Why do capacitors sound different?
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- Опубліковано 9 чер 2024
- When audio signals pass through a capacitor they sound different depending on which kind of capacitor is in use. Why? And check out our newest UA-cam channel / @octaverecordsanddsdst... Octave Records.
- Наука та технологія
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As a retired analog microchip designer with 35 years of experience, I have a good practical knowledge of capacitor characteristics. Caps have three basic electrical characteristics: capacitance, equivalent series resistance, and equivalent series inductance. Depending on the circuit in which the cap is used, one or more of these might be completely negligible. Film caps have much lower series resistance than electrolytics, but most of the series inductance is in the leads, so there is not much difference between the two types. In audio circuits, resistance and inductance are almost always negligible because the frequency of operation is so low. At audio frequencies, series inductance is practically zero. Series resistance along with the capacitance results in a tiny phase shift of the audio signal, but it's not at all clear that such tiny phase shifts are audible.
Rather than providing an explanation, Paul, all you've done is *declare* that film capacitors sound better than electrolytics. To provide an explanation, you would have to deal with the capacitor characteristics I described above, by *showing* how an audio signal is altered in a way noticeable to the human ear.
For example, tube amplifiers sound different from transistor amplifiers because tube characteristics are different from transistor characteristics. Almost all audio amplifiers provide gain by using a feedback circuit to control distortion. Tube amplifiers have inherently much lower gain than most decent transistor amplifiers, and end up having much higher distortion, mostly in the odd harmonics, than transistor amps. It's that distortion that is actually pleasing to the ear, and for poorly known biological reasons, "sounds better" than an undistorted signal. That's the sort of explanation you would need in order to explain why "film capacitors sound better than electrolytic capacitors. To be thorough, you'd have to provide a representative circuit schematic of some amplifier and explain exactly why using one type of capacitor in one location produces an audio signal that "sounds better" than if using another type.
Also keep in mind that electrolytics are not used very much in audio circuits (except perhaps very low frequency bass circuits), but almost exclusively in power supply circuits.
Alan, don't tubes produce even order distortion rather than odd order distortion?
And Alan, dielectric absorption might be the biggest factor. Yes ESR and ESL are important, especially for bypassing and circuits that pulse (switching regulators) but DA is the most likely differentiator. Agreed, lead inductance has no bearing at audio freq. Pease wrote articles about this, calling it a memory effect. Also a changing voltage and/or bias voltage across a cap influences the charge available which changes the capacitance. This might be a minor effect.
Well while you've been gaining book smarts for 35 years, he's been listening to this shit for about as long, so I'm gonna take his word on what sounds better
@@TheChadPad I guess you can't read
@@philipwebb960
They produce both. Clever designers use staging and topologies which tend to cancel even harmonics, so in practice it's more of a myth than reality, that tube circuits produce mostly even harmonics.
But considering the overall frequency distribution of distortion harmonics, it is generally true that tube circuits produce more energy in low-order harmonics and less energy in the very high-order range, compared to class AB transistor circuits, for example.
This video doesn't address the question posed in the title.
you just did not listen
why, it's mostly because of the ESR rating and capacitance, generally speaking, in a well engineered circuit, it would not matter, for example you can replace the caps with "better" ones (for your own definition of better), and it won't make any difference
@@skizzor697 I must have missed it. Can you please tell us the answer, since you now know it ?
Because of their makeup
Well, it's a question not a statement, lol. Maybe if it said 'Why capacitors sound different' then your point would have a leg to stand on.
I'm still really curious about the answer.
I could be wrong, but my take is this. Capacitors are not actually perfect,,, actually they filter imperfectly. (They will "leak" freqs that should be blocked and "lose" freqs they shouldnt.) Different caps result in different styles of leak, just like transistors and tubes have different clipping and compression. ,,,, but i could be trippin.
@@tsmspace Shrooms?
@@dannyverhamme7970 capacitors,,,, are like snowflakes. In a pile of snow they are all the same.
OMG! MICROFarad...one millioneth of a Farad, not 1,000th! (More coffee Paul!)
Old video but if you're still curious it's because different materials charge at different speeds. There is also the issue of linearity where some types of capacitors don't charge and discharge with as smooth a curve as others.
That didn't answer the question. At all.
But it did probably sell a few $1000 PS Audio power cables...
He did though
@@HakeemKaree He explained that they sound different, but why do they sound different?
I wasn't looking for information about capacitors in an audio-specific set up, but I found myself watching the whole video anyway. Nicely done!
I feel like the question posed at the beginning was never fully answered. The writer asked if swapping a cheap cap with the same specs as a fancy dancy $$ cap had any audio differences.
My background is psychology, so I really appreciate these informal, but informative monologues. Thanks to my fellow listeners for their clarifying commentary, I.e. distinguishing the powers of micro and milli.
the shortest answer to the title is ESR and tolerances.
