Linus Tech Tips Pushes Audio Grade Capacitors

[EEVblog]

 

[TomS_]

Debunk video time?

[magic]

 

I wanted to rant that coupling capacitors aren't actually created equal but then he talks about power supply caps

Most capacitors today are designed for low cost and high reliability

and high reliability

screetching noises as you move your mouse around

That's caused by shit grounding and no amount of capacitors will ever fix it

[Rerouter]

I just put it down to correlation bias, The motherboards that buy and advertise "Audio grade" capacitors generally are a bit higher spec than the bottom of the barrel Dell / OEM motherboards,

If you look on just about any modern motherboard, the sound IC is practically crammed up next to the 3.5mm jacks, You have to make almost deliberate mistakes to get strong coupling into an area that is generally fairly free top side space.

[magic]

All you need is to allow audio ground to contact chassis. Or use front panel jacks where the chassis manufacturer made this mistake. Or make a ground loop on the board. Then you get exposed to all the ground bounce of the CPU handling mouse interrupts.

[janoc]

Surprises exactly nobody - the guy is pretty clueless and not only about capacitors. His video about "fixing" videocards with a heatgun is another such example - and earned him a pretty savage response from Louis Rossmann.

If anyone is relying on Linus for their technical information, I am pretty sorry for them.

[Raj]

OMG, I was just minutes away from starting a forum topic on the same.
I find Linus tech tips to be quite inaccurate. They were also promoting laser and ultrasound based power transfer tech.
And to make it worse, most thing he seems to promote are computer versions of "as seen on TV household tools".
You buy them thinking they'll be super useful, you use them twice then throw them in storage.

What bugs me more, they want things to be impossibly small and yet require them to function equally good.AND THEY ARE READY TO PAY 100X MORE FOR IT.

You can have better capacitor performance just by having more of small ones than a single big one while keeping costs low.. You can't do that in small form factor.

[madires]

That guy always forgets to add the "paid promotion" and "infomercial" banners.

[wraper]

I just put it down to correlation bias, The motherboards that buy and advertise "Audio grade" capacitors generally are a bit higher spec than the bottom of the barrel Dell / OEM motherboards.

I recently bought Asrock A320M-HDV R4.0 for EUR 38 ($42) (without VAT) which is the cheapest AM4 motherboard I could get and it has a few audio grade Elna on it.

[StillTrying]

He needs to do one(LOL), on how well these cable-burn-in devices improooove the sound.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/dodgy-technology/i-wonder-what-effectively-does-this-audiophool-_cable-burn-in-device_/

[Bud]

Did anyone ever picked useful tech tips out of Linus Tech Tips?

[Gary350z]

I went to Audionote.co.uk, the website that Linus says helped him with this video. One of their products is tantalum resistors (audionote.co.uk/resistors). Never heard of these and sounds bogus, so I did a google search just to make sure. The search only turned up audiophoolery sites. Audionote says these resistors are "tone-full components", whatever that means. Audionote also sells non-magnetic tantalum resistors, which the say "provide increased texture, a darker background and a greater sense of immediacy". I need to order some for my next project.

[StillTrying]

I went to Audionote.co.uk, the website that Linus says helped him with this video.

Have you looked at their price list, I couldn't find the resistors.

Edit The 0.5W Tantalum resitors are £3.39 each +Vat and the 2W up to £35.70 + Vat each.

AN SOGON LX96 SPEAKER CABLE 100 METER ROLL  £256,666.66 +Vat.

Did anyone ever picked useful tech tips out of Linus Tech Tips?

Yep. Don't waste your time watching his videos.

[madires]

I prefer rubber resistors as they are damping down vibrations from trucks and heavy tools used by neighbours. Any vibration will change the electron's spin and therefore impact the sound. Tantalum resistors are total nonsense. Get some good quality audio grade rubber resistors!

[SiliconWizard]

I just put it down to correlation bias, The motherboards that buy and advertise "Audio grade" capacitors generally are a bit higher spec than the bottom of the barrel Dell / OEM motherboards,

If you look on just about any modern motherboard, the sound IC is practically crammed up next to the 3.5mm jacks, You have to make almost deliberate mistakes to get strong coupling into an area that is generally fairly free top side space.

Indeed, this is nothing else than marketing talk for dummies, but yes it usually comes with better overall design for the corresponding motherboards.

I admit the "Most capacitors today are designed for low cost and high reliability" was pretty funny though
.
 

[Gary350z]

Audionote.co.uk also has a 3.3UF 600V Silver Foil Capacitor for £2,406.25.

[Gary350z]

I prefer rubber resistors as they are damping down vibrations from trucks and heavy tools used by neighbours. Any vibration will change the electron's spin and therefore impact the sound. Tantalum resistors are total nonsense. Get some good quality audio grade rubber resistors!

"rubber resistors": Excellent. That puts a smile on my face.

[SiliconWizard]

Audionote.co.uk also has a 3.3UF 600V Silver Foil Capacitor for £2,406.25.

Nice.

Of course we still shouldn't confuse use cases here.
Caps typically used in power filter sections for speakers, for instance, can have a definite influence on the result. Especially their ESR.

[JackJones]

Audionote.co.uk

https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3e7c3b_e22dd850df9e4b3a9cc014778c2e4e38~mv2_d_2997_2000_s_2.jpg


Are those Rifa caps?  My ears deserve better!

[Raj]

Did anyone ever picked useful tech tips out of Linus Tech Tips?

Well, I did find reasons to avoid all the gaming junk, except for good gpu , cpu and save money on PSU by putting 2 small ones instead of a large one.

[SiliconWizard]

Audionote.co.uk also has a 3.3UF 600V Silver Foil Capacitor for £2,406.25.

Nice.

Of course we still shouldn't confuse use cases here.
Caps typically used in power filter sections for speakers, for instance, can have a definite influence on the result. Especially their ESR.

And that said, here is a similar cap that seems fine for this use: https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/cornell-dubilier-electronics-cde/940C6W3P3K-F/338-1141-ND/809434
$10 per 1. A bit less than £2,406.25. (and actually, I suspect it has lower ESR than the one sold by Audionote.co.uk!)

[wraper]

Audionote.co.uk also has a 3.3UF 600V Silver Foil Capacitor for £2,406.25.

Nice.

Of course we still shouldn't confuse use cases here.
Caps typically used in power filter sections for speakers, for instance, can have a definite influence on the result. Especially their ESR.

And that said, here is a similar cap that seems fine for this use: https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/cornell-dubilier-electronics-cde/940C6W3P3K-F/338-1141-ND/809434
$10 per 1. A bit less than £2,406.25. (and actually, I suspect it has lower ESR than the one sold by Audionote.co.uk!)

But it does not have silver foil  . FWIW their parts are expensive but many of them not ridiculously expensive.

[wraper]

Although I would prefer them selling tin foil hats instead of tin foil capacitors.

[SiliconWizard]

Silver foil sounds nice. But at the current price of silver, this cap would be worth over 5 kg of silver. 

[Bud]

I prefer rubber resistors as they are damping down vibrations from trucks and heavy tools used by neighbours. Any vibration will change the electron's spin and therefore impact the sound. Tantalum resistors are total nonsense. Get some good quality audio grade rubber resistors!

"rubber resistors": Excellent. That puts a smile on my face.

Embedd ferrite dust into the rubber for EMI supression.