Question About Capacitor Upgrade in Tube Amp


Hi,

I am preparing to do a coupling capacitor upgrade on a recently purchased tube integrated amp. The two 0.22uF on the preamp tubes are fairly straight forward. But I noticed another similar model 0.33uF cap on the large filter capacitor for the B+ supply that is installed across the hot lead to ground.

Does this cap on the B+ just block high frequency noise from the power supply or does it have any effect on the amp tone? Is there any reason to "upgrade" this cap?

I know it may be hard to tell exactly what is going on without a schematic.

Also any recommendations on a good cap to use in the upgrade of the coupling caps? I was looking at Mundorf SilverGoldOil for the quality at not too crazy a price. The amp already sounds good but lacks a little clarity that I think a coupling cap swap will help with. It is SET 300B amp.

Thank you!

 

calieng

Showing 2 responses by itsjustme

So, in case that was too techie and long, yes replace them all (if the ones you already have there are poor, we have no idea really).  My two cents replace them with polypropolene films caps of the same or slightly higher voltage and the same capacitance (or more for the bypass).

 

Dont worry about brands.  Paper is long term unreliable.

Let’s begin with the fact that capacitors are among the most non-linear parts of any amplifier -- so any real improvement is worthwhile. I don’t know what the existing caps are so none of us have any basis to comment on the upgrade value specifically.

 

Let’s assume they are not the best.  Would be better if you said. Do you even know this to be true?

 

You discuss two types of capacitors: 1) coupling caps which block DC and allow two stages to to be linked, pass the music signal, but allow two different DC points to exist. These are directly in the signal path and a better cap means a better signal. 2) you discuss what is called a bypass capacitor on the power supply (B+ to ground). Broadly speaking we can think of capacitors (electrolytic primarily) that are efficient, with large capacity for their size, and cost, but are very nonlinear, especially as frequency rises. Alternatively there are various classes of capacitors that are the revers - large size, small value, but very linear and good sounding. Good design combines the two allowing one to provide capacitance and the others to provie linearity and efficiency at high frequencies. The best of these are film type capacitors (Mylar, or better yet poypropolene). Ceramic are also very good but have only tiny values or low voltages for the monolithic multilayer types (like << 50V).

 

You can pretty much know what will be the best sounding from one value: dialectic absorption. A Poly type is typically something like 100X to 1000X better than a "lytic.

 

As to whether they matter: yes. They make the power supply, well, supply, at high frequencies!

 

So get polyprop caps of >> whatever the applied voltage is (more is better, but gets $$ and big) and put them in. Poly caps are NOT polarized, but there is often a band that indicates the end to be grounded.

 

Justme.