Two years back I visited a web page that went in depth talking about tone caps, there were even audio samples.
You can have two capacitors of different types with the same exact Farad and voltage and the tonal differences are due to differences in tolerance and equivalent series resistance.
there is more to it than that
Sometimes “I don’t know” is the correct answer and making stuff up just confused the hell out of every one
You see sir that's where you're wrong,
Every opportunity that you genuinely don't know the answer is an opportunity to completely twist things up in the most creative way that you were able to devise on the spot, it's a challenge if you will, and you see you already don't know the answer so should somebody come along and try to tell you oh yeah you're so dumb well you already know you don't know the answer so screw them it's not going to hurt you or you ego in anyway, and
the hilariousness should some of this twistedness catch fire and take off it's priceless. Lifes of game, and a scoreboard/count of who's winning the losing isn't necessarily as obvious as a lot of people seem to think. Carry on now with that backbreaking old burden Truth...,
@@dont.ripfuller6587 What?
@@marklowe7431 um... I don't know? 🤷🏻♂️
What was "made up"?
1:06 erm... a capacitor will not pass battery voltage... really? / i don't think that's a great description...
The letter author explicitly asked "if they have the same specs (i.e. capacitance!), what is technically different and how does it translate to audio?" You then proceeded to suggest the poor audio quality is due to using the wrong size capacitor (using a 4000 mfd electrolytic vs. 0.01 mfd film cap). Total nonsense answer.
can you connect your speaker to compare with cheap mundorf 47uf Mcap tin cap(white.color) vs 47uf Mcap Alum vs 47uf Mcap supreme silver oil vs 47uf Mcap Supreme silver/gold/oil EVO. Does it sound different ! Live Video have ? 😍😍. ( can u do a video with that can ? It will be very Fun to try )......."//
Good job, you completely failed to answer the question.
Spot on , Nick , it reminds me an old song from Frank Zappa : " We're only in it for the money" ; )
At a certain point, you have to sell snake oil when you're asking thousands or tens of thousands of dollars for A/V system components.
The answer is,
Dissipation Factor.
www.reliablecapacitors.com/oldRC/www.reliablecapacitors.com/pickcap.html
you don't even listening.......he already answer, paper cap are great passing sound then electrolyte.
@@tukangboboBut EVERYBODY already knows that.
In short: some caps have more electrical resistance and unwanted inductance than others which could emphasize certain frequencies and diminish others and cause phase shifts. Electrolytic caps have relatively high internal resistance because the electricity passes not only thru metal but also thru this paste with water and salts, which doesn't conduct perfectly. The chemical reactions inside can also create tiny tiny gas bubbles which when created and vanish create variations in capacitance and resistance that manifest as noise. Because of their build with rolled up foil, they tend to have more inductance also which makes them better suited for low frequencies like filtering the 50/60 Hz out of line voltage. Now if these things are built with great care, these effects are smaller than with cheaper ones. Still, generally one would put a non-electrolytic cap in parallel to short any radio frequency interference.
It's simple ac LOW FREQ AUDIO electronics Paul, not rocket science. C=ak/d & xc=1/2 pi fc, ESR= ESR=DF*Xc=DF/(2* π*f*C. If you as a "HI-END" source buy quality parts; COTS, ISO 900X and screen them properly then there should NEVER be a CAPACITOR failure in your boxes if the design passes muster. Caps, if made properly have similar finite lifetime as OTHER solid state electronic.
Paul is a BS artist. Really, at Paul and his competitors prices you should be getting milspec, ever hi-rel traceable products. Hi-End audio thrives on fear/ ignorance. Fear you say? Yes the fear that your system won't measure up to your lawyer co-workers at you're pot/alcohol & cigar bar party. Just kidding, Paul. We love you.
one thing to remember when using an Electrolytic cap, it has polarity, if you put one in backward it will explode and smell really really bad :)
K Carney Only a polarized cap. Non-polarized caps don't care what direction they face. So long as it adheres to Feng Shui mythology.
The interference is high frequency AC on top of the DC. Your film cap is parallel to the motor and shorts the AC component produced by the motor. It does not short the DC cause caps don't conduct DC.
