Caiman passive output mod revealed

[MartinT]

I'm waiting for most of mine to arrive and will then conduct a little 'coupling cap bake-off'. The Nichicon MUSE caps are burning in at home right now, will have a proper listen tonight via CD rather than Sky HD.

Leaving the lid off and using the socket means that caps can be swapped around very quickly.

[NRG]

Could someone please explain what difference putting a 100nF cap across the main cap used in the passive output mod will make to the sound? Also, what type of cap should be used for this? Electrolytic, polyester, polystyrene, silver mica etc etc?

Also, my power amps have a 50K input impedance, so what are the maximum and minimum capacitance ratings suitable for the main cap?

Thanks.

Small bypass caps are usually good quality metal film plastic ones, avoid ceramic in the signal path IMHO. The idea is normally used on 'lytics to improve HF performance where nearly always 'lytics have poor performance. However, this tends not to apply IME to good quality caps like BlackGates who's HF performance is very good if not better than some plastic caps, so unless you are using cheapo 'lytics just stick to a single good quality cap.

With your 50K input a 22uF in the signal path will form a high pass filter with the knee (-3db) at 0.14 Hz! That means all signals above 0.14Hz are said to pass unattenuated....47uF halves that to 0.07Hz...essentially everything will get through!

If we aim for around 1Hz then your cap can shrink easily to 4.7uF or 2.2uF meaning it may be possible to avoid a 'lytic completely and go for a quality film n foil cap like the Mudorf's etc.

[HighFidelityGuy]

Small bypass caps are usually good quality metal film plastic ones, avoid ceramic in the signal path IMHO. The idea is normally used on 'lytics to improve HF performance where nearly always 'lytics have poor performance. However, this tends not to apply IME to good quality caps like BlackGates who's HF performance is very good if not better than some plastic caps, so unless you are using cheapo 'lytics just stick to a single good quality cap.

With your 50K input a 22uF in the signal path will form a high pass filter with the knee (-3db) at 0.14 Hz! That means all signals above 0.14Hz are said to pass unattenuated....47uF halves that to 0.07Hz...essentially everything will get through!

If we aim for around 1Hz then your cap can shrink easily to 4.7uF or 2.2uF meaning it may be possible to avoid a 'lytic completely and go for a quality film n foil cap like the Mudorf's etc.

Awesome, thanks for taking the time to explain all that. It all makes sense now.

[OLED]

It doen't look like Hifi Collective have the Black Gate 47uf FK's in stock. Anywhere else they are available?

I had the same response from HiFi collective too, I put an order into HiFi connections though and it seems they have them so with a bit of luck you should be able to get some too.

Cheers Andy

[Covenant]

I had the same response from HiFi collective too, I put an order into HiFi connections though and it seems they have them so with a bit of luck you should be able to get some too.

Cheers Andy

Could you give a link to them please Andy?

[leo]

Try this http://www.partsconnexion.com/capaci...ackgate_f.html

[Covenant]

Thanks Leo but they have a minimum order value.

[Tripmaster]

Try this http://www.partsconnexion.com/capaci...ackgate_f.html

Two minds but a single thought

http://theartofsound.net/forum/showp...&postcount=171

[leo]

I've tried more caps and still yet to find anything to better the FK's The idea is try and find something as good and in current production . Still not tried the non polar Rubycons or Nichicons.

Its funny because I've never been a huge fan of BG's, they seem to work well in this application though

[leo]

Two minds but a single thought

http://theartofsound.net/forum/showp...&postcount=171