Why capacitors sound different.

[shane]

Peter Comeau recently posted a white paper on the causes of differences in the sound of different capacitors on the WD forum. I thought it might be of interest to forum members here, so here it is. The links to Soniqs at the bottom should be going live in July sometime.

http://wduk.worldomain.net/pdf/ClarityCap_Technical_Report.pdf

[RobHolt]

Peter Comeau is a gem and not prone spout bull so that article will be well worth reading.

FWIW I think much of the effect when heard is down to ESR.
People often comment on the increased clarity when replacing the electrolytic cap on their tweeter with a large poly. A lower ESR cap will pass more signal to the tweeter and it's perfectly natural to hear this as added extra clarity. This is particularly true when replacing the caps in older speakers becasue as the electrolyte dries out, the ESR increases.

[lurcher]

Remember though that the "we" refereed to in the paper are the makers of Clarity Cap (ICW) not WD

http://www.icwltd.co.uk/claritycap/mr.html