droptrd":3qgq5x9j said:
Hmmm...ive never heard this. Im intersested to know as well
What if the capacitor doesn't have a banded end?
This marking of the outside foil was very common in the "good ol' days" of electronics, but, sadly, most capacitor manufacturers nowadays do not bother to mark the outside foil, so we're left to fend for ourselves. If the capacitor has no banded end, the outside foil connection could be on either end, so there is no easy visual method to determine the best orientation of the capacitor. However, if you have access to an oscilloscope, you can do a simple test to determine which is the outside foil terminal. Set the scope up to the most sensitive vertical scale (20mV or less, preferably) and connect the scope probe across the capacitor (ground to one side of the cap, probe tip to the other). Grab the capacitor tightly with your fingers, and note the amplitude of the induced 60Hz AC signal (or 50Hz if you are on the other side of the pond). While still holding the capacitor tightly, reverse the scope leads and you should see a dramatic difference in the amplitude of the induced AC signal. The orientation with the lowest induced signal is the one you want, and the ground lead of the scope is connected to the outside foil in that position. Mark it, and connect that side of the cap to the lowest impedance point in the circuit, typically the driving source plate when used as a coupling cap, or the grounded end if used in a shunt position. If you cannot see a large enough induced AC signal by holding the capacitor between your fingers, place the capacitor on top of an AC line cord (that is plugged into the mains wall socket, of course!) instead of holding it between your fingers and you will see a larger signal on the scope. If you are new at this, start with a 0.022uF cap or thereabouts, as it is easiest to see the difference between the two orientations. The induced signal is smaller at 60Hz with larger value capacitors, and is more difficult to see on the scope.
In the case of some types of capacitors, such as ceramic disks, multi-layer ceramics, or silver micas, there is no "outside foil", because the capacitor is made of a single-layer, or stacked layers of dielectric material and conductor. The orientation of these capacitors makes no difference. Also, some higher-voltage film caps (typically the 1000VDC/450VAC and higher values, such as the Orange Drop 716P high-voltage units) use a "series-wound" technique that has two separate sections, side by side, with a common "floating" connection layer, usually at the bottom of the layer stack. These caps will have no inherent shielding either.
Proper orientation of the capacitors will make the amplifier much less susceptible to outside noise, including hum, interference from fluorescent lighting, and tendency towards oscillations or frequency-response peaks and dips due to unwanted feedback from nearby signals within the amplifier, which can affect the tone of the amplifier (and is the reason why some people claim the amp sounds different if the caps are oriented in the opposite way - if there is no accidental coupling, there will be no tonal difference, but there will still be a noise benefit gained from orienting the caps the correct way).
Pretty easy if you have a scope. PS, the higher voltage Orange drops he refers to are 1000v or better. The ones we are discussing here can be oriented.
Pretty easy if you have a scope. PS, the higher voltage Orange drops he refers to are 1000v or better. The ones we are discussing here can be oriented.
Correct. . . times three.
My comment was specifically for the 400V-630V variety of Orange Drops we've been discussing, and those people without the scope.
If you don't have a scope you can use a digital multimeter (or analog). Just put it on the 200mV setting, make sure your grounded, hold the cap body in your bare hand (between two fingers), clamp the probes to the leads one way. . .then the other. When you have the lower of two readings mark the ground probe end. That's the shield side.
This will work with smaller value caps (.01µF thru maybe 1.0µF), but generally not larger ones.
