Tantalum caps

[Danny G]

I was just wondering if there is any difference between the tantalum drop caps and the little metal barrell tants.  Sound quality, etc.

Thanks!

[dolhop]

My personal opinion - the human ear is not sensitive enough to notice the difference between cap types - same with resistors.  There are a lot of people that will argue with me about this - especially those in the Tube Screamer camps.  There is a difference, but it is negligable.  Use whatever is most convenient and put down the soldering iron as soon as possible so that you can get back to doing what you should be doing - playing guitar!

[Danny G]

I just want to know if the drop tants and the metal barrell tants are basically the same thing.

[dolhop]

You asked about sound quality.......

If the voltage rating and the capacitance value is the same, then yes, they will provide the same functionality.

[Peter Snowberg]

I don't think I've ever seen tantalums in a metal package. Could you be talking about aluminum electrolytics?

There are "wet tantalum" caps, but I don't know if I've ever come across one. The typical tantalums these days are "dry electrolyte" types.

I don't understand why people still say there is no difference in sound. I blew my ears out long ago working in the rock-n-roll industry and I can still hear the differences between some caps quite easily. If you look at scope traces that graph the linearity of different cap types, you very quickly see that low voltage ceramic and tantalum caps distort the signal in a highly visable way.

They'll all work roughly the same, but reality is that some cap dielectric materials show hysteresis and non-linear response.

http://members.aol.com/sbench102/caps.html
http://members.aol.com/sbench102/caps1.html
http://members.aol.com/sbench102/caps2.html

[Lonestarjohnny]

Peter, Those Old ear's your talkin about can be the difference between Crappy Tone and Tone to Die for. some people have it and some don't.
Johnny

[Samuel]

i don't know if they're the same, but I know what you're talking about - I believe the brand name of the metal tube caps is Tantalex, but I can't remember who makes them

[dolhop]

I'll admit there are differences, though I think they're subtle.  Consider that people are working with stombox pedals - a single point in the chain of sound.  Remember that even if you replace all the caps in your pedal with the best or most linear caps available, there are still hundreds of caps in your amp that are extremely low grade components from China that the company chose to use to save a few bucks.  And then you have to consider all of other pedals you may have in the chain.  How about if you're micing your amp?  Every little bit will colour the sound.  Changing the caps may make a difference, but couple it with the rest of it all, and you could actually make it sound worse than before.

What I hate to see is that someone will spend four hours replacing all the caps and resistors in their tube screamer when they could spend that time working on their playing - the biggest gain in sound improvement is had through improved playing technique.  Put SRV side by side with someone that knows the notes of a song like Crossfire.  Same equipment in hand.  SRV will STILL sound better and have the better tone because of the technique.

[Fret Wire]

These are metal tantalums. Someone from the UK was selling them on Ebay.