Capacitor Help Ceramic or Silver Mica

[mattpas]

If I am building a pedal that calls for some Caps that are 100pf, 150pf, and 250pf.
What can I use Silver Mica or Ceramic, or either?

[John Lyons]

Anything that is the right value will work. Metal film/ceramic/Mica

[earthtonesaudio]

Just make sure you keep the leads short.

[mattpas]

Is there any sound difference between them?
Would I hear a difference if I used some ceramic and some mica?

[gutsofgold]

You can find poly film caps in those values as well.

[michal_k]

ceramics are prone to change it's value when they get hot. what's more, they aren't to accurate.

micas are far more better as far as accuracy is concerned. I think they're mostly 1% or 5%



vs.





ps I've just discovered that text editing stuff 

[John Lyons]

Read the WIKI and FAQ sections, Lots of info there.

Ceramic grainy, value tolerance less accurate. Sometimes microphonic in high gain circuits. Good for vintage circuits to get "that" sound.
Silver Mica Smoother than Ceramic. Good all around choice although usually larger than mica or poly. (100v and up)
Polyester, film. Smooth, good all around choice, stable and rugged
Polystyrene very smooth and clear sound. Stable but usually have very thin leads.
AVX box type metal film caps.50v/63v Smallest and most compact size. Tight tollerance smooth clean sound

John

[MikeH]

Honestly I find silver mica and ceramic to sound quite similar compare to poly film.  So I'd say go ceramic if you can't get poly, because they cost about 1/10 of what micas cost.

[bwanasonic]

Socket that point of the circuit, and experiment with what sounds good. Granted, sometimes the placebo effect kicks in, but it's worth exploring. This is where breadboarding comes in handy. I'm a sucker for cap mojo, even though I should know better. I've convinced myself of differences while swapping, that don't hold up to the simple scrutiny of putting the two caps on a switch and toggling. The best part to start with is the one you have handy.

Kerry M