Does removing the plastic covers on caps help?

Really not worth getting into here, but you should audition some 47 Labs gear when you get a chance - It will make you realize "measured performance" has absolutely nothing to do with musicality.

Keep an open mind and don't shortchange yourself.

Plastic does not sound good as a reducer, thats why they (and I) remove plastic from caps, and also transformers. Notice a nice improvement whenever I do both.

Yes I do notice more "air" which could have something to do with "ringing" I would suppose, but I do understand about the poor conductors manu. use to make them. Best to keep them short as possible!

Thanks to all those responding. Very informative discussion, and again, I'm awed by the collective knowledge of those on this board and the time they take to share it with others.

I was unaware of the need to check caps for damping, but it certainly makes sense after reading the above comments and links. In my particular amp mod, the Black Gates are so much bigger than the stock caps that they had to be mounted standing above the PCB on longer leads.

I'll definitely study the best way to damp them so they don't sing like tuning forks. I'm guessing that's exactly what they are doing in the present set-up now that the symptoms have been described.

If you find that damping works or makes a difference on your BG's, I would be very interested to hear about it.

I have been considering removing all of the plastic, but now I am reluctant.

Aloha,

Warren

I am much more favorably inclined towards removing capacitor covers than some of the above posts. The audible consequences are not insignificant and cumulative. If the desired effect is not achieved, it is always possible to experiment with various damping techniques for tuning: C37 lacquer, Sorbothane, EAR ISODAMP, acrylic shells--I have even seen nuded capacitors attached to violin bridges.
Sean, which 47 Labs products have you seen measurements for? Are you referring to the Stereophile measurements of Gaincard or other measurements of other products? And, one last question: Were proper testing techniques used? I ask, because, in the measurement of integrated circuits, it is very easy to come up with erroneous results, esp. when comparing integrated amplifiers to discrete amplifier designs.