In reality, there are circuit designs to get around most capacitor coupling, though this generally involves a servo circuit to remove DC. [Servo circuits can cause low frequency distortion.]

Self (Richard, I think) did a paper on the distortion effects of passive components. It is a useful paper to read.

No joke, this came from a serious study. More intelligent people are less concernced with the fidelity of the music they listen to.

Douglas Self.

He also wrote a very good book - Audio Power Amplifier Design Handbook. And he thinks audiophiles are astonishingly stupid (there is an entire chapter on this subject).

Cheers Terry

It's just hilarious at the amount of audiophile bashing going on here.

Maybe the OP is still trying to get that live sound from a Black Sabbath live CD and the distortion just doesn't quite sound right.. :) D from BC

Audiophiles shouldn't post to sed. I don't recall one ever asking an intelligent question. They have their own groups where they can argue over their various superstitions.

John

But you must admit, John, it gives us some good (high profit) product ideas ;)

Cheers

PeteS

The Low Oxygen Monster Cable guy is probably in the sun right now sipping on sambuca and getting a back massage from some DD bikini babe.. :) D from BC

Then why not use a DSP to tailor the frequency response of your system to your hearing? Behringer DCX2496 - $250

--
Dirk

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Low oxygen copper is supposed to be extremely flexible. That's about it. Better sound? Hardly.

Monster just had a layoff. I think they are off-shoring more product.

I don't bash Monster too much since their claims were never as outlandish as the rest of the wire bandits. Also, the basic Monster cables (i.e. bottom of the line) are a notch above the cheap-o stuff. The Monster phono plugs are much tighter than the schlock stuff. The Monster strain reliefs are better too.

The worse ripoff had to be that Tice power line tweaker. I think it was just a digital clock. However, it made the electrons sound better. ;-)

Why would a few uF polyprop in parallel reduce the tantalum distortion?

Like electrolytic capacitors, tantalum capacitors exhibit a large increase in permitivity below 10Hz. This 'Dielectic Soakage' due to surface charge accumulation can double the charge storage at DC compared to 50Hz.

It is quite difficult to get capacitors to treat signals nicely at low-frequencies. Adding a cap in parallel would be nice but I dont think its gonna make any difference. I would be pleased if you can prove me wrong!

Thanks, Andrew

All electrical-grade copper is low-oxygen copper. And it all comes from the same mills. 12/2 Romex is every bit as good as the most expensive Monster speaker cable.

John

That is the *key* to audiophile contentment.

Shhhh! Howinthehell can we sell him a flux capacitor if he knows that? Hey - I found a "Cardas Golden Ratio Cap 1.0 uF" for only $56.75 here:

(It's a bestseller)

I wonder what a 100 uF costs??

Ed

If you have to ask . . . . . . .

I don't know, but you could probably get some Al can caps gold-anodized, and bump it up about 10X. ;-)

Cheers! Rich

Well, (1), howcome some people sell "OFHC" wire as if it's something special? (like, #30 wire-wrap wire)

and (2), mightn't the difference between solid and stranded show some skin effect in the higher ranges?

Thanks, Rich

Because they figure that some other people will be dumb enough to be impressed?

Do you think these boutique 5-nines, OFHC cable people really refine their own copper?

Some, but not enough to hear.

John