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burning in capacitors for phono stages

I'm in the process of auditioning various capacitors within my phono preamp. It seems burn in is a 'real' issue with caps. In exploring various means to burn in these caps I found the KAB PreconLP, this device converts line level signals to phono level signals. This allows one to use a cd player and burn in disc to burn in phono stages.

I only need substitute various caps in circuit I want to audition. This seems like a huge advantage over any other cap burn in method I've encountered. You are getting the actual signal your cap will see playing lps. Other burn in methods I've seen may or may not have sufficient voltage and/or combo of AC and DC.
sns
sns OP
3,407 posts
 
Thanks Johnss, I will try that break in procedure for my speaker crossover caps.

As for the cost of boutique caps, I find it rather inexpensive for amount of change I hear. I consider cabling a high cost item for relatively little change. Besides, it is fun listening to all the different caps, and they can always be resold or auditioned in other equipment.

I've thought about changing out resistors, the problem is they are often buried under tons of parts.

Anyway, one thing at a time, its cap auditioning time right now.
rodman99999
6,188 posts
 
Sns- Right you are about the sonic benefits of high quality caps and the fact that the sound changes after the dielectric forms it's charge(commonly referred to as, "burn-in"). I've always purchased mine(and Vishays) from Michael Percy. He will match your components to 1% tolerance(good for channel balance). An excellent selection of polystyrene/polypropylene caps too: (http://www.percyaudio.com/Catalog.pdf)
rodman99999
6,188 posts
 
Here's something else that might interest you: (http://www.geocities.com/rjm003.geo/rjmaudio/diy_rack.html)
sns OP
3,407 posts
 
Thanks for the info Rodman. I'm using the burn in scheme suggested by Johnss. We'll see how that works.
rodman99999
6,188 posts
 
Sns- There won't be nearly enough voltage to burn the caps in overnight that way(especially with poly-s, poly-p or Teflon caps), but- it would work eventually. Happy experimenting.
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