Why Orange Drops

From postmaste–(at)–riodeel.com Sat Aug 30 20:26:00 CDT 1997
From: triodee–(at)–meritech.net (Ned Carlson)
Newsgroups: rec.audio.tubes
Subject: Re: Q: why Orange Drops?
Date: Sun, 31 Aug 1997 00:30:49 GMT
Reply-To: postmaste–(at)–riodeel.com
Xref: geraldo.cc.utexas.edu rec.audio.tubes:39429

troobk–(at)–ol.com (TROOBKA) wrote:

>Althougth they are cheap , plentiful, and easy to obtain, orange drops are
>IN MY OPINION not the way to go.

I haven’t seen any convincing evidence that Orange Plops are anything
more than just standard dipped mylar or polyproplene (depending
on the series) capacitors.
My friends in the capbiz say that Sprague is just a name used for
marketing purposes, as is Mallory. Supposedly they aren’t
even made by Sprague any more, they’re just stamped Sprague.
Just about any cap factory could make the same thing,
they’d just have to get orange goop to dip the caps in.

>The harder coating gives them a real nasty
>high end bite.

How would the outside coating affect the sound?
I think you are probably referring to the polypropylene
series and comparing them to old mylar stuff.

>You would be better off looking for some old black beauties,
>Astrons, or similar caps.

Those are paper, paper/mylar, or straight mylar caps,
depending on the model & vintage. If they are still
serviceable, they’re almost certainly mylar or paper/mylar.

We are working on getting new production paper capacitors
made, that would replicate the sound of old ones without
being leaky as a sieve…won’t be super cheap, ’cause
paper capacitors require extra steps (like wax-impregnating)
to make, but they won;’t be priced out of sight, either.

Ned Carlson, Triode Electronics, Chicago, IL http://www.triodeel.com
Open 12:30-8 PM CT, 12:30-5 PM CT Sat Closed Wed
ph:773-871-7459 fax 773-871-7938 “where da tubes are”
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