question about capacitors

My main wonder is who makes the best caps?

my other wonders with this include

is it subjective due to them all sounding differet?

if they do sound different, what do different ones sound like?

is there any information i should know before buying a boatload of them?

thanks guys.

On a side note, they will be going into a homebrew amp.

This is a subjective matter, but yes, they do make a difference. The type whose that appeals to you most is the "best". You might find that certain caps in a certain circuit emphasise frequencies a certain way, and the best cap would probably be the one that emphasised just the right ones to your ears. Some can be very very expensive. There's lots of different ones, but aluminum electrolytics would be at the bottom of most people's sound quality lists. You should never have these in the signal path. Their value shifts over time too so their performance will degrade...they're best left to non-signal path jobs and power supplies. Then a multitude of film types like metalized polypropylene, foil in oil, paper in oil, film and foil, mylar...the audiophile market has resulted in a lot of high end film capacitor designs specifically aimed at signal path use, so you can bet there will be different "sounding" ones. To a point, you sort of get what you pay for....but there is a point of diminishing returns and it comes fairly quickly.

try http://www.partsconnexion.com for a variety of audiophile caps. It's a business dedicated to high end DIY audio, so there are some insanely expensive ones there, but there are also some reasonably priced and good sounding caps like Solen and Multicaps. They also have Carbon comp and metal film resistors(some of which you can get in 0.5% tolerances!!). Those guys are located in Oakville too so they won't be shipping from the US. Or, you can just drive out there and pick it up yourself.

What kind of amp are you building? Gonna have it ready for ampfest?

Personally I haven't found too much a difference in sound between brands. But I have heard differences in the composition. So you have to know what is best for the application.

I will stick to your application on this one. Since there are so many lines on many components.

Aluminum Electrolytics are good for power supply filtering. And for the values you need, it will probably be all you can afford . But you do want to keep them out of the signal path if you can. Sometimes though you have no choice (ie. power decoupling). In that case shoot for low ESR. And here the brand can make a slight difference. Panasonic and Nichicon, I think are at the top of the sonic and quality list in the signal path. Minus of course the boutique super hi-fi expensive ones. You can also bypass them with a 1uF Polyester which works very well.

For the power supply, I don't hear a difference. Maybe some quality issues, ie. an Illinois or Xicon may last 20 years while a Sprauge or Mallory lasts 25-30. I got some Ruby ones that are working great. Also have used ones from Weber that are working great. JJ makes some nice ones as well.

Ceramic's are good but sort of noisy. Again good for power supply bypassing and are often used in amps. Brand doesn't matter. Typically the cheaper ones and solid state.

Tantalums are great, but some people claim the sound harsh. Mica's are sort of the in the same boat. Brand doesn't matter.

Polyester Film and Polypropalene are what you find in the nicer amps. Sprauge Orange Drops are the most recognized as being really nice and they are readily available. I have used Panasonics, Xicon, and Weber's in a pinch and they were all fine, could hear no difference.

Long story short, worry more about composition and not the brand.

Check this site out:

http://aikenamps.com/

There is a tech section with tons of information that can get you started in the right path. This was a god send when I first started building/designing my own amps. In the tech section there is a technical Q&A where the author lays out the best types of materials to use.

Oh yeah, the guy the runs that site makes some great amps, so it seems to me that he knows what he is talking about.

oh my sweet mother mary of jesus. This thing IS a godsend. It just answered all the questions i've ever had :love::love::love:

The guy that runs that site is really nice too. He use to sell top quality misc. items and was a always good to deal with. Search around about his amps, top quality stuff.

Great site to read around on. You could spend a year reading that stuff (all very useful) and just start getting an idea how to design amps.....

JC