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Re: Black Gate Electrolytics. Is there much difference between N, NX, and polar FK??

Hi John. If you take the time to download BG's "white papers" written in a language that resembles English, the summary is:
N: non-polarized, good for coupling and decoupling applications, high-speed circuits, AC signal circuits;
NX: premium-grade N cap;
FX: regular polarized cap, good ONLY for polarized DC power supplies.

There's also a paper about a super-cap, which is made of two N or NX caps, parallelled in a Yin/Yang fashion. This tweak works wonders on tube cathode bypass circuits and as the main cap for a CDP clock's power supply.
Regarding digital ICs, I have found that USUALLY the smallest cap (in size, not value) that does the job of connecting the IC pin to the closest ground plane is the best cap.
If your DAC uses 10 uF bypass caps on the digital circuits, DO NOT increase the size, improve cap quality.

On analog output circuits (usually opamps, tubes in your DAC), size matters:
too small cap: very clean and fast sound, weak bass;
too big: humongous bass, bleached mids, distorted treble
example: CAL Icon MKII with "improved" POWER BOSS power supply. Replace those 1 Farad!!! caps with 100 uF and listen to the music!
My advice is to compare the standard value to one third and three times the capacitance, for starters. You will soon find out in which direction you want to tweak (for your taste, in your system, as usual).
Good luck
Carlos


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  • Re: Black Gate Electrolytics. Is there much difference between N, NX, and polar FK?? - Carlos 09/23/0416:19:07 09/23/04 (0)


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