The old Black Gate issue

[Audioillness]

Hello all,

Having purchased and installed  3x 47uf Black gate fk caps on my Charlize2
recently, i was really pleased with the improvement. Sadly tho, i couldn't
find anyone that still offered stock of the 2200uf 35v fk.

I know that this subject has been discussed before, but at the risk of boring
everyone, could anyone please share current thoughts you may have as
to what would be the best alternative make/model cap?

Many thanks for any comments/advice
Dave

[yeo]

hi dave

i like rubycon zl for power supplies. go for 16v or 25v version as charlize won't see higher than 15vdc.

yeo

[Jochen]

Hi Dave,

when size plays no role  you could use foil capacitors for e.g. motor start caps or even expensive audio parts.

OK if this is a bit too much  you should seriously take notice of the T network caps or the cheaper Slit foil > all engineered by DNM (Reson). Serious impact to sound quality ... as good as the Black Gates!

[Audioillness]

Thanks for your comments guys.

Jochen, are you implying that the cap value need not be so large? and that
something of larger dimension but lower capacitance could be employed?
If so, what values could be utilised?

Thanks also for your suggestion re: T network caps, i'll look into all suggestions
and advice offered by you guys.


Thanks again,

Dave

[Jochen]

Hi Dave,

for the DNM caps pls look here
http://www.dnm.co.uk/acatalog/CapacitorShop.html

They've got the Slit foil with 1100uF 63V, so use two of them. But also the T-Network 10,000uF is great for the main "energy storeage" of Charilze.  These caps are much better than standard types even as "better ones" with standard design approaches.

---
 

If you use battery supply so without any 50/60Hz ripple problem I suppose that even less capacitance is fine and other choices are availbale. So you could use smaller black gates, real foil capacitors (MKPs) to create 200 - 500uF. The sound of caps alter the sound very much of course and its worse trying around and get expirience.

---

Just check how much or less capacitance Charlize really needs... use small elcos of different value and check the dynamics. But just check the dynamics only as high frequency + resolution is altered also by diffenerent capacitor characters itself.
Test it first without cap at all and then put in more capacitance to get a feeling for it. If proper prepared it takes two-three hours to get a rough estimation.
Of course measurements  are fine too  but aren't possible without owning a costy oscilloscope.

If you end up keeping it simple and just use the caps "by hand" this test is still worth it. Often smaller cap values create a more faster "shoe tapping" - swinging sound with more micro dynmaics in place. While lots of capacitance kills high frequency extension and sounds heavy stomping in stead of swinging...   but I don't count in the DNM caps here this implies more for the normal constructions.


Its just my expirience and its probably not perfect science.


Jochen

[ole]

It's an age old discussion. Over time I experimented a lot, too, and I can't subscribe to the statement that large capacitance negatively affects the sound. The problem is just that most people use cheap large capacitance in the form of low quality electrolytics, as big numbers as possible, and those do sound bad.
Lower capacitance might sound better because you can get better caps for your money at lower values.

If you don't want to use high speed regulators like Hynes, my suggestion is to use a high quality transformer like a toroid that can supply enough current to cover the peaks without sagging too much, schottky rectifier, and just enough capacitance to get rid of the hum in the form of good foil caps. Motor run oil caps can sometimes be had for very little, and if space is no concern, they will work very well.

Charlize doesn't need that much current, so you can easily afford this.

Also, don't just discard the option of using switching power supplies. Some sound really great with Charlize. Personally, I use that after having tried linear power supplies and batteries. A good foil cap close to the Charlize PCB at the power supply input can still improve this, too.

Ole