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What does this mean
- Thread starter Bridges
- Start date
If you happen to sell silk, it's great news.
They are probably Elna SILMIC (II)?
There are all kinds of audibility claims, but nothing to back it up…. I’d say it’s a nice sales pitch.
There are all kinds of audibility claims, but nothing to back it up…. I’d say it’s a nice sales pitch.
It's sales talk. You are supposed to assume that silk fiber has some special quality such that, when used in a capacitor, imbues the cap with a special sound quality that it then bestows upon the equipment it is used in. As Paul Klipsch would say, "Bullshit". From a purely technical point of view, I suspect that silk has lousy dielectric properties. As an example, silk will absorb moisture from the atmosphere, rendering the cap leaky. Who wants a leaky cap? Not this chicken, bedawk!
- Thread Starter
- #5
Should they be replaced? Are coupleling caps a good thing or is direct better?
Some circuits need coupling caps because the DC level is not the same from one stage to the next. Shorting them would then be a very bad idea.
Killingbeans
Major Contributor
Sounds like it (no pun intended) yes.
From the data sheet:
• ELNA developed new raw material for the separate paper which use a silk fibers.
Therefore, this capacitor can give you high grade sound for your audio design.
• Due to the silk fiber's pliability, the capacitor makes a dream of the high quality
sound.
For examples;
• To relieve the music's vibration energy.
• To decrease the peak feeling sound at high compass and rough quality sound at
middle compass.
• To increase massive sound at low compass.
• For bipolar capacitors, consult with us.
Just sales talk.
ELNA makes some of the highest quality capacitors out there. As in; they are well built and last long.
But the guys at the company who dreamed up that silk fiber nonsense ought to be ashamed of themselves.
Killingbeans
Major Contributor
Nahh. They don't do anything special, but they don't do any harm either.
Elna caps are good. Without a lot of re-design, I doubt you can do better.
Which amplifier?
If the equipment the caps are in is not misbehaving, I see no need to replace them. What I am not sure of is the long-term reliability of a silk dielectric. In some settings where different DC voltages are present on the points to be coupled, caps are a necessity. Ideally (absent different DC quiescent voltages) no cap is better than having one there, but the difference in S.Q. can be inaudibly minuscule. It's important that a coupling cap have adequate capacitance so that a low frequency roll-off does not occur.
I swear to God - if they didn't use the phrase "music as smooth as silk" in their marketing they shouldn't be ashamed, they should be strung up.
First, to my knowledge these caps are fine. And Elna pulled a marketing coup, since manufacturers of inexpensive gear can use these instead of film, thereby saving a few cents and a lot of board space, while bragging they have silk capacitors. Everybody goes away happy.
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