Does removing the plastic covers on caps help?

Thanks to all those responding. Very informative discussion, and again, I'm awed by the collective knowledge of those on this board and the time they take to share it with others.

I was unaware of the need to check caps for damping, but it certainly makes sense after reading the above comments and links. In my particular amp mod, the Black Gates are so much bigger than the stock caps that they had to be mounted standing above the PCB on longer leads.

I'll definitely study the best way to damp them so they don't sing like tuning forks. I'm guessing that's exactly what they are doing in the present set-up now that the symptoms have been described.

If you find that damping works or makes a difference on your BG's, I would be very interested to hear about it.

I have been considering removing all of the plastic, but now I am reluctant.

Aloha,

Warren

I am much more favorably inclined towards removing capacitor covers than some of the above posts. The audible consequences are not insignificant and cumulative. If the desired effect is not achieved, it is always possible to experiment with various damping techniques for tuning: C37 lacquer, Sorbothane, EAR ISODAMP, acrylic shells--I have even seen nuded capacitors attached to violin bridges.
Sean, which 47 Labs products have you seen measurements for? Are you referring to the Stereophile measurements of Gaincard or other measurements of other products? And, one last question: Were proper testing techniques used? I ask, because, in the measurement of integrated circuits, it is very easy to come up with erroneous results, esp. when comparing integrated amplifiers to discrete amplifier designs.

I agree that removing the plastic will change the sound of the device. The question is, are you willing to take the chance of altering the sonics of a device that you already like and paid good money for ? Who is to say that you will like the change ? If you don't, what do you do ? Yes, you can attempt to damp the caps using other methods, but can you strike the same basic sonic signature that drew you to that component to begin with ? Obviously, there are a LOT of questions to think about before doing what is a non-reversable mod. The only way to really reverse such a mod is to replace the caps or try to replace the plastic using some type of adhesive. All i can say to that is "good luck". If you really want to try this, start slowly and do this systematically. Choose two caps ( one in the right channel, one in the left ) and go from there. If you notice no difference or like what you hear, do two more. If worse comes to worse, you can always back up and replace two caps and be done with it.

Other than that, i agree with Asi Tek. That is, one should always strive to keep the legs of any capacitor as short as is feasibly possible.

Slawney: The test results that i saw were the ones taken in Stereophile. I "assumed" that JA took the measurements using the same approach that he did with all the other gear that he has tested. I can't remember the specifics of the tests or test results but i do remember that the components did not test very well at all. They also looked to be quite sensitive to what was connected to them, making them less than versatile. Sean
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