capacitor breack in

[garfo]

does anyone know a way to accelerate the breack in of a brand new capacitor?
I know it is possible to do it with speakers, is it there a way to do it to capacitors as well?

Thank you

[jkokura]

Hey Nuno,

Jury is out on whether this is an issue. Certainly, I can understand why you might think it's something you need to worry about, but based on my quick research I did this morning after reading your question, I don't think there's a clear answer for you.

Capacitors take the voltage we give them, store it up, then release it in a very specific way. Because of that, any time you send power into them, they're working. So, the only way I can think of doing this is to simply leave them plugged into power. I don't know how long, or even if it's necessary. Certainly, you would benefit from the experience if only to verify nothing is going to blow out after X amount of time. Whether doing this is actually going to break in your capacitors... I honestly don't believe in that stuff. Not for the types of capacitors we use.

Anyway, short answer - just plug it in and keep it running. You don't need to do anything else.

Jacob

[garfo]

Thank you  Jacob.I was thinking of plugging it to a 9 volt battery.Im Only worried about it might explode.

Hey Nuno,

Jury is out on whether this is an issue. Certainly, I can understand why you might think it's something you need to worry about, but based on my quick research I did this morning after reading your question, I don't think there's a clear answer for you.

Capacitors take the voltage we give them, store it up, then release it in a very specific way. Because of that, any time you send power into them, they're working. So, the only way I can think of doing this is to simply leave them plugged into power. I don't know how long, or even if it's necessary. Certainly, you would benefit from the experience if only to verify nothing is going to blow out after X amount of time. Whether doing this is actually going to break in your capacitors... I honestly don't believe in that stuff. Not for the types of capacitors we use.

Anyway, short answer - just plug it in and keep it running. You don't need to do anything else.

Jacob

[culturejam]

Jury is out on whether this is an issue.

Not for me.  The only upside to burning in a cap is to see if it fails within X hours. For 5-cent caps in 9v circuits, I don't personally think it's worth the time/effort. But hey, whatever turns your crank.

I wouldn't hook up a battery for testing, however. It will just wear down the battery for no good reason and that will be one more thing in the landfill (unless you're using rechargeables). I would suggest using a breadboard and hooking up a 9v DC wall wart to the +/- strips and then put the cap across the rails. Leave it as long as you think is required for "break in". You could even test a couple dozen at a time with a big enough board. Go nuts!

[pickdropper]

I've never seen any data that suggests that capacitor break-in is real.

Speakers, however can undergo a mechanical change, particularly as things loosen up a bit, so it should, in theory, be a measurable change (although I've never done it).

[garfo]

http://www.sozoamplification.com/break_in.html

[alanp]

Amplifiers: 400 volts.

Pedals: Nine volts, tops. Normally way less.

[RobA]

The last quote on that page is nonsense. The little photos on the page are meaningless. There is no description, no statement of what they are supposed to mean.

My take-away from that page is that their electrical components take 100 hours of continuous use to sound good, therefore their electrical components are useless crap. I'm not saying that their products are crap. I wouldn't know as I've never used them. I'm just saying that this is what their marketing material implies. If I pull out a generic cap and put it on a scope and measure voltage responses, they don't look like that first picture outside of the transient response. Why should their expensive caps take so long to work correctly?

[stevewire]

I installed the SoZo Mustard Vintage Capacitors™ into my AC30CC2X a few years ago.  I did notice a difference in sound from the stock coupling caps, but I can't say that I ever noticed any differences within a break in period after installing them.  Plus I would think that it isn't going to be quite the same with the caps we use in circuits that range from 9v to 18v.  My advice would be not to worry about it too much.

[pickdropper]

The last quote on that page is nonsense. The little photos on the page are meaningless. There is no description, no statement of what they are supposed to mean.

My take-away from that page is that their electrical components take 100 hours of continuous use to sound good, therefore their electrical components are useless crap. I'm not saying that their products are crap. I wouldn't know as I've never used them. I'm just saying that this is what their marketing material implies. If I pull out a generic cap and put it on a scope and measure voltage responses, they don't look like that first picture outside of the transient response. Why should their expensive caps take so long to work correctly?

+1.

The caps might be good for all I know, but they lay it on a bit thick.

They also go into skin effect, which is real, but I always understood to be fairly inconsequential in audio amplifiers as it isn't very pronounced until you get to higher frequencies.  High-end cable companies always go on about skin effect in audio cables, but they are generally chock full of nonsense.

[culturejam]

The last quote on that page is nonsense.

So are the first couple:

The sound gets clear. It at first sounds smeared.

I've never heard a smeared amplifier or pedal, regardless of how new the caps are. You can't define "smeared" vis-a-vis audio, so it serves no purpose other than to mislead consumers. It's like saying the sound is "didactic" before cap break-in. It's meaningless in that context. But it has a nice marketing ring.

Garfo, we're not breaking your balls. We're just saying be careful taking capacitor advice from a company that sells expensive capacitors.

[DutchMF]

We're just saying be careful taking capacitor advice from a company that sells expensive capacitors.

This! Please let your ears be the judge on what you do, what you use, and what you are willing to pay for those two things! I'm more than happy using caps costing a few cents from Tayda, but I'm sure something is changing in there after a whole lot of hours of use.... Can I hear the difference between Pedal A after it has just been built and 3 years later? Side by side maybe, but with a 3 year gap? Hell no! If it's not working for you right after you build it, it won't after some years of use.

Paul

[jkokura]

http://www.sozoamplification.com/break_in.html

This info is from a company that is trying to sell 50 cent capacitors for $4...

Jacob

[pickdropper]

The last quote on that page is nonsense.

So are the first couple:

The sound gets clear. It at first sounds smeared.

I've never heard a smeared amplifier or pedal, regardless of how new the caps are. You can't define "smeared" vis-a-vis audio, so it serves no purpose other than to mislead consumers. It's like saying the sound is "didactic" before cap break-in. It's meaningless in that context. But it has a nice marketing ring.

Garfo, we're not breaking your balls. We're just saying be careful taking capacitor advice from a company that sells expensive capacitors.

I wonder if they have their roots in the high end audio world.  In that realm, "pinpoint" imaging of a stereo soundscape is often one of the targets.  Smearing is the obscuring of that imaging.  Apparently, magic caps fix that.  I have no idea how smearing would apply to a mono guitar signal.

[garfo]

Good to hear about all this.
I actually bought TAD vintage oil capacitor to use in my bass and was wondering if these type of capacitors do benefit from a period of working time.I also saw somewhere, can't remember where that the Jensen oil caps often used for guitar tone pots also need a period of arround 60 hours to breack in.
When I found the SoZo caps and saw that article it kind of connected with what I've seen before.
So, it appears to me that it is a general idea here that it is all bull0"#$T, right...!!?