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Size of the caps:
0.47uF: 2 1/8" L x 1" diameter, 70g each
0.22uF: 2 1/8" L x 5/8" diameter, 35g each
0.10uF: 2 1/8" L x 7/16" diameter, 18g each
These Copper foil capacitors are professionally
manufacturered with high conductivity anti-oxidization
Beryllium copper (BeCu) foil, teflon shielded leads with
tin tip, and Dupont highest grade polyester film to
achieve the best audio improvements over other type of
caps.
Currently 3 ratings are available - 0.47uF/600V,
0.22uF/600V, 0.1uF/600V. They can be used in application
of 450V and 630V circuit design and replacing your
existing caps for sound improvement.
There are two parts to the test. Testing the cap
standalone with test equipments. Then Do the listening
test.
The manufacturer built a test jig to burn in the cap for
250 hours with a random noise generator alternating with
a sweep signal generator sweeping from 20Hz to 20Khz
every 60 sec. After 250 hours here is the results of the
instrument tests.
1) capacitor value @1Khz = 0.2223uf this is 1% tolerance
it is excellent by itself but missed the printed spec of
0.5% but still very close.
2) We measure the cap with a complex impedance meter.
this will give us the magnitude Z and the phase angle of
the capacitor. For a perfect capacitor the phase angle
should be -90 degrees over its intented operating
frequency range.
Phase angle in degrees
40Hz -89.97
1Khz -89.74
10Khz -89.48
20Khz -89.42
50Khz -89.15
100Khz -88.83
200Khz -88.39
This is really excellent.
3) Leakage test
We applied 600V to the cap and mesaured the leakage
current . the leakage current is 0.0 microampere.
Excellent!
4) Dielectric absorption DA
This is a important parameter. It measures the residue
electron charge left in the capacitor after a pulse has
applied to it. The residue electron charge will slowly
release into the circuit and smear the subsequent
signals coming after the pulse. There is only a very
small number of high end capacitor testers that has this
capability. To give you a perspective electrolytic
capacitors can have a DA of up to 10%. The older paper
in oil (PIO) capacitor can have DA up to 6%. Most modern
film caps have very low DA.....less than 0.1%.
The ¦Ěcap capacitor has 0.0% so you should expect very
clean transients.
Well, we all know that when an audio device measures
good it is only a necessary but not sufficient condition
for it to sound good.
We need to do some long and crtical listening test. Here
are the comments from the manufacturer.
We then put the ¦Ěcap caps into the prototype preamp. We
go to the bench to do some square wave and frequency
response tests. There is a significant improvement in
the rise time of the square wave and it also shows up as
better high frequency response.
The next thing we do is to take out the Audio Note M10
and put the prototype preamp with the ¦Ěcap copper foil
capacitor into my reference system. After an hour of
burning in the reference system we begin some serious
listening. The first thing that strike us is that it is
very smooth (we are listening to what the capacitor is
really capable of after 250 hours of burning in ) on
voice and violins. It even past the torture test of a
couple of the very demanding violin CDs. It has
excellent high frequency details. Bass notes from Oscar
Peterson's CD sounded taut and clean. It has deep and
also wide soundstage.
Usually when my friends take their preamps or DIY
preamps to my music room to try to get a feel on how
good is their unit relative to the Audio Note M10 preamp
it always ended up after an hour I have to politely
say....... Folks, it's been fun can we try something
else?
Well, I have been listening to the ¦Ěcap caps on my
prototype preamp for 3 days already and the unit is
still in my reference system. It actually sounded very
decent. We have to understand the return on investment
in high end audio is not linear. A $100K preamp is not
50 times better than a $2K preamp. As you go higher into
the top end audio your return on investment takes a deep
dive. I am looking for components that will give my
customers the biggest bang for the buck. I think the
¦Ěcap capacitors met this criterion. |
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