burning in capacitors for phono stages

I am an Engineer so take this advise which ever way you wish. There is no break-in for a capacitor. A capacitor is simply 2 conductive plates with a dielectric samwiched in between. There is such a thing as formimg a capacitor though. Capacitor forming should be performed on electrolytic capacitors that have not been used in a while. New Capacitors do not have to be formed. If you would like info on forming capactors send me a message as I would be happy to help. Be careful monkeying around with large capacitors as they store a large charge and are a lethal shock hazard.

I know break in of caps is a contentious issue. I only know that many hear changes as capacitors age. The upcoming cap rolling will tell the tale for me.

Thanks, I do understand about caps holding charges, and do discharge them prior to working on equipment.

I suggest you use a variac and charge yr new caps in steps, starting at low voltage to slowly reach their rated level.

Liguy,

I am a music lover and actually listen to my system on a regular basis. I have swapped out caps and they do burn in.

Thank you very much.

Tim

Sns,To break in all the caps, solder your caps together in series. Put an RCA on on end, and a 10K ohm resistor on the other end. Run a ground wire from the RCA shell to the other end of the resistor to form a complete circuit. plug this assembly into your pre amp out put. Turn on the Tuner, turn up the volume a third of the way, and go to bed. When you get up in the morning all your caps you soldered together will be broken in and you should be ready to try your experiments.

Don't waste your money on Audio salon caps. all you will need are available from Mouser or Digikey.

As long as you are working on the phono stage, why don't you replace the loading resistors with Vishay S102's? as well as any shunt resistors that are usually located at the output of hte phono stage. They will make as big or bigger difference than the caps.

Happy listening.