Let's Talk Caps

speakerman1

speakerman1

Honorary Forum "Larrt" (ornery too)
#6
Joined
Jun 12, 2010
Messages
12,037
Location
OZONE ALLEY MARS (Visitor)
Tagline
Wasted Days and Wasted Nights
#6
Does the date make a difference. Then like my Carys have PIO. I like the sound of Silver with tubes so that is why I went with SIO. The Parasound has the Nichons with the gold stripe. I learned this a long time ago. When you are designing xovers the caps make a very big difference. I know about the cost factor. When I'm designing a xover. I never thought about cost unless it was just stupid.

Larry
 
gamve

gamve

Journeyman
#7
Joined
Jun 13, 2010
Messages
446
Location
Tasmania, Australia
#7
That article looks like an old sales pitch add to me. Black gates in my experience can be stunning used in certain positions in power supplies but in audio circuits they tend to be clean cold and can be bland/hard sounding. I have some used to good effect in the power supplies of my modified B&O ice amps and used here they are exceptional but only if the units are left powered on constantly. They take at least a day or so to get back to normal after they have been powered down for a while. If you need the absolute best audio caps for Xovers or as output caps etc, you need to look at duelands. These are expensive to say the least but once you experience what they do...they are cheap :)
 
gamve

gamve

Journeyman
#9
Joined
Jun 13, 2010
Messages
446
Location
Tasmania, Australia
#9
In power supplies they can be fantastic. In audio circuits NO. In electro's I would be trying Silmac's first before shelling out huge bucks for BG's. Black Gates are also a PIA as they take 2-300 hours before they sound their best. Just a caution, BG,s need to run very gently for the first couple of hours while they activate. Believe me that I have heard them actually activate and I was gob smacked when I heard it. My amps were brand new and I was very dissapointed when I first fired them up. After a couple of hours the caps activated and the amps went from terrible to fantastic in less than one second. I would never have believed it if I had not heard what happened. A mate was around at the time and the second the caps dropped in we just looked at each other with stupid grins on our faces!! Black Gates do have one other outstanding feature, they do not wear out like typical electros, they are supposed to last forever!!
 
Last edited:
laatsch55

laatsch55

Administrator,
Staff member
#10
Joined
Jan 14, 2011
Messages
74,948
Location
Gillette, Wyo.
Tagline
Halfbiass...Electron Herder and Backass Woof
#10
Man, so many opinions on the darn things, and with them being out of production I imagine it's difficult to get a factory rep on the phone.
 
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