powertothebauer in short (pun intended), your unwanted motor interferences are A/C signals and are passed (shorted) through the capacitor in a rather brute force way: parallel-connected to both inputs of the DC motor. BUT for speakers, the connection is in series, like a paper dolls_chain holding just their hands, and so imagine one of the dolls is very little so she simply cannot stand to be shaken too hard with a large-duration pull, but indeed does very well when transmitting little alternating waves through herself. The little waves are high frequency because the speed of electricity must always move at a fixed speed throughout any conductor. That is what those formulas tell us. Why it wasn't put in simpler terms for an undisciplined hobbyist- well it is not your fault for not understanding because the electrical properties of motors are not externally apparent. They're what we consider black boxes of a sort, that nobody knows how they'll react until they're probed by meters or carefully connected. I suppose just that you're not careful because the manufacturer specifies a value and you simply throw it on without paying much attention. No big deal, we experiment more is all, but we also realize that DC voltage is not going to fry up your speakers if the current is next to nothing. Lots of other components that would be fried up by DC are actually fed little amounts of DC in a technique that is called biasing. Think of chip biasing as the old vacuum tubes being warmed up before they could start working, except this DC biasing has to be continually applied because of other characteristics. Of course the chip would fry up with a high bias-current, but resistors and especially capacitors block that from happening, which in the latter is related to how low frequencies behave more like DC while INSIDE any component. Clearly pure DC does not alternate, but AC signals can be biased to the point where the most negative troughs never reach 0V, and look on a scope like pulsed DC. You're probably only familiar with balanced inputs and 0V grounding, not these signals that legitimately 'float' above a 0V ground.
After watching, I still don't know why capacitors sound different.
Thanks again for another informative, educational and simply put explanation in layman’s terms. Your a great teacher.
Your, YOU'RE....pick Juan! 😁
Very informative and timely to me since I'm upgrading some vintage speakers. Replacing all the old electrolytics with polypropylene ones, perhaps Mundorf oil based ones. Great video. Thanks!
It is amazing how much I learn with your videos, as a former Electronic Engineer who abandon the career for computer science, I have the basic knowledge but I love how easy you explain all these complicated topics. Thank you so much.
So, You are a 'rocket surgeon' lol, yet Grade 5 English grammar eludes you?
@@mr.blackhawk142 English is not my native language but I speak 3 other languages how about you?
A Micro Farad is one millionth of a Farad. Sorry I couldn't help myself. Thanks for all the great info. Love the vids!
Sounds like a tiny bicycle in German
A Farad is the unit for electric capacitance, I think this is what he should have told...
Great Info? Well what a Con-Artist he is!
More expensive ergo must sound better....?
If you buy something way too expensive it has to be good, right?
This is a better explanation about different types of capacitors: ua-cam.com/video/WytU5uj78-4/v-deo.html
For comparison, a AA battery holds ~6000 farads. Not that you can compare the two, but just a bit of perspective :)
Absolutely brilliant explanation Paul! Thank you for all your efforts.
This is not a description of a capacitor. You need to learn basic electricity theory.
And what's this about passing through the cap ?
I am really enjoying these videos! Thanks
What else to say, THANK YOU so much for this video, regards Mr. Paul.
I had heard of running different quality caps in series like that to get better quality sound, but didn't know the why's and wherefore's. Thanks for the explanation!
Hare deLune Not different QUALITY caps, but rather different TYPES, e.g. film cap bypass of a larger electrolytic. The film cap make the electrolytic behave in a more linear fashion.
Darin Brunet
O.K., thanks! : )
Parallel not series
mathyoooo2 Yes, parallel, not in series.
Great video! Thank you for teaching us.
Thanks for answering my question Paul! I always look forward to your video at the end of my day.
Excellent video but I don't think you answered his question, wasn't he asking given the same capacitance as well as all the other parameters like ESR how come film capacitors sound better than electrolytic capacitors ?
I had my Fender Deluxe Reverb in for a upgrading. So called low quality caps were replaced by high quality caps. The guy is supposed to be a certified repairman. However, the amp I got back sounded worse than the one I delivered. My experience so far; be prepared for disapointment.
@@retroflection Might have been that you actually liked the distortion of the original sound better, than the "cleaner" sound?
Guitar amps aren't made to perfectly reproduce exactly what is played, but rather add "color/character" to the sound.
In a stereo setup you'd want more clinical sound like that of "better" capacitors. I don't know you might already be aware of these things
Also I am no expert.
@@gastank43 or maybe those high quality capa have slightly different parameters which does change the sound of the amp. The amp is then 'out of spec' with the designers engineering.
This is the best explanation yet, that I've heard on how this works... Thank you for that Sir
i love working on speakers. interesting video. one question how do we calculate how much microfarad would be right for with the speaker. suppose we have 4 Ohm tweeter and 8omh woofer. also what all products are required for a cross over and how do we calculate those products value?
Paul, thank you for teaching all those cool stuffs freely and for not making it a secret (like the paralel capacitor trick). byebye be well and thank you for your generosity have a very good day Paul.
I have a 7 band graphic eq that I'd like to change the lower frequencies. Is it possible to change the capacitors in certain frequencies to get your desired effect? For an example, if I want to change my lowest frequency of 100 hz to 50 hz and the second frequency is 125 I'd like to change to 80 or 85 hz. Also, how do I determine the slope at which the frequencies roll off? Thanks for any help you can offer.
