SIMPLE CAP FOIL TESTER

[pompeiisneaks]

I also noted that the larger the cap, the more 'noise' it can pick up, but probably becasue the size of the entire cap's surface area is larger. I.e. 0.1 uF caps would have a very large visible signal if not connected to ground and much smaller one when connected to the positive side. once I got down to say .01 it was a log harder to tell the difference. When I got down to pF values etc, it was impossible to tell.

From my limited experience, I'd say they work, but not in some massive way. I've had some builds that were dead silent and I didn't do anything to them in that way, and the one or two I did that way were also dead silent. Then I've had a few noisy amps and I could almost always find the source of the noise and it wasn't cap orientation that fixed it. It was a bad wire, pot, solder joint etc.

~Phil

[R.G.]

I'll say just a little bit of it again.
There are real, technically measurable differences in the connection of wrapped foil capacitors. "Technically measurable" does not mean "amp sounds better" per orientation. "Technically measurable" may mean "we can find some difference in RF characteristics at over 270MHz", or the like.
Most of the commentary on which side is the foil layer says it's about hum pickup. That's good, us mere mortals without a barn full of instrumentation can reason out what happens at 60 and 120Hz. What happens at these low frequencies (and in fact, human audio frequencies, which are much like DC compared to the need for voodoo in RF work) is easy to calculate, knowing the cap construction AND THE SURROUNDING COMPONENTS AND IMPEDANCES you can calculate a good approximation of what happens with respect to inner/outer layer foils.
If you think you can get shielding from orienting an outer foil, you can do it better by wrapping a grounded metal foil around the outside of the cap's body. If you think you can get less hum by orienting the outer foil one way or the other, you can do a better job by shielding the cap itself or by reorienting the layout. If you think you get magic mojo tone boosting... I can't help you. If you believe you get mojo-magic, you probably will. But don't try to measure mojo. It will be a frustrating and argumentative task.

If you can measure something repeatably with a measuring device, it's real. If you can't measure it repeatably with anything except a human judging aroma, bouquet, and the density of the cork, it may or may not be real.

[ViperDoc]

That makes a lot of sense. I’ve never paid attention to it, so I thought I’d try it. I’m a fledgling amp builder/hobbyist, so I don’t have enough experience to call my religion on anything! All your guys’ advice is much appreciated.

[R.G.]

And I don't intend to make light of a beginner trying to learn. I just get weary of the number of times that "knowledge" like this is passed around and then venerated because everybody says it again and again. Back home we used to call things like that "self eating watermelons".

[ViperDoc]

Thanks, big brother!

[ChopSauce]

Not sure how to deal with this but it seems to me - by looking at the gustshots of the Tweedle Dee - that HAD placed the Orange Drops all with the markings showing on the right hand side...

May that suggest that it is less relevant with a simple / low gain amp?

[R.G.]

Yes, definitely. It's a truism that the more gain you have, the more you multiply the bad stuff along with the good stuff.
EVERYTHING matters more with more parts, more wires, and higher gains.

[pdf64]

Are the diagrams on p3 of https://www.illinoiscapacitor.com/pdf/P ... o_film.pdf relevant, specifically the internal series connection of some cap construction arrangements? ie is the concept of there being an outside film invalid for such caps?