Does capacitor brand really make any difference?

[C-Man]

I just happen to like the look of the older capacitors (Mustards, RS Paper, Hunts, TCC), and having had both builds with new and older capacitors, new Marshall amps, and experience with old ones, I am not certain I can tell a discernable difference based on capacitors alone. To me, transformers and speaker selection have a larger impact on the overall sound. However, most electronic engineers I know have told me so long as the capacitor is in the right value, brand shouldn't matter.

 

[PelliX]

Tests? Other than what my ears tell me, no. I know, many don’t believe there’s a noticeable difference with filter cap brands but with 2 amps that had newer F&Ts, the same grainy/choppy decay to the note/chord was present in both…after changing to ARS it was gone. We all hear things differently.

Yes! But when we measure things, we have to agree to calibrate out instruments in order to agree. Human hearing is horrible by measurement standards. It self-biases and shifts all the time with no way to measure those deviations.

 

[Spooky88]

I have used cheap polycaps and ceramics, expensive NOS ceramic- poly-, Mica-, PIO- and Teflon-capacitors in signal chain and can't say if they have any effect. Possibly Ceramic and Mica have sound "sterile" and PIO have sound "mellower" but amp circuits have been different and that has had much more effect.

For my builds electrolytes I often use Panasonic and Nichicon 105C 10 000h or more radials which I mount legs up to a hole which I drill to circuit board. Its because in my work I saw how much longer good electrolytes did function.

I don't believe "outer layer" method!

I recently repaired a “New” Mackie ProFx30V3 mixer that blew all 4 caps at the main LR XLR outputs. I replaced them with Panasonic caps with higher heat and ripple effect specs. That board sounds a ton better.

 

[PelliX]

I recently repaired a “New” Mackie ProFx30V3 mixer that blew all 4 caps at the main LR XLR outputs. I replaced them with Panasonic caps with higher heat and ripple effect specs. That board sounds a ton better.

The real question here is do the Panasonic caps sound better than the stock caps *in normal condition*, i.e. not shortly before failure. Not sure what Mackie are using in their gear recently.