Coupling capacitors upgrade

for the DIY ST35, the Dynakit and every other PP EL84

Coupling capacitors upgrade

Postby susomora » Fri Nov 27, 2015 4:20 am

Hi guys,
I want to upgrade the coupling caps on my ST-35. I built this several years ago based up on Rev D but didn't use the PCB sold by Shannon. Instead I designed and etched my own PCB's and layout. I want to use some Auricaps or something similar, issue being I don't have enough room to fit them onto the board itself.
Here you can see a pic of the amp and the cap placement:

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg70 ... 0copia.jpg

I think my best option is to build a small deck per channel to mount the caps on and place it on the side of the chassis and then heat shrink the legs and bring them over to reach the pcb. My question is, am I at risk of picking up noise if the legs are this long or is not such a big deal? after seeing Tom McNally's point to point wiring in his amps I feel like I should not worry, but then , he obviously knows lots of stuff that I don´t...
And while I'm at it, should I upgrade C22 and C23 too (for WIMAs or something of the like) ?

Thanks a lot for your input guys.
Suso.
susomora
 
Posts: 53
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2007 3:16 pm
Location: spain

Re: Coupling capacitors upgrade

Postby dcriner » Fri Nov 27, 2015 7:56 pm

Why not just cut the leads from the existing caps and splice on the replacement caps?

I doubt that the replacements will result in any audio improvement that is discernable.
Doug Criner
dcriner
KT88
 
Posts: 309
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2006 4:19 pm
Location: Illinois

Re: Coupling capacitors upgrade

Postby susomora » Sat Nov 28, 2015 5:04 am

Yeah, that's what I had planned, but sill the new caps won't fit on the board and i will have to extend the legs out of it, Auricaps don't have rigid legs for what I see and I don't want them dangling around. My concern is that the extra length will pick up any noise ( heater wires are running kinda close)...
cheers.
susomora
 
Posts: 53
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2007 3:16 pm
Location: spain

Re: Coupling capacitors upgrade

Postby dcriner » Mon Nov 30, 2015 7:10 pm

My concern is that the extra length will pick up any noise

You could try it and let us know the results. I don't know what else to suggest if you are determined to replace the caps with the ones you've selected.
Doug Criner
dcriner
KT88
 
Posts: 309
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2006 4:19 pm
Location: Illinois

Re: Coupling capacitors upgrade

Postby corndog71 » Mon Dec 14, 2015 3:03 pm

Whoa! Beautiful amp! I can see why you might be concerned about the wire lengths, but really it's not a big deal. I would recommend Sonicap Gen 1 as they are a bit more compact than the auricaps and have a really nice, neutral quality.
some people call me Rob
corndog71
 
Posts: 105
Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 10:45 am
Location: midwest

Re: Coupling capacitors upgrade

Postby chrx » Sun Feb 11, 2024 12:45 am

Shoehorned 0.1uf Miflex copper foil caps and 0.22uf Sonicaps into my Rev E this week. Just fired it up yesterday…
Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/C3Mo5OVO8FN/?igsh=YTI4YzE2YTYwMA==
chrx
User avatar
chrx
 
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu Nov 13, 2014 1:31 pm

Re: Coupling capacitors upgrade

Postby mike567 » Mon Feb 19, 2024 3:39 pm

Tight fit!
mike567
 
Posts: 29
Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2012 10:14 am


Return to stereo 35

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 14 guests