Upgrading Caps

[markc2]

Hi All,

I was wondering what capacitors people upgrade in the quickie. I have seen some ones that are bigger than the batteries

Mark

[earwaxxer]

Everything in the Quickie can be upgraded! Thats the beauty of it! The only limit is your pocket book, and your due diligence to research what said changes could make.

I would suggest you do a good search for 'Quickie' and 'capacitors' in the bottlehead forums. Much good discussion there.

Caps are a huge field of specialization for the audiophile. We each have our favorites. Most of us have stayed 'sane' in the kind of money we have put into a $99 kit. You can very easily spend a few hundred bucks on caps for the Quickie. I have found the expense worthwhile, in taking a good, but 'inexpensive' sounding stock piece of kit, to a real player in the tube or SS preamp catagory.

With that said, or course you now have the 300b pre to tantalize you!

Here are some cap reviews to wet your whistle!

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/diy/0708/capacitor1.htm
http://www.altavistaaudio.com/caps.html
http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Cap.html
http://www.10audio.com/sonicap_oimp_multicap.htm
http://www.goodsoundclub.com/PDF/capacitorshootout.pdf
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/diy/1108/capacitor2.htm
https://www.head-fi.org/t/284863/orgy-of-capacitors-the-cap-thread
http://www.laventure.net/tourist/caps.htm
http://jimmyauw.com/2009/08/18/extreme-capacitors-battle-2nd-session/#more-1009
http://www.tnt-audio.com/accessories/testing_capacitors_e.html
http://sound.westhost.com/articles/capacitors.htm
http://tech.juaneda.com/en/articles/electrolyticcapacitors.html
http://www.co-bw.com/Audio_High_End_Capacitors.htm

[Grainger49]

   .  .  .   I would suggest you do a good search for 'Quickie' and 'capacitors' in the bottlehead forums.  .  .  .   

If you go to the Quickie folder first you only have to search for "capacitors."

[Paul Joppa]

Has anyone tried bypassing the high voltage battery bank? There is no special reason to believe that any battery is "better" than a good audio capacitor. You don't want an electrolytic; they do have some leakage and will drain the battery even when switched off, but a nice film cap could well have an audible effect. Personally I'd try 50uF, but I think as little as 10uF would be effective - if there is an audible effect.

[tuffy_puppy]

grainger,  i see you have nicknamed yourself "old fart"  i disagree.  i don't think you are that old!  hahahahahaha,  best wishes,  don

[earwaxxer]

Has anyone tried bypassing the high voltage battery bank? There is no special reason to believe that any battery is "better" than a good audio capacitor. You don't want an electrolytic; they do have some leakage and will drain the battery even when switched off, but a nice film cap could well have an audible effect. Personally I'd try 50uF, but I think as little as 10uF would be effective - if there is an audible effect.

Hey Paul - I kind of wondered about that. So the cap would be hooked up in parallel, or serial to the battery?

[Alonzo]

**mn, and I thought after new interconnects I'd be done...would this be the same effect as adding a ceramic snubber for an AC circuit?

[Paul Joppa]

Has anyone tried bypassing the high voltage battery bank? There is no special reason to believe that any battery is "better" than a good audio capacitor. You don't want an electrolytic; they do have some leakage and will drain the battery even when switched off, but a nice film cap could well have an audible effect. Personally I'd try 50uF, but I think as little as 10uF would be effective - if there is an audible effect.

Hey Paul - I kind of wondered about that. So the cap would be hooked up in parallel, or serial to the battery?

Parallel.

[Grainger49]

I would suggest attaching film caps across the tubes from the incoming "high voltage" to the circuit common, below the cathode cap and resistor.  The point of having a high speed film cap at the tube is to supply immediate energy to the circuit when needed.

[earwaxxer]

So, I attached a 22uF Obligatto to the battery pack. If there was a 'change' in sound I'm not sure I have heard it. It didnt cost me anything, so I'll leave it. Granger's idea may prove to be positive. I'm too lazy to try it.

[Paul Joppa]

Grainger's suggestion is not different from mine - we just turned it into different words. Apologies if mine were unclear; it's been know to happen before ...

earwaxxer, thanks for the feedback. For teh record, do you have the CCS installed? Anyhow, I'll suggest you leave the cap in for a few weeks until you are thoroughly used to it, then remove it and see of you hear any change. Sometimes changes, like interconnects, have a preferred direction. (Sometimes not - I just want as much data as I can get!)

[earwaxxer]

nope - I got the chokes. They may have the same effect as a cap. No? I do like my 2500mah NMH over my 50mah Lipo4 for the record.