S5B output capacitor
hi , in the S5B you say it is coupled with a 23uf Capacitor , why are you prefering two polar capacitors in series instead of a single one Bi-polar like Nichicon Muse or Audionote KASEI NP... or even why not using a Film cap ?
Yes, the S5b output capacitors are two unipolar Elna Silmic II 47 uF connected in reverse series, forming overall 23.5 uF bipolar "units". Mind you, bipolar electrolytic caps are essentially two unipolar ones inside anyhow.
Regarding Nichicon, I do like ES, but a passive parts selection is a sort of team play, and in the S5b I found Silmic II a better match.
However, time goes on, and now both Silmic II and ES are obsolete, and I hope to find a decent replacement until my stocks last (just as, some years ago, when Black Gate got obsolete, I had to replace BG N with Silmic II).
As for the film caps, regardless of their technical advantages, I honestly did not find one I really liked sonically. Polyester is just not up to audio tasks, polypropylene is usually too bright, polystyrene is natural but now obsolete, and often too big for the capacitances normally needed here, polycarbonate, although very sweet, had a bit too much of its own signature, etc.
Besides, Audial DACs are designed to drive very low impedances, 1 kOhm or less, and that is why I prefer at least 20 uF coupling capacitance, which is another constraint regarding the use of film caps here.
In some cases, at the customer's request and for use with (pre) amplifiers with known high input impedance, we however did install some specific parts, including Teflon and paper-in-oil.
HTH.
thanks for the info , yes Mkp sometimes could sound dry , you should try these CAP-100-R-22U-16V-NP: 22uF 16Vdc Audio Note Kaisei NON-POLAR , you could fin them at hificollective not too expensive .. i find them to be a great upgrade to the Nichicon ES ..
juan