Black Gates - Standard vs FK/Non-Polars


Hi guys,

I replaced 12 stock electrolytic caps (teapo) in the signal path of my amp with 10 Standard and 2 Non-Polar Black Gates, and after 2 months of burn-in, the sound is better in some ways (lower noise, better detail and resolution) but tonally it has become a little colder and leaner, which is not of my liking.

I was wondering if by using Black Gates Npolar or FK instead of the Standard ones would I recover some warmth in the midbass, or if it would be about the same.

Does anybody have experience with the different Black Gates? are they tonally different? Or should try something different like maybe Nichicon Muse?

Thanks for any input.

Jov
jdec

Showing 2 responses by forrestc

I replaced all the electrolytics in my old Threshold SL-10 preamp with Blackgate Standards, and was totally blown away with how good it sounded after just a little break-in time. Of course, I was replacing 25-year-old dried-out electrolytics with brand new caps.
Jov, after reading over this old thread again, one thing occurred to me that may, or may not, be the cause of your less than good results after replacing the electrolytic caps with Black Gate Standards in you Threshold SL-10.

Older Threshold products such as the SL-10, as well as up through the S-series amps, all used small aluminum-electrolytic caps made by the now defunct company, Instrument Devices. These caps were marked with a stripe pointing to the (+) lead, which is totally opposite from Black Gate caps and the rest of the small electrolytic world. Its an easy mistake to put your new caps in backwards, if like most folks you figured that the old caps' stripe points to the (-) lead. You also may have thought that if you had put them in backwards, one of them would have popped by now, or the preamp just wouldn't operate, but that's just not the case.

I know, because when I recapped my Threshold Stasis 2, I unknowingly put the replacement Black Gate standards in backwards based on the old cap's pointer stripe. With the Black Gates unknowingly installed backwards, the amp sounded just a little better than before. That was probably because the old electrolytic were totally dried-out and shot; however, it still didn't sound right. At that point, I thought that maybe the new caps needed just a little more break-in time. After a three mount "break-in" and no improvement, I took a close look at schematic and concluded that I installed the new polarized Black Gates backwards. Also, a quick email to Jon Soderberg confirmed the reverse markings on the original electrolytic.

After removing the improperly installed Black Gates from the amp and comparing them side-by-side with a new matching Black Gate, you could see that the top of the case had a slight bulge, but none had popped. At that point, the reversed-biased Black Gates went out with the trash, and new identical Black Gates Standards were installed in their place.

The amp sounds much better now.

I wont make that mistake anymore.

I hope this helps you or anyone else replacing small electrolytic caps in their older Threshold equipment.