[sdiy] DC blocking caps on inputs - or not?

[Synth Man]

Yep.. I use bipolar EL caps for DC blocking.  Not expensive and a good
application for this part.

On Sat, Feb 6, 2016 at 8:11 AM, P Maddox <yo at vacoloco.net> wrote:
>
>>> Another capacitor question popped up:
>>> What's your view on having electrolytic caps right at the input of an
>>> audio
>>> device in order to block DC and/or protect the circuit?
>>
>> I think it's not so much a question of "protection," as of allowing you to
>> choose the DC bias point of the first stage.  If you don't block DC, then
>> anything you connect to that input is going to affect the bias in a
>> hard-to-predict way.
>
> I'd agree... I'd go a step further also.
> If you don't *HAVE* to use caps in the audio path, don't.
> Everything you put in the path affects the signal, so the less you can put
> in the path, the less the signal is messed with.
>>
>>
>> I'd avoid electrolytic caps in this application because they don't
>> tolerate reverse voltage, and so it'd become necessary to protect the cap
>> from that, one way or another.  Not so much an issue of signal quality.
>>
> yeeee, no....
>
> every cap does have a reverse voltage limit, all be it much smaller than the
> forward voltage limit, but you can get caps that work 'bipolar' for not much
> more than unipolar caps.
>
> P
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