Just a simple resistor question

[gutsofgold]

I have a huge order lined up for steve at small bear and I just noticed he doesn't stock metal film resistors in bulk or in kits. But he does sell carbon films in 200 counts and in large kits.

At the end of the day, would I notice a difference in the sound? I really don't want to place a separate order with mouser and pay the extra shipping just to get metal films over carbon films. Whats your take on this?

[Alex C]

I think that metal films are typically 1% tolerance, and are considered "quieter" at higher voltages.  I'd say that for general-purpose, 9V stompbox applications, 5% carbon films will be more than fine, and you're not likely to notice a difference.

[Mark Hammer]

In discussion with someone the other day, his advice to me was to just buy myself a big "variety pack" of metal films for experimentation purposes.  A big part of his rationale was that at least you know what you have and don't have to concern yourself with "Maybe it sounds this way because the resistor is at the edge of the +/-5% tolerance range?".  Another part of hsi rationale was that they're dead cheap for the convenience they offer, in comparison to caps, so why not?  There's also the matter of build consistency which, admittedly, is not a concern of everyone here, particularly if they only make one-offs for themselves.

Will they make a sonic difference?  Sometimes, yeah.  A lot of folks here have a penchant for building high-gain stuff, and while the resistors in your pedal are not the only source of noise, you certainly don't need to add to the crap that comes through the input jack and then multiply that by 500x. 

Alex is right that you can build a perfectly fine pedal with 5% parts, and many companies do.  But if using 1% resistors only adds $2 (at most) to the cost of the pedal you made for yourself, where's the harm if they keep noise a little lower?

[gutsofgold]

Yeah very true, and experimenting with different values would essentially be a crap shoot with a 5% tolerance when compared to 1%.

I would just rather give Steve the business, he needs to stock bulk qts of metal films!

[chi_boy]

Yeah very true, and experimenting with different values would essentially be a crap shoot with a 5% tolerance when compared to 1%.

I would just rather give Steve the business, he needs to stock bulk qts of metal films!

I know this is old, but I still agree.  Any idea why he doesn't sell bulk metal film?  Is there a market for bulk MF??

[darron]

Yeah very true, and experimenting with different values would essentially be a crap shoot with a 5% tolerance when compared to 1%.

I would just rather give Steve the business, he needs to stock bulk qts of metal films!

I know this is old, but I still agree.  Any idea why he doesn't sell bulk metal film?  Is there a market for bulk MF??

resistors and caps etc. are something that i can see getting anywhere at any shop. i think smallbear's mostly great for those rare/audio things that shops don't stock like 3pdt's, ICs and transistors etc.

i remember when i first started DIY and i was calling all of the local electronics shops and getting responses like "yes, we have dual opamp ICs. why does it NEED to be a jrc4558d?" which was difficult to answer. and things like "ac128? it says that's a germanium transistor on my list. they stopped making those decades ago, and you don't want one of those anyway"

:S

[DimebuGG]

Instead of making a new topic, I think my question is still relevant about resistors

I'd like to build a DI box. So does this really necessary to use metal film ones especially the "phantom" 6.8k resistors?

http://sound.westhost.com/project35.htm
http://analogguru.an.ohost.de/193/schematics/H&K_RedBox-MkII.gif

[aron]

No, it will work without it. However:

"All resistors should ideally be 0.5W 1% metal film for lowest noise and best matching"

[DimebuGG]

No, it will work without it. However:

"All resistors should ideally be 0.5W 1% metal film for lowest noise and best matching"

Thanks aron..uhmm by the way, the red box MKII pcb is already done.

[aron]

Cool. I have a Red Box too, I don't think it's the mark II but it might be.