Replacing Caps?

aaron

Senior Member
Okay, here's a question for the techs. What is the effect of replacing your amp's original capacitors for "higher quality" caps (poly film, orange drop, hovland, etc) of the same value? I hear of people doing it, but is it really worth it? I've got no idea, help me out here :smack: Thanks!

Aaron
 
Re: Replacing Caps?

Caps all sound different, depending on what you have in your amp it may or may not be an improvement. If you were to do one amp with SoZo caps and another with Orange Drops, you would have two very different sounding amps. Very cool to experiment with this stuff!!
 
Re: Replacing Caps?

Depends on the amp also...In my Marshalls I Love Mallory 150 caps and I hate Orange Drops....In my BF Fender stuff I Like the ODs but Mallory 150s work great also...I'm not sold on the oil caps and I feel they are a waste of money in my amps,but too each his own.
 
Re: Replacing Caps?

Cheap capacitors can vary in tolerance by +/- 20% or more. Using higher quality caps will tighten that tolerance, allowing the circuit to respond closer to the way it was designed.

However, wholesale replacement with high-end capacitors is a waste of money since many capacitors used in an amplifier will not effect sound quality.

Replace capacitors used for coupling audio stages and tone stacks with high (audio) quality types for better fidelity.
Capacitors used in power regulation and filtering are not so critical spec-wise but are usually the ones that go bad, so replace those with types designed for high reliability / long life rather than absolute tolerance.
 
Re: Replacing Caps?

Chaos said:
Cheap capacitors can vary in tolerance by +/- 20% or more. Using higher quality caps will tighten that tolerance, allowing the circuit to respond closer to the way it was designed.

However, wholesale replacement with high-end capacitors is a waste of money since many capacitors used in an amplifier will not effect sound quality.

Replace capacitors used for coupling audio stages and tone stacks with high (audio) quality types for better fidelity.
Capacitors used in power regulation and filtering are not so critical spec-wise but are usually the ones that go bad, so replace those with types designed for high reliability / long life rather than absolute tolerance.

It's these tolerences that people have heard or hear when they play through 2 of the same amps and say 1 sounds amazing and the second sounds ok by comparison...I can't see using anything many levels better as far as the caps are concerned,but I also dislike carbon comp resistors in my circuits....The only mojo I've ever experienced with them is alot of hiss and drifting and crappy overall tolerences...

When we build or tweak an amp,we are purposely "coloring" the tone and what we don't want is "hi fi"....:13:
 
Re: Replacing Caps?

STRATDELUXER97 said:
When we build or tweak an amp,we are purposely "coloring" the tone and what we don't want is "hi fi"....:13:
When I said "better fidelity", I meant to the designer's specifications, not to audio reproducibility. :beerchug:
 
Re: Replacing Caps?

Chaos said:
When I said "better fidelity", I meant to the designer's specifications, not to audio reproducibility. :beerchug:

Roger that brother! :beerchug:

I was just adding some opinionated component garble to reinforce your informative post....:laugh2:
 
Re: Replacing Caps?

STRATDELUXER97 said:
Depends on the amp also...In my Marshalls I Love Mallory 150 caps and I hate Orange Drops....In my BF Fender stuff I Like the ODs but Mallory 150s work great also...I'm not sold on the oil caps and I feel they are a waste of money in my amps,but too each his own.

I use the Mallory 150's when I'm wanting to warm up a bright or slightly grainy or brittle sounding amp...and I use the Orange Drops when I want to tighten up or brighten up or add definition to an amp that sounds like it could use a little more clarity. According to the audiophiles, Oil N Foil caps have thier place in an amp circuit...but I think they're a total waste of money in a guitar. I've A/Bed them against Orange Drops in a guitar and heard no significant diff...but in an amp there may be a more pronounced diff. I haven't figured out an easy way to A/B them in an amp though. Have you A/Bed Oil N Foil against OD's or Mallory 150's John? It could be done with a switch I guess...just to much trouble for me to mess with these days.

Lew
 
Re: Replacing Caps?

Have you tried Sozo's in a Marshall yet Lew? It's funny this thread has just come up as my Sozo caps order came today and I've just fitted them (replacing the Mallory 150's) in my Marshall. In terms of sound difference, I was surprised by how noticeable the improvement was, your tone sounds much clearer (without losing gain), and there seems to be less extraneous noise (although to be fair that could be because I did a better job of the soldering joints). The quality of tone is just better, it's not something that's easy to describe, it's not like the frequencies have shifted, but some aspects of the guitar sound that were undesirable have just gone. Sozo caps are definately worth putting in your amp if you've got a Marshall.
 
Re: Replacing Caps?

shredaholic said:
Have you tried Sozo's in a Marshall yet Lew? It's funny this thread has just come up as my Sozo caps order came today and I've just fitted them (replacing the Mallory 150's) in my Marshall. In terms of sound difference, I was surprised by how noticeable the improvement was, your tone sounds much clearer (without losing gain), and there seems to be less extraneous noise (although to be fair that could be because I did a better job of the soldering joints). The quality of tone is just better, it's not something that's easy to describe, it's not like the frequencies have shifted, but some aspects of the guitar sound that were undesirable have just gone. Sozo caps are definately worth putting in your amp if you've got a Marshall.

Haven't tried them. But I believe you! :laugh2: Lew
 
Re: Replacing Caps?

Lewguitar said:
I use the Mallory 150's when I'm wanting to warm up a bright or slightly grainy or brittle sounding amp...and I use the Orange Drops when I want to tighten up or brighten up or add definition to an amp that sounds like it could use a little more clarity. According to the audiophiles, Oil N Foil caps have thier place in an amp circuit...but I think they're a total waste of money in a guitar. I've A/Bed them against Orange Drops in a guitar and heard no significant diff...but in an amp there may be a more pronounced diff. I haven't figured out an easy way to A/B them in an amp though. Have you A/Bed Oil N Foil against OD's or Mallory 150's John? It could be done with a switch I guess...just to much trouble for me to mess with these days.

Lew

Lew.....I've not tryed the paper in oil caps and I Like using the caps I mentioned in my amps...I use Xicon caps in certain places also..
 
Re: Replacing Caps?

STRATDELUXER97 said:
Lew.....I've not tryed the paper in oil caps and I Like using the caps I mentioned in my amps...I use Xicon caps in certain places also..

Bruce likes those Xicons too...
 
Re: Replacing Caps?

STRATDELUXER97 said:
Hoffman used to love em in his amps also and he turned me on to them.The maroon colored ones...

Yep...same thing Bruce uses. :beerchug: Lew
 
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