2. amps-preamps
  3. 190023-150037

What's the value in lots of capacitors inside a line stage preamp?

On one system I am using a Conrad Johnson gat2, and it's loaded with Teflon capacitors and step attenuator volume control, vishay, and I'm sure lots of other lovely things going on.  It's doing a great job.

But I have no idea how important all those capacitors are except that they store a lot of reserve power and are available to fulfill Power demands of musical changes.  Maybe that's all I need to know.

emergingsoul
czarivey
5,946 posts
 

well you have a full life in front of ya.

start pulling them out one by one and see what happens.

erik_squires
16,376 posts
 

In a tube cap some of the most important caps are the coupling caps.  They block DC but allow the signal to go through.  Because all the signal goes through it their character can be the character of the preamp.

Second are power supply caps.  The higher the value, the lower ESR, and L the better they filter power supply noise.

noromance's avatar
noromance
9,923 posts
 

CJ don’t use (smaller) electrolytic capacitors, hence all the film caps necessary for the required capacitance.

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