Ever try it out? I want to halve the freq of the low pass filter on my eq and am thinking of just soldering an identical cap to the legs of the film caps already in the filter
Which capcitor will good for audio coupling 1 stage to other stage
10uf or 22uf
Still does not explain why two equal capacitors have different sound (if any). The only argument here is that the more expensive ones must sound better!
Ventsislav Simonov A voice of reason amongst the noise. I built your diamond buffer headphone amp a few years back. Turned out very nice.
in my experience, low value caps compared to high value/quality caps of the same type whilst passing signal, shows a difference in frequency fall off in dB very much sooner in the low value cap. In my view, low value/quality caps are close to a bandpass filter.
It is audiophoolery, basically. If we were talking about RF, where the type of capacitor plays a big difference, yes. But for audio frequencies, not by a long shot. You don't have any capacitor in which the inductance is significant at frequencies up to 20KHz. But the placebo effect and being in denial to the fact that one spent much money for nothing? Well, that is significant.
semahnai I guess capacitors work differently in your part of the world. Must be a gravitational delta coefficient difference. Or simply that your understanding is hokum. You shouldn't try to design anything electronic.
Ok, I need proof on that. Show me tests being done on oscilloscope, live (I don't accept bogus images), showing differences in audio distortion caused by different caps. By the way, I don't have audiophile hearing. I can't hear above 15KHz. Thus, I can't hear supersonic frequencies, like 48KHz or so.
What brand and model # of caps do you recommend, nicheon, or ext. For power supply vs. audio path
Ceramic:
American Technical Ceramics, AVX, Johanson, Kemet, Knowles, MuRata, Samsung, Taiyo Yuden, TDK, Vishay Vitramon
Film:
AVX, Cornell Dubilier, Illinois Capacitor, Kemet, Panasonic, Rubycon
Aluminum Electrolytic:
Cornell Dubilier, EPCOS, Kemet, Nichicon, Panasonic, Rubycon, United Chemi-Con, Vishay Beyschlag Centralab, Würth
Mica/Teflon:
Cornell Dubilier
Tantalum:
AVX, Kemet, Vishay Sprague
Silicon:
MACOM, Skyworks
Supercaps:
Cornell Dubilier, Eaton, Nichicon, Panasonic, VIshay Beyschlag Centralab
Randy Lott
I recommend wima Germany cap's . They sounds like heaven.
Finally! I have been searching for this exact info for a long time, and you nailed it. Explaining it only the way someone with such technical knowledge combined with a down to earth radio personality can do, a rare gift indeed. Thank you Paul and keep it coming.
Personally, I feel the “What is a capacitor?” could have been explained more clearly. At it’s fundamental level, a capacitor is an analogue electronic component capable of storing and releasing an electrical charge. The rate at which it can store and release that charge is determined by its characteristics. Some graphics would also helpful.
I graduated from university in Electronics and Communications Engineering. Power supplies and audio circuits were a big part of my course.
For people who don’t know what a capacitor is, the video isn’t helpful.
MatchstalkMan I don't see "What is a" in the title nor do I see any misleading click bait graphic in the thumbnail that disappeared in the actual video, so sorry if it wasn't what you wanted but you shouldn't have expected anything that wasn't indicated in the table of contents.
MatchstalkMan so do more expensive capacitors sound better? If not what makes certain electronic sound better than others?
Great video, thx a lot. I have 2
questions. I checked some speakers with just a capacitor as crossover for the
tweeter and they all have different capacitor values between 1.5-4.7 µF. Is this
because the manufacturer wants different sound or the tweeters are different or
the amplifier is different ? How do I choose the right capacitor for a tweeter
?
Very nice description thank you. New respect for film caps. Would love to hear thoughts on Ultracaps like Maxwell and Skeleton, have you tried those in power supply?
ultra caps are like electrolytic on steroids. they use exotic materials that are optimized at a nanotechnology level to store as many electrons as close to the other plate as possible.
I wish I could have had this lesson 30 years ago. Great information presented well.
General question for anyone on here who can answer. In my crossover schematic, they list the farad value of the capacitors, but they also list a voltage rating for them. As long as I match the farad value and get a capacitor that has an equal or GREATER voltage rating, will it sound the same (or better) than the original old electrolytic cap? Thanks.
I do agree with Paul on his views of capacitors. From some of the comments I read, he may not have explained it to a deep enough level. He did not talk about dissipation factor of the dielectric. Capacitors are not perfectly efficient devices, electrolytic capacitors will tend to hold a small charge even after being shorted out. Electrolytics have a ripple current rating, series impedance etc. I personally like using film capacitors whenever space allows, because they sound better than electrolytic caps. I have not tried the super expensive audiophile film caps to see if they are substantially better than the run of the mill film caps.
Best explanation of what capacitors do I’ve heard!
