What are orange drops
From larr–(at)–erakusa.com Fri Sep 8 10:56:02 CDT 1995
From: larr–(at)–erakusa.com (Dr. Nuketopia)
Newsgroups: rec.audio.tubes,alt.guitar.amps
Subject: Re: Caps, caps and more caps.
Date: 7 Sep 1995 16:17:22 GMT
Distribution: world
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Xref: geraldo.cc.utexas.edu rec.audio.tubes:982 alt.guitar.amps:3445
In article
sworti–(at)–eb.harvard.edu says…
>The “orange drops”, as I know them, are polyester film caps (or
>polypropylene film) made by Sprague (and others?)
>
>They seem to be prized by guitar amp technicians, although someone with
>more experience would have to explain why.
>
>Remember, distortion in a guitar amp is not necessarily something to
avoid.
Yeah, orange drop is a nickname for Spragues polyester film caps.
Tantulums are useles for audio coupling and what not. (when I was fixing
electronic equipment, tantulums seemed to fail an inordinate amount of
the time).
Orange drops are popular because they work well, are easy to get, and not
very expensive. You can use these in hi-fi applications, and they sound
good, but there are better polypropelene caps for that.
Orange drops have a nice clean smooth tone, versus the the muddy sounding
and unstable old hollo-wax paper caps originally used. The film caps
have much better leakage and inductive characteristics too. They will
probably outlive the amplifier and the musician.
I don’t know if anyone has tried a WonderCap in a guitar amp. I think it
would be overkill. But it would probably work very nicely.
—
Dr. Nuketopia
Technology Director of the World-Wide Monetary Conspiracy
Opinions strictly reflect the party line
From mgarvi–(at)–anix.com Fri Sep 8 10:57:11 CDT 1995
From: mgarvi–(at)–anix.com (Mark Garvin)
Newsgroups: rec.audio.tubes,alt.guitar.amps
Subject: Re: Caps, caps and more caps.
Date: 7 Sep 1995 12:21:11 -0400
Xref: geraldo.cc.utexas.edu rec.audio.tubes:981 alt.guitar.amps:3444
In <42ms51$1m--(at)--atte.eng.umd.edu> chuc–(at)–lue.umd.edu (Chuck Harris) writes:
>> Why are the orange drops prized? I expect you are talking about
>> the tantalum semi-electrolytic caps? I feel they are no good in
>What you say about tantalum’s is true, but the “Orange Drop” is a very
>old (circa 1960) polypropylene tubular cap made by Sprague.
Regarding orange drops, the 220’s, 225’s, 6ps, 4ps, etc are polyester
(mylar). The 715’s are the polypropylenes. They look almost identical.
‘Prized’ varies from one engineer to the next. I’ve heard discerning
designers express preferences for old paper caps.
Regards,
Mark Garvin
From lewi–(at)–pmorgan.com Fri Sep 8 10:57:31 CDT 1995
From: lewi–(at)–pmorgan.com (Lewis King)
Newsgroups: rec.audio.tubes
Subject: Re: Caps, caps and more caps.
Date: 7 Sep 1995 21:32:44 GMT
Distribution: world
Reply-To: lewi–(at)–pmorgan.com
In article cp–(at)–anix2.panix.com, mgarvi–(at)–anix.com (Mark Garvin) writes:
>
> Regarding orange drops, the 220’s, 225’s, 6ps, 4ps, etc are polyester
> (mylar). The 715’s are the polypropylenes. They look almost identical.
>
Yep – darn confusing too that both types seem to be called ‘Orange
Drops’…the 715s are sold by New Sensor and they call them ‘Orange
Drops’ in their catalog.
(BTW- the Newark catalog confirms the above…that the 715s
are polypropelene and the 225s are polyester film.)
LK
Oh…almost forgot to mention that I’m not in anyway affiliated with
either of the above referenced firms.
From Dr.Distortio–(at)–bs.mhv.net Fri Sep 8 10:58:14 CDT 1995
From: Dr.Distortio–(at)–bs.mhv.net (Dr Distortion)
Newsgroups: rec.audio.tubes,alt.guitar.amps
Subject: Re: Caps, caps and more caps.
Followup-To: rec.audio.tubes,alt.guitar.amps
Date: 7 Sep 1995 16:13:33 GMT
Reply-To: Dr.Distortio–(at)–bs.mhv.net
Xref: geraldo.cc.utexas.edu rec.audio.tubes:985 alt.guitar.amps:3447
S. W. Wortis (sworti–(at)–eb.harvard.edu) wrote:
: What’s the consensus on capicitors in guitar amp applications (where
: “hi-fi” may not be neccesarily desired?)
I don’t think cap type is as critical. Some of the best-sounding old amps
use ceramics (gasp!) as coupling caps. For my own amps, I just use
regular polyprop film or silver mica, depending on the value needed.
: I know the “orange drops” are
: prized but what about polarized caps?
I assume you’re talking about power supply filters. I have found the
Japanese “Illinois” brand of ‘lytics to be quite adequate. Again, there’s
no need to split hairs so finely when talking about guitar amps; we don’t
need our power supplies to be as stiff as the audiophiles require.
If you look in the catalogs, they usually give figures of merit for the
‘lytics they sell. You want a fairly low ESR and a wide operating
temperature range. Most ‘lytic figures are given assuming 120Hz of
ripple, so be sure to compensate if you’re looking to replace the caps in
one of those really old amps that used a half-wave rectifier (with 60Hz
ripple). To make things even simpler, the ‘lytics you can get from the
usual suspects (Mouser, Mojo, New Sensor, et. al.) are just fine for
guitar amps. Of course, watch that voltage rating…
