Capacitor rolling.

Tubes, I have been told that some offerings, which I don’t like, require hundreds of hours of break-in before being listenable. I won’t subject myself to that. Then there’s the sneaking suspicion that one is simply adapting and learning to accept an inferior sound.

I have tried both RelCap and Solen teflon f&f caps, and find them to sound similar, for values ranging from 0.022 to 0.82 uF. I tested them in a break-out box beside comparably valued RTX, and found the teflon caps to be a bit bright, RTX neither bright nor warm. The best teflon caps I have heard where made of monolithic copper and skived teflon tape, a DIY project.

None approached air-gap capacitors - by which I mean, metal plates separated by air, no other dielectric. They are hard to find, large, and rarely above 2000pF, but they are the gold standard. Air-gap and vacuum. Surplus Sales of Nebraska sells them, both variable and fixed. For that matter, you can make your own.

But once you hear them! In fact, it may take you an hour to take in and understand all the distortion that you’re not hearing. Which is why I use them when I can.

Another vote for Duelund’s Cast Copper PIO, a couple values of which Parts Connexion currently has on sale: (http://www.partsconnexion.com/duelc-specials.html?utm_source=getresponse&utm_medium=email&ut...) The Cast Silver maybe more transparent, but I couldn’t afford that show’s entry fee.  Swapping the 10uF Solen caps in my B+ circuits, for Clarity's 630VDC  MR Series,  cleaned things up even further.

The easiest way to find the most transparent coupling cap.

To all the cap rollers, use a dac or cdp or preamp that has direct coupled output, and then install each of the caps being rolled here to capacitor couple that dac or cdp or preamp. Then see which one sound the closest to no cap (direct coupled), and then you'll have your best cap.

Cheers George 

Or go with no caps in the signal path like my preamp!  I have tired a few of the copper caps, V-Cap which I like very much and just recently got my hands of Dueland copper but just installed them so no opinion yet.  I know people here who really liked the Jup coppers but I have not gotten around to those either.  I did not like the bees wax version of the Jups at all.  But as caps go, so do resistors Vishay, AN, Shinkoh, Caddock,etc.  they all have a sound so you have to see what you like.  My preamp has a switch so you can choose the resistor you like for your system or maybe more importantly for the CD you are playing.  I have used Clarity caps which IMO are a great value for the money and I am trying to get to hear the copper clarity caps hopefully soon.

Happy Listening.

The 25% off of film/electrolytic caps sale that Parts Connexion is running, may be of interest for some: (http://www.partsconnexion.com/capacitor_ele_all.html?utm_source=getresponse&utm_medium=email&...) Then there are some that were, "slightly used", and further discounted: (http://www.partsconnexion.com/bbs_cap_film.html?utm_source=getresponse&utm_medium=email&utm_...)