A capacitor's function is to store and release energy. It's definition is to offset inductance by 180 electrical degrees.That is why we can power factor correct inductive motors so when done correctly Cos Phi is almost equal to 1.000
So which one would I use if I wanted my crossovers in my Kappa7 s redone?
Great work. Very knowledgeable.
if I'm using one 6.5 inch subwoofer rater at 200 watts RMS. plus one 5 inch woofer midrange rated at 100 watts RMS. and the tweeter already has an electrolytic capacitor of 47U 100V.
which capacitor do I need to limit the subwoofer? and which capacitor would be proper for the woofer-midrange? and should I replace the electrolytic capacitor that came with the tweeter?
BTW. which assortment kit of film caps do you recommend for home audio?
thanks
That was spitting gold, right there, at the end. I must say... thank you, for that idea! ! ! Wow! ! ! 😳
Wow thats was amazing, thanks for your experience Mr. Paul! I hope you are fine in this Corona situation! best whishes
again, I wanna ask will audio grade capacitor sound different (or better) then cheap ones. if yes, it's a good investment?
BEAUTIFULLY explained to such a novice, as myself, in electronics! Now it makes sense. Thanks! I love your channel.
Thinking about trying this in a pioneer sx-450. Do you have any suggestions?
As much as he gives info out in these videos, I bet Paul is learning from our comments as well sometimes. Anyway I appreciate the daily videos from an "old head" in the audio gear biz.
mrlithium, Learning is always, or at least SHOULD be a TWO-way street! I went back to 'school' in 2006, to learn to be an electrician, but I was AGHAST at what they were teaching students. One very popular teacher actually told us that FLOURIDE in our water supply is good for us!?! Needless to say, I got OUT of there ASAP!!!
Can I Change the capacitors of an small amplifire to make it a bit more powerful ??? Please tell me!!!
can someone tell me what capacitance range to use for tweeters, mid-range and sub-woofers plz? is there a chart somewhere to follow? thanks
certified30 it depends on the impedance of the speaker and the desired frequency characteristics.
Google "RC highpass filter" and you can calculate it yourself!
Fc=1÷(2×Pi×R×C)
Say you have a 4 ohm tweeter and you want to only pass frequencies above 1kHz.
1kHz=1÷(2×Pi×4ohms×C)
C=39.81uF
You simply put a 39.81uF capacitor in series with the positive terminal, making sure it's voltage rating is at least 50% higher than the expected maximum signal.
This is oversimplified, but it will certainly work for you!
what uf do you use for low freq (to allow High freq), high freq (to allow low freq)?
so if i bought a 3inch 400v 1000uf cap and put in my compressor, would it become bass heavy. btw i don’t think the big cap would fit in my compressor
I found some $20K/mF caps you should use. They are perfect because they cost more. I guarantee it.
Are the small film capacitors for tone, polarity sensitive, or can they be installed without worrying about polarity. I have some for my guitar amp, and they don't seem to have any polarity markings on them.
no, they are not polarized, so not polarity critical. Can go in either way.
"It's got what amps crave. It's got electrolytes"
How about measuring capacitance vs (varying) bias voltage - this might be a starting point towards characterizing (one of) the non-linearities of the components, and it is non-linearity that you 'hear'.
@ Mark, HYPHENS are used to JOIN two or more words together, NOT as commas, or periods.
Paul another highly engaging video, I can't beleave some people give you a Thumbs Down, these people have no idea, keep the good work up👍
I think the reason why people do this is because Paul is not answering the question as well as making some rather large technical explanation mistakes. I like listening to Paul and agree with most things he says in his videos but some are not very good. Entertaining videos though.
Thanks for sharing.
Maybe you could tell about the why the difference in prizing? you can bye two capacitors with exactly the same data and same electrical measurements (i.e. on an oscilloscope) but the one cost 50 cents and the other 50 dollars.
Fried Mule Different materials, construction method, tolerance, voltage capacity.
Because marketing shows that there will be people stupid enough to buy them.
Not just cheaper parts, but different TYPES of capacitors are made for different functions. Use a capacitor in the wrong application and you can introduce massive amounts of distortion, even among the same QUALITY caps. Cannot simply substitute one for another.
ie: ceramic capacitor microphonic effect
mrlithium69 Exactly, Sir.
I need to recap my tube amp and tube DAC. I know that I need to replace them by the same capacitance value. One answer I can’t find though is about voltage rating. I’d be grateful if someone can weigh in:
I can choose a replacement capacitor of the same voltage or higher. Many of the nice capacitors sometimes have a higher voltage rating. Although from an electrical point of view it is safe to use, is there an effect on the audio quality to replace a cap with higher voltage rating?
Thank you!
Since when did cost or size have ANYTHING to do with how different caps sound?
