Parentheses 2020

T

ThinAir

Member
Big props to Chuck D Bones for helping educate me on the importance of verifying transistor pinouts. At any rate, I used a pre-finished Hammond enclosure and am running an OP07 in here. The thing sounds huge and is doom in a box. Definitely the most unique of all of my fuzz and dirt pedals.
 

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i'm gearing up for one of these myself. can you share your reasons for using tantalum caps instead of electrolytics in most places?
 
Kinda depends on your definition of better. There are places where electrical performance doesn't matter as much, like power supply filtering. In some circuits you won't hear any difference between tantalum and aluminum. In other places there will be an audible difference. The biggest sonic flaw in aluminum electrolytics is a phenomenon known as dielectric absorption. This is where the capacitor has a kind of memory and smears the transients. The net effect is loss of sonic definition. In a clean boost or a compressor, it can be apparent. In a thick doomy fuzz pedal, not so much. You'll really hear the difference in 10 or 15 years when the aluminum electrolytics start failing.
 
Chuck D. Bones said:
Kinda depends on your definition of better. There are places where electrical performance doesn't matter as much, like power supply filtering. In some circuits you won't hear any difference between tantalum and aluminum. In other places there will be an audible difference. The biggest sonic flaw in aluminum electrolytics is a phenomenon known as dielectric absorption. This is where the capacitor has a kind of memory and smears the transients. The net effect is loss of sonic definition. In a clean boost or a compressor, it can be apparent. In a thick doomy fuzz pedal, not so much. You'll really hear the difference in 10 or 15 years when the aluminum electrolytics start failing.
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wow, that’s super informative. thanks for going over it in that much detail. maybe i’ll swap out s few of the caps i’ve got in some of these boards i’m preparing.
 
At ambient operating temperature in an infrequently used low voltage dc circuit such as a pedal it is unlikely that you will see/hear any differences in an electrolytic's performance in your lifetime. Tantalum is a conflict resource.
 
jspake said:
i'm gearing up for one of these myself. can you share your reasons for using tantalum caps instead of electrolytics in most places?
Click to expand...
I prefer to use tantalum for the polarized values below 47 uf, but in the specific case of this build, I used a lot of tantalum because that's what EQD was using in the Life Pedal photos I was able to find.
 
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