So I am collecting capacitors to recap about 5 different radio's. I have looked at Gold Fingers modifications for HiFi for more than one chassis. He sure does seem to like tantalums. In at least two radio's of mine he recommends a 16V Tantalum at 1uf to 2uf but in each case the OEM used 50V electrolytic in the .22uf and 1uf range.
I was always taught to devalue tantalum because they fail at .1 to 1% the closer to the specified rating they are run at. That assumes you do not get them hot either. On top of that when they fail they normaly fail in a short. To obey the Mil-Spec. that Kemet recommends on their sight I would need to run a 85-100V tantalum. That would be physically huge only available in axial when I need a radial and it would put more volume and mass in the signal path. I do not see how that would help the audio signal at all?
He also recomends mylar caps but again in 1uf to 2uf rating the smallest mylar or metalized film cap is 7.5mm on leading spacing attempting to replance parts that have 1.5mm to 2mm lead spacing.
I thought about using a film cap to bypass the best electrolytic I can find for the audio signal path but again space is an issue and you normally have to parallel an lytic with a film cap of at least 20% of the lytics capacitance to see any improvement.
In one case his recommendation is replacing a 50V .22uf lytic with a 16V 2.2uf that is a HUGE increase in capacitance and a huge decrease in the voltage rating.
Has anyone tried just increasing the capacitance but staying with the recommended voltage and capacitor type?
I thought about using some Panasonic stacked film caps but the difference in size is HUGE. If I tried to fit a film cap with LS of 7.5mm into a 2mm LS hole I would have to leave quite a bit of lead exposed to keep the huge wide head of the cap from touching. No way I can put it down close tot he board. I would imagine this would open the door for stray rf and for vibration damage long term?
My thoughts which I welcome correction on are that top of the line audio grade electrolytics are far better than they where 18 years ago and just increasing from the .22uf to the recommended 2.2uf should make a world of difference. After all the fidelity of a CB or Export radio is not remotely close to a home stereo amplifier or eq where a film cap in the signal path makes perfect sense. So is it worth my time to shoe horn film caps in and or is it largely a waste of time and really just a cap value issue more than material choice?
I was always taught to devalue tantalum because they fail at .1 to 1% the closer to the specified rating they are run at. That assumes you do not get them hot either. On top of that when they fail they normaly fail in a short. To obey the Mil-Spec. that Kemet recommends on their sight I would need to run a 85-100V tantalum. That would be physically huge only available in axial when I need a radial and it would put more volume and mass in the signal path. I do not see how that would help the audio signal at all?
He also recomends mylar caps but again in 1uf to 2uf rating the smallest mylar or metalized film cap is 7.5mm on leading spacing attempting to replance parts that have 1.5mm to 2mm lead spacing.
I thought about using a film cap to bypass the best electrolytic I can find for the audio signal path but again space is an issue and you normally have to parallel an lytic with a film cap of at least 20% of the lytics capacitance to see any improvement.
In one case his recommendation is replacing a 50V .22uf lytic with a 16V 2.2uf that is a HUGE increase in capacitance and a huge decrease in the voltage rating.
Has anyone tried just increasing the capacitance but staying with the recommended voltage and capacitor type?
I thought about using some Panasonic stacked film caps but the difference in size is HUGE. If I tried to fit a film cap with LS of 7.5mm into a 2mm LS hole I would have to leave quite a bit of lead exposed to keep the huge wide head of the cap from touching. No way I can put it down close tot he board. I would imagine this would open the door for stray rf and for vibration damage long term?
My thoughts which I welcome correction on are that top of the line audio grade electrolytics are far better than they where 18 years ago and just increasing from the .22uf to the recommended 2.2uf should make a world of difference. After all the fidelity of a CB or Export radio is not remotely close to a home stereo amplifier or eq where a film cap in the signal path makes perfect sense. So is it worth my time to shoe horn film caps in and or is it largely a waste of time and really just a cap value issue more than material choice?