xicon styrene caps

[surfsup]

Anyone tried these?

http://www.mouser.com/catalog/specsheets/23p.pdf

[Cliff Schecht]

I haven't tried them yet but it's great news to find out that somebody is making these caps again. Polystyrene caps probably have the least coloration of any cap technology that's within a reasonable budget. The dielectric is EXTREMELY stable over temperature and are super duper low drift. These caps are often used in sample and hold circuits of the past where you need a cap with extremely low internal leakage (i.e. it will take a sample and not drift dramatically over time). I love using these as volume control bypass caps and tonestack caps (usually just the treble pot) and pretty much anywhere else you need a small value cap.

The only problem with these caps is that for anything over maybe a nF the caps become very large in diameter. They don't come in sizes over maybe 10nF usually and these caps tend to have a low voltage rating. For pF to hundreds of pF however these caps offer a reasonable high voltage rating and capacity vs. size and really let the circuit do the voicing, not the components non-linearities. The other annoyances are the typically very thin leads exiting the body and the fact that these caps DO NOT like soldering iron heat. You pretty much have to heatsink the leads or the polystyrene insulator will melt and change the cap properties (if you're lucky) or ruin the cap (more typical). Ask me how I know this..

[Gibsonman63]

I used polystyrene insted of silver mica's in my Express. My sound was too brittle before and someone on the forum suggested it. It wasn't night and day, but just enough to smooth the top end out a bit. It is good to know they are back in production. The last ones were a bit hard to find.

[surfsup]

yea I have a small batch of phillips caps (630v) on hand still that seem to work but these are cheap. It would be nice to have more options in higher voltage.

[David Root]

I use them sometimes. It is indeed good that polystyrene caps are being made again.

Since these are from Xicon I am assuming they are China product. I hope they are better built than their bullet train system.

[Structo]

I used to buy these from Watts Audio.

Wow, he raised the price and says they are no longer being made.

$2.95 ea

http://www.turretboards.com/guitar_ampl ... yrene.html

It looks like the Mouser polystyrenes are only rated up to 50v.

http://il.mouser.com/Passive-Components ... &P=1z0ybv9

[surfsup]

They have 680 pf at 125v and 1000pf at 500v

I emailed them to ask when they will have more 53p-series (500v) available. It would be good to get a couple of you guys to email them as well. The philips caps I have are great, but also limited supply If they will be sub-$1 in price, that would be great.

[Lonely Raven]

They have 680 pf at 125v and 1000pf at 500v

I emailed them to ask when they will have more 53p-series (500v) available. It would be good to get a couple of you guys to email them as well. The philips caps I have are great, but also limited supply If they will be sub-$1 in price, that would be great.

Give me an E-mail and I'll pester them myself. A 53p would be great.

[azatplayer]

I was checking out nebraska surplus yesterday and they have some Paktron 600V in usual coupling values for cheap. .022, .047, .1. Was wondering if they would be ok as couplers as i love em in the small pf range in all my amps.

[diagrammatiks]

styrene is great. rel-caps have been making them in 630vdc in full range values forever.

[Dingleberry]

I've been using those a lot. Scored a nice bagful of those few years ago from local electronics store sell out. Don't know the brand but styrene anyway. Some of them were rated for 1kV (1000v) so no problem using them in amps and values were up to 100nf. Actually not so large in size.
For example 22nf/1kV are about the same size as any 630v orange drop or mallory. I have been very pleased with the sound. Really like them in tone circuits and bright caps.

-T

[super100]

HTTP://www.justradios.com/polystyrene.html

They have carried them for quite a while.
Rated at 630V.

[Markusv]

HTTP://www.justradios.com/polystyrene.html

They have carried them for quite a while.
Rated at 630V.

Love them

Use them all the time and never a problem but to Cliff's point they are heat sensitive and I dislike the thin leads

Markus V

[gary sanders]

HTTP://www.justradios.com/polystyrene.html

They have carried them for quite a while.
Rated at 630V.

They have some nice prices on their caps.Are these the real deal or a cheap knock off of the Vishay? ( orange dips??? )

[Markusv]

Gary

I should know this but I don't have more details than what the owner told me.
He said a while back that most of his caps are from Cornell Dubilier, so I tried them. Frankly I can find nothing wrong with them. The "orange dips" are somewhat small in size. They used to be much larger and round like spragues but now they're flat like chicklets.
Still sound good though.

The guy's business is built around a great following of radio restorers in North America and elsewhere so I trust he will always source quality components.

Markus V