[sdiy] "Boutique" capacitors

[The Peasant]

> hello Guys-
> 
> I've been reading about the Black Gate & Rubycon
> capacitors on various high end audio/stereo/amp pages
> for the last couple of months. I recently came across
> a page where they had a huge variety of them for sale
> at pretty reasonable prices... I've seen places where
> people talk about replacing a couple on PC sound cards
> and having an improvement in quality. as well, people
> have gone on and on about the quality and improvements
> in sound when they're used in amps and all.
> 
> I'm wondering- do you think they'd be good (i.e.
> provide quality improvement) if I used them to replace
> caps in Oscillators, Filters, and VCA's?
> 
> I would think if they improved audio quality in those
> other things, that they could provide the same
> benefits in synth modules. But, I don't know enough to
> say... thus I'm asking this wonderful base of
> knowlege. 

There is a fundamental difference between building electronics to create music 
and to reproduce music. With music creation, a very slightly distorted 
waveshape is usually not very noticeable and if anything provides "character" 
to an instrument. Perfection in signal processing is not required to achieve 
excellent results in *creating* a musical sound (MOTM aside). 

With music reproduction, this slight distortion is now a problem, as changing 
the character of the sound is exactly what we don't want to do. So better parts 
quality and good engineering are much more important for achieving excellent 
results in *recreating* a musical event.

So, while using "Boutique" parts on synth projects may give you some slight 
sound improvements, it will probably not be as worthwhile as using them for 
audio gear, and may actually detract from the sound in some peoples' opinions. 
Of course high quality parts should always be used some areas, such as sample & 
hold capacitors.
 
Take care,
Doug
______________________
The Electronic Peasant

www.electronicpeasant.com