Hi a few years ago I came across your power plant In a electronic scarp yard and took it home works perfect made my vintage audio setup sound so much better I found it with the remote and one rack mount side is there any way I can buy the other miss rack mount for it if so please let me know thanks again
at last someone telling me about the crossover and bas mid and tweeter. 3:55 into the video. I am fixing my old Magnepan MG II speakers and looking for capacitor info. thank you for all the nice videos you upload . Jan From Sweden.
Hi Paul. Off topic question here, and one I assume you get asked a lot. I remember back in the late 70's a friend of a friend had a system comprised of homemade bookshelf speakers and what I would assume was a class A amp/receiver and turntable. We played a lot of vinyl, (rock). Volume was never a consideration. The sound "filled" the room, and you could hear every individual instrument. To this day I've never heard anything that could compare. I have always aspired to recreating this sound, but nowadays with most sources being digital, I have never really come close, (mostly due to budget constraints). I recently came across the Dayton Audio APA150 for under $160. It would be powering two Polk 200TSi speakers. Media sources would be digital so I am currently using a SMSL SA-50 amp paired with a Signstek HIFI USB to Coaxial S/PDIF Converter Decoder Mini USB DAC PCM with 2704 chipset, (I also use an audio EQ extension on my PC to accentuate the highs, mids, and lows). What is your opinion of the Dayton Audio APA150 vs. say... the Emotiva BassX A-100 , and could your offer an alternative DAC? Am I at least headed in the right direction?
another question ignored by Paul
You are such a nice guy! I wish everyone I meet in my daily life is like you 😂
Wish my manager is like you!! Haha.. God bless ya!
And thanks for the info!!
You explained this much better than my industrial electronics teachers. Thanks!
Summary:
"capacitor is _any_ two conductors that are insulated from one another...dot!" and the various electrical properties associated with the capacitor depend on myriad of physical factors. Like the surface area of the conductors, insulating material, distance between conductors etc. etc. etc... And these cause myriad of effects that an ideal capacitor seen in circuit analysis doesn't have such as polarity, unwanted series resistances, inductances... susceptibility for DC-bias etc. etc. and all of these effects can and probably will distort the signal that's passing trough the capacitor if it's in series with the signal.
That's why we have gazillions of different kinds of capacitor technologies and they all have their places and prices. But all in all it matters only if one can measure (or if you're an audiopho-- audiophile, hear) the difference.
Mtaalas: thanks for writing, very well explained
Hello Paul, what brand of capacitors do you use in ps audio equipment ?
How do you predict where better caps will improve your sound quality? Thanks
What - no praises for the subjectively excellent sound quality of Rubycon Black Gate capacitors?
I had a question if you don't mind me asking I'm putting new caps and an old vintage Sony walkie-talkie and the temperatures are like 85°, could I go up a little bit higher in temperature. The ones I have are like 105 with that be okay. I like watching your videos I learned something
The thing that’ll REALLY make your head itch is the fact that the energy doesn’t actually flow through the wire. 🤔Thanx for explaining crossover caps. Never had to use any in a guitar amp so I wasn’t sure what they were doing in some cabs.
@William, I take the BUS, or hitch-hike, bc I can't afford 'cabs'! BTW, try to stay on SUBJECT here OK! lol
Dear Sir, Hi how are are you? hope you are doing great and well, I have a problem I bought 12" woofers for my stereo and they are playing like 6db higher than the ones I replaced, they produce too much bass in order to play the stereo I have to put the bass control on -4 db to get a decent sound, I wonder if you can recommend me a capacitor to place in to dim the bass out the speakers, and if you sell it, I can purchase it from you? Thank you very much, Luis
Excellent video! I've been reading about capacitors all week! Nice timing. I just took the lid off of a Yamaha B-2 last night. If I can get it to work, I want to do a full restoration. Living in Japan, I got it as junk for $200. It turns on, but no sound.
If anyone has restoration advice for the B-2, hit me up! Thanks!
Unplug and not turn on! Have a tech look at this. There are plenty of posts about refurbing this amp on diyauidio. B-2 amps that have not been maintained by a tech "frequently" kill the vfets. If you are lucky, your problem is different as the B-2 uses vfets which are unavailable. Regardless your amp may have some vefets that are still good and can be sold. Good luck
John Reardon Always best to have a few on hand from which to use parts. I use to own 3 back in the late 70s. Good luck with the project.
Sir I like your "TEACHING"! Thank you so very much !! ZULFIQUAR, from GREAT COUNTRY BANGLADESH !!!
