Preamp mods/Why capacitors?


I have a Threshold FET 2 preamp. Very nice, but clearly old - 15 years or so. It has been suggested that it could benefit from upgrading the capacitors. It seems that nearly all amp/preamp upgrades and tweeks I see involve the capacitors. Why is that? Are some just that much better? Do they tend to wear out over time? Is larger typicaly better? I'm not an engineer by training, but am curious about this.

Phil
phil0618

Showing 1 response by miket2us

Capacitors are very much like batteries in how they function and even in chemistry (i.e. electrolytic) so no wonder they wear out.
Some caps dry up over time especially if they get hot (i.e.Tantalum).

There as been a lot of improvement in capacitor technology in the past years,older designs did not benefit from those.

The funny thing is that your PC or cel. phone probably uses better components in some cases than your high end audio gear it's KHz vs. GHz , the good thing is those technologies eventually trickle down to Audio gear but rarely the opposite.