In this video I take on Big Cap. A special feature from the Bureau of Affairs & Research by Flux Condenser (BARF). (Note: Choose the highest-resolution in your viewer to help see the small print in the spreadsheets.) We’ll sort through the almost endless series of audio capacitors offered by Nichicon, and compare them to their general purpose counterparts to determine if they perform better and are worth the price. You’ll learn about a capacitor’s tangent of loss and why that’s a good specification to consider as it is a factor of a capacitor’s leakage, ESR and impedance. Finally, we discuss whether differences in sound quality can be heard between capacitors with different specs and/or construction materials.
#capacitor #electronicsrepair #stereo #stereorepair
Check out my other video about the first stereo cassette deck ever made. Before this, cassettes were mono and intended only for dictation. Watch the video and take a trip back in time, baby! https://youtu.be/xFlG4m0uqUo
Those days are over! Loooooong over!
Where do you buy the kits at? Amazon and eBay have fakes so I don’t trust them.
Fyi this is a general announcement, not aimed at anyone. No one is being called out, no one is in trouble. Thus us just info I found and am sharing for free.
One aspect rately spoken about but is important is low leakage. This is why film caps usually sound good. Thus is why also some “upgrades” fail because most audio lineups atent low leakage like nichicon kt or kl series which are best for replacing older low leakage caps in older audio equipment.
This is where diagrams and data sheets are helpful, and why an elna silmic or nichicon fg may not be a good choice compared to kt ir kl in some spots.
Also audio caps in power section is not a good idea as the slew rate is usually slower to handle the lower frequencies of audio. Power sections need higher frequency faster slee rate caps to clean power and noise up. Power and signal only meet at the audio chips and are seperate up to the point if meeting up to the audio circuit where they finally mix.
So slapping audio caps on power (before it mixes with signal on the audio circuit/chip) or putting one on a low keakage sude does no good and adds rf (radio frequencies above audio) interfere (or oscillation) which creates a brighter, more colorful but smeary and fatiguing sound (in the khz band above audio which creates intermodulation distortion). In the megahertz band you will get headaches and “feel like your ears are bleeding”. Op amp rolling (to higher spec parts) can cause this if slee rate or unity gain is too high from the circuit.
You also need a high quality oscilloscope to measure oscillation or rf in your audio equipment directly. How can you tell the difference between a warm colorful DAC vs rf/oscillation just by ear?
Upgrading audio equipment is engineering and an art. Without both there us no improvement. So if someone throws random capacitors at the board without care, that is not engineering or art, thats just trial and error/random guessing.
If it has a bunch of new wires sticking out everywhere like an octopus compared to stock (where it didnt). Congrats! Timing suffered, inductance grew, and more surface to conduct rf/emi like little antennas. That is not engineering or art either.
Throwing ferrite beads on audio cables helps in the beginning but ruins them by magnetizing the wire which hurts dynamics and means you now have to get new cables. Dont do that if you cant afford new cables. Ferrite beads are best on (some) power supplies excelp high frequency power supplies (because they kill power). Keep them off your data (modern usb, ethernet and audio) and only on lower frequency power cables like extension cords or from outlet to before power bricks.
There are no magic pills, all things have pros and cons and those need to be balanced. Read the datasheet.
I hope this helps people getting into repair.
Excellent, just substitute Hi Fi for hype, hype hype.