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Anybody know of a good source for reasonably priced BG F/FK and N/NX? As much as I would love to try some, I am not paying $50+ for one electrolytic cap from a Chinese eBay seller.
Yes, you're write. 50$ for a piece is excessively! But, I searched desperately four pieces of BG Non-polars, regardless of price and luckily I found them. The problem is that both, N and the FK series are very hard to find and if you find them on e-bay (I don't know other sources),.. are still expensive. I bought two capacitors BG N series 47uf/50V and one FK series 2.200uF/35V from Canada, and another two non-polars from Russia. I understand that they are the best on the digital section near the tube&chips. I am very curious to see what changes It make in sound all BG capacitors from Elna Silmic&Cerafine. I will find in about a week or two.
On: http://www.hificollective.co.uk/components/cerafines.html
I found this:
" Which capacitor to use is difficult to determine without actually trying. It depends on too many factors. To hear the potential of a certain part, it's often nessecary to change other parts too. Experimenting with different combinations is a more solid way to lift a design to a higher level. In principle the original music signal has to be preserved as much as possible, but it's difficult to tell which parts do. For analysing a music signal (harmonic structures changing in time), our ears are still the most useful instrument. But we're all calibrated differently. To some a SILMIC adds color and warmth and a Black Gate FK sounds neutral. To others a SILMIC sounds neutral because it exactly reproduces natural colors and warmth from the recording, a Black Gate FK sounds more 'hifi' to them, making the signal more pulsed, peaky (giving attack) and too clean (filtering out natural timbres).
Often a combination of different (high quality) capacitors in the right places gives the best result. Best thing is to try yourself and trust your ears. Still, we want to mention some general characteristics as a rough guideline (of course these are our personal, biased, subjective experiences). These characters apply for capacitors used either in the signal path or in the power supply (for digital different rules apply, but there are simularities as well). Lower voltage versions of a capacitor can offer more refinement (it's faster, gives more presence towards the mid-highs).
The
SILMIC II is best for reproducing different timbres, natural colors and warmth in a recording. It offers most presence in the low-mid range with lots of texture (tangible). Bass is round and warm, the mid and highrange are very refined, 'silky', quiet, but with lots of openess (more open than CERAFINE, less open than Black Gate FK).
The
CERAFINE is also very good for reproducing different timbres, natural colors, but has a more direct sound than SILMIC (less direct than Black Gate FK). Bass is round and warm, the midrange has most presence and the high range is lively.
The
Black Gate FK has the most open and clean sound, with the main presence in the high range. It sounds thinner, offers somewhat less texture and timbre. It offers most pulse, attack in both the low, mid and high ranges".
I think that the changing of electrolytic caps with Black Gate, and possibly Duelund CAST-PIO Cu instead CuTF, it would be the last step to Havana. We passed this critical point beyond which any change is very expensive and no longer justified intro this DAC!
