capacitor questions

[Joe]

I am building a couple of stereo amplifiers (one for headphones), which I want to be the very best. But I don't know much about capacitors, or why someone would pay $50 for a 1.0uF film cap. The circuit requires:

-power supply filtering
-100pF compensation
-1uF (possibly up to 10uF, but no larger) non-polar decoupling caps

I'm totally confused by the hype surrounding capacitors. My initial "best" choices would be decent electrolytics, silver-mica, and mylar, but perhaps I'm wrong?

[petemoore]

But I don't know much about capacitors, or why someone would pay $50 for a 1.0uF film cap.
  The only thing about that question is I'm not 'someone'.
  The circuit requires:
  -power supply filtering, this will require electrolytics because of the large uf values, I have occasionally seen small film caps used in parallel to electrolytics handle the HF's.
-100pF compensation, here you have the choice of film or 'better', the differences being nearly infanitecimal [probably], and whether 'better' would describe them or not would be hard to tell.
-1uF (possibly up to 10uF, but no larger) non-polar decoupling caps
  You may find a 1uf in material other than electrolytic...that's about the limit, IIRC these are physically large.
  The real truth is in hindsight, and found by experimentation, though some foresight into 'where' such material differences might be detectable...
  I use film types, mylar, polyester..or whatever gets me there, mostly avoiding carbon 'brownies'.
  Super low tolerance [I call that <+/-10% stated value] really isn't necessary for this kind of audio...you'll be fine like that, i have trouble telling the difference between .01uf and .02uf sometimes, choosing the right value is fine. 
  I'm totally confused by the hype surrounding capacitors. My initial "best" choices would be decent electrolytics, silver-mica, and mylar, but perhaps I'm wrong?
  You need electrolytics for larger Uf Values, silver mica work fine too, mylar are excellent and affordable, diverting attention at this point...away from cap-hype confusion and toward connectivity [cables etc.]...and GEO's articles, including the one with the scope pics of capacitor results, they de-hyped [for the most part] 'mojo' expensive caps for audio...I'm sure there are applications where it 'matters'...exactly where...I'm not worried about..at least not to the point of building 10 of everything to find out where it 'actually matters', ..+/-10% and careful value choosing is all that matters, I've never had a problem with tone control.
  >10% over-voltage-rating them is the only other concern [besides correct polarization]...don't overvoltage your fine film, electrolytic, or other type caps.

[Joe]

Thanks for the response, probably doesn't matter that much.