Paul,We've been using Sprague electrolytics in Fender guitar amps for years now.The prices have been going way up.Starting to use JJ caps.Half the price. Illinois Capacitors are the budget ones but look cheap.Orange Drops have been used widely for coupling caps.I've started using the 150s.They sound a little smo6other to my ear.What do old filters sound like?I tell people old caps are like looking through an out of focus camera and new filter caps are like dialing the focus on.Have you ever messed with a Fender tweed Bassman? How about an Ampeg SVT?The SVT has six 6550 power tubes,700 volts on the plates and 300 watts of humping bass tone.O.K.What's a good guitar tone ?Listen to AllmanBrothers Band,Eat A Peach,Mountain Jam.Duane Allman does a guitar solo towards the end, after the drum and bass solo.It'a a one four chord progression,kinda gospel sounding.A 50's sunburst Les Paul through a 50 watt Marshall amp with one or two Marshall 4-12'' speaker cabs.Duane gets everything from sweet and clean to full on tube saturation.The Marshall is a copy of that Fender Bassman 5f6-a circuit.Here's the funny thing about Fender amps.I read an interview with Seth Lover and he said Fender amps are nothing special.They are so logical and straight forward,easy to work on and built with common parts.If I was gonna go on a trip across the cosmos in a space ship,I'd take the old hand wired Fender.You could teach a class on good layout just from looking at it.Other people have said it.Leo's genius was layout and grounding.Sorry,this wasn't supposed to be so long.I fell down the rabbit hole.Happy Listening and Playing.
if you use bass blockers on your speakers do you still need a crossover..?
i need an advice about capacitors. on my cheap DAC there are two electrolytics 47uF 25v on signal path ( elna silmic II ), can i change it it film capacitor? i saw somewhere that i can use 20 times lower values if i use film capacitors, all i have to do is to find ones with higher voltage. So my question is: is 2.2uF 450VDC film capacitor enough to replace electrolytic one 47uF 25V? i would go for Mundorf Evo oil series, because i see Elna don't make film caps. Thanks!
No, you should not replace a 47uF 25V with a 2.2uf 450V. No you cannot use 20 time lower values if you use film capacitors when replacing caps.
The greatest mystery of electronic technology will always be things with the same specs performing wildly different in real world applications.
ive heard that if i replace the caps in my old speaker crossovers it would improve the sound since the caps are 15 years old. is that true ? i have a full set of infinity interludes for my home theatre, the speakers are stil in perfect condition. but would replacing the caps improve the sound ?
Usually electrolytic caps go bad after certain amount of hours of usage. You can look up datasheets of electrolytic caps and you will see their expected lifespan such as 2000 hrs or 10000 hours, etc. (Obviously at max rating usage) keep that in mind and you will see that a replacement of caps after a decade or so might be a good idea. Film caps don´t really need to be replaced usually unless they are of a know bad batch, brand or model. Same counts for resistors and coils in the signal path.
Sir I seen a tech use a ceramic cap.in place of a electrolytic ,and it worked ,he use a blue high voltage ceramic and took out the electrolytic,it seem to work well I would like your opinion.on that,old guy here still learning
Paul McGowan: always interesting. From the title I thought the question had to do with brand and not merely types of capacitors.
Brilliant! Thanks Paul.
Again, you are my fav when I can’t sleep. Thank you so much.
Are any capacitors manufactured using silver or gold? Regardless of the increased cost, would they have different characteristics?
The "Tip" at the end of the viddy has got me rummaging through my box of spares to find a cap to parallel with some of the cheap stuff they bung in musical instrument amplifiers...especially valve designs. Thanks.
No mention of dielectric absorption? Look on the web for articles back in the day by Walt Jung and Richard Marsh. They did some very interesting work on why different caps sound different back in the 1980's.
I appreciate the video and it was, as always, very informative. Maybe I missed the point, but I didn't see where the original question was answered: Given two caps of identical value and specs and type (for example, mylar film or polyester), is there any likely to be any sonic difference (when new) between say, a Sprague cap and some no-name brand ?
any likely to be any sonic difference????
THE REASON IS, ESR OF CAPACITORS - See the explanation given below if needed.
1. Capacitors are meant to block DC and to pass AC.
2. If the frequency of a signal (or current) is Zero Hertz (the unit of frequency) - it is DC.
And if the frequency is One or more Hertz, then it is AC.
3. We use capacitors with suitable values to block or pass the some frequencies - Higher capacitance values can
pass low-freq signals and vice-versa.
4. The electrical audio signals are AC, varies somewhere between 20Hz to 20,000Hz - Here, the lower frequency signals
are supposed to be handled by the Woofers/Sub-Woofers and the higher frequency signals are by Tweeters and the
mid frequencies are by Mid-Range speakers. We must pass only the intended frequency range to the respective
speaker type, otherwise, it may sound strange.
5. The mentioned "different sound quality" is mostly observed on the low frequency ranges - here reveals the actual problem.
6. All capacitors do have ESR (equivalent series resistance - it is an AC resistance, it decreases with increase in frequency)
and this parameter will offer some sort of blocking to the lower frequency signals which pass through it.
