JKD said:
This one's for pete or anyone...wht type of cap are these and what are the audio properties compared with the 'orange drop', xicon or sliver mica type...
..I noticed later revisions of modules switched to these from the xicons...e.g. Recto compared with Rectified etc.
Silver mica are tiny, like ceramics. By tiny I mean amount of capacitance. Silver micas are smoother, ceramics are a little grittier. I'm starting to dig ceramics in our modules just because it makes them a little toothier sounding, but it's subtle.
The caps we are talking here about are poly or film caps, and they tend to range basically from .001uf to .1 or so, then they get too big. Most caps around .1uf and larger are electrolytic, the ones that look like cans and have the wires either coming out one end or both.
(brief aside, I was at a local electronics store and they had a sale on huge capacitors... 10000uf or so and a few hundred volts. They were bigger than a coke can!)
Here's where I'm going to probably anger some capacitor snobs... I built several 18 watt amps from kits and from scratch. I used mallory, Sozo, and orange drops. My favorite were the orange drops, because they had a nicer top end and more clarity. Sozos were darker, and mallorys were in between. Here's a webpage with more info on the sozos... www.sozoamplification.com - some people really like them, again, I didn't see any big deal. They were nice looking though.
Regarding those xicons, I think they are ok, but I like the tone with Orange Drops better. I have never used the 'box' style, but I bet they are probably much cheaper and from the form factor, probably meant to be used in high production/equipment to automatically stuff boards, since they are perfectly squared off. I could see a machine being able to stuff a board with something like that than a chiclet shaped xicon or especially an orange drop because of the kinda weird shape.
Pete
