Sibilance and Caps
Printed From: Graham Slee Hifi System Components
Category: DIY AUDIO
Forum Name: Graham's Wrinkles
Forum Description: My hints and tips on how to squeeze that little extra from an old
URL: https://www.hifisystemcomponents.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=910
Printed Date: 27 Mar 2026 at 1:54am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Sibilance and Caps
Posted By: Graham Slee
Subject: Sibilance and Caps
Date Posted: 06 Jun 2010 at 9:35pm
|
Sibilance is what you get when something in the circuit isn't all that good at doing high frequencies and distorts (either that or you're playing vinyl and have fluff - or a "baked on" film on the stylus...) People often complain of electrolytic capacitors in the signal path but don't know why. It is due to them having wound foils to make the plates big enough to get the capacity required. The windings contribute to the capacitor's inductance and if that inductance falls within the audio spectrum or even an octave above, the result can be sibilance. We get around this by using types that have a much higher inductive peak, or by using film caps, or by bypassing in such a way as to reduce that inductance... to shove the inductive peak way up in frequency. Being naive to the high-end I recently became aware of the fad of replacing capacitors in the signal path of amps with some very expensive wound foil in oil capacitors - 4 quid each I've been told! I was chatting to a customer the other day and he said that since he'd had these wound (and hence highly inductive) capacitors fitted in his amp input stage, that my phono stage had started sounding very sibilant... I thought  but decided to hold my tongue. Do you think I ought to have tried to explain or do you think I'd have been wasting my time?Anyway, I just said that new caps could take a month or two to burn in and left it like that. ------------- That none should be able to park up and enjoy the view without a smartphone and the knowledge in how to use apps |