7. Since the low frequencies needs much current to be reproduced effectively, the current limiting by ESR will be
a villain (bass may not be as deep as expected, with lack of expected current)
8. Also, in crossover networks, we use capacitors to bypass the unwanted frequencies to ground and to pass only
the wanted frequencies to output, but, with this ESR, those will not be passed/bypassed effectively, and the
speakers which are connected to the output will sound different.
9. Polypropylene capacitors (the small yellow one shown in the video) are at-least 10 times better than electrolytic
caps in terms of ESR and hence those are called "audio-grade". (Any caps with lower ESR can be audio-grade in fact)
Yep! And an aged electrolytic cap could "develop" inside a ESR value of several ohms, which may conduct to silent tweeters in speakers. Bought some Telefunken RB 70 speakers (made more than 50 years ago) with dead-like tweeters and with weird sounding low and middle frequencies. After caps changing , the tweeters come to life and the speakers have a very pleasant sound.
Sir, you explain it in very simple way. No complicated heavy talk.
Thank you.
If i am using a 20khz signal direct into and amp to a tweeter do i still need to use a capacitor?
No
Hey Paul!!!....i noticed that Variac in the bkgrnd....can u do a video about Variacs?....i use a Variac on my Chinese made Yaqin MC-100B fro reviews i read...appears Chinese mfg line build this amp to diff voltage specs....103-105 volts, so using Variac to fine tune voltage to it, really improves the sound , especially with tubes...any comments from u on this would be most appreciated. Thank u sir!
I will answer, more expensive capacitors usually have a lower series resistance(ESR), large capacitance values(in thousands of uF) are usually electrolytic, these however have poor leakage, so better designs use low leakage types such as polypropylene-however they are physically large and expensive. There are also other factors that determine capacitor quality aligned to the application it is used in too, but in a nutshell ESR is arguably the most important in general in audio.
Paul is right about putting a film capacitor in parallel with an electrolytic to lower ESR, however that does not prevent leakage, so a high end design should try to avoid electrolytics. Although if the design is using a linear power supply you really cannot avoid using them on the smoothing section; replacing them with film would be very expensive and you would end up with a box full of capacitors to make up the 100,000uF or whatever you wanted to smooth the DC with.
Also note that the better capacitor manufacturers have better noise immunity by better plate design, using higher quality electrolites, and also lower ESR lowers thermal noise.
Now why do they sound better?..well thats hard to answer as capacitors are used in many different apps in an electrical circuit; dc blocking, smoothing, filters and so on. So refer to my first paragraph to cover all apps.
Capacitors will pass alternating current above a particular frequency, and block direct current. A capacitor essentially stores a static charge that the alternating current signal alternately charges and discharges. This is how is passes on alternating current - because the stored charge on one side of the capacitor creates an exact opposite charge on the other side of the capacitor. The amount of charge (in volts) that can be stored dictates the amount of alternating current that can flow.
Capacitors and inductors in combination form what is called a resonant circuit. Resonant circuits form the basis for all tone controls and all analog signal filters of any sort.
The different types of capacitors - made from different physical materials - have different properties. Among those properties is also a degree of inductance. And the different types of capacitor have different amounts of inductance. Interestingly, inductors also have a degree of capacitance. The trick is to combine inductors and capacitors in such a way that you get the right amount of capacitance and the right amount of inductance in resonant circuit for what you need.
An inductor is similar to a resistor, but is frequency dependent. A resistor inhibits the flow of direct current, and an inductor inhibits the flow of alternating current above a given frequency.
Thus, a capacitor filters out low frequencies, and an inductor filters out frequencies above a particular point, and what you get is a band of frequencies that the resonant circuit will pass.
Some inductors are just resistors working with an AC signal, and other inductors are coils of wire. Transformers have an inductance and a capacitance rating.
Thank you, Paul!
I listened to 10 minutes of this just to not get any answer at the end. In case you were wondering where did those "dislikes" came from, they were from people like me expecting something about non-linear voltage-load ratio, dc leaking and other measurable effects. Not just ""This is 1 dollar a piece, so it sounds better"
I'm sure there are people who have endless discussions about this, but I'm not one of them.
Hello, I am planning to replace the electrolytic capacitors in my Grundig R45 receiver and I want to do it right, but before I start replacing them, I decided to refresh my knowledge a bit and expand the information about capacitors used in audio equipment, what they are suitable for, but the amount of information can get confusing. , and I don't want to do it badly and damage the equipment because it defeats the purpose and after watching several of your videos about capacitors used in audio equipment, I decided to ask for advice on what capacitors to use in the mentioned equipment in the power supply systems and in more critical points, i.e. the audio track because I know that the differences are huge, and when making a choice, I want the costs to be optimal in relation to the quality, and the final effect, where I can possibly save money and where it is not worth it. Thank you in advance and best regards for any answer.