choosing capacitors...

recently another user sent me a link to an mxl 603 mod...

http://www.prodigy-pro.com/diy/index.php?topic=5156.0

here they instruct the replacement of the .22uf caps w/ panasonic metal film caps from digikey. problem is, they don't specify whether those are metallized polyester, metallized polypropylene, or stacked metallized plastic film.

i did a search, but all i found was some bickering about the validity of the mod to newer 603s and the discoverer of the mod, which doesn't particularly help me.

does anyone know what specific part the original modder was using, or even better, what the part# is? i've never modded anything, and have a couple spare 603s lying around that i thought i'd try my hand at.
 
Any of those caps would be fine as long as space allows .....

i think that's part of the issue...:(

you wouldn't happen to know what each cap looks like do you? at the link i provided, there are further links to before/after pics that show the new caps. maybe that helps to narrow it down?
 
The .22uF cap is the red one in the pics , but like I said any Poly cap will work fine and be better than what was in there which was probably a ceramic .... the caps are pretty small so no matter which one you get it will probably fit unless you get like a 200v or 300v part which would be a bit big and overkill anyways ....

I suggest you get one that has long leads as opposed to the Box caps which have short leads , incase the caps spaceing isn"t correct you have long leads that you can bend to accomidate the spaceing ....


Cheers
 
The .22uF cap is the red one in the pics , but like I said any Poly cap will work fine and be better than what was in there which was probably a ceramic .... the caps are pretty small so no matter which one you get it will probably fit unless you get like a 200v or 300v part which would be a bit big and overkill anyways ....

I suggest you get one that has long leads as opposed to the Box caps which have short leads , incase the caps spaceing isn"t correct you have long leads that you can bend to accomidate the spaceing ....


Cheers

cool, thanks man. as for the voltage rating--should i just match what's already in there? i'm starting to think that maybe i shouldn't be trying this until i learn a bit more about modding in general. i figured it would be a simple parts orering/desolder/solder job but maybe there's a lot more to it than that.
 
Any Voltage rateing of 63v or higher will be fine , 50v caps would be to close to the 48v Phantom voltage and could Fail .....

Cheers
 
The .22uF cap is the red one in the pics , but like I said any Poly cap will work fine and be better than what was in there which was probably a ceramic ....

Most of the Chinese SDCs I've seen use a couple of ceramic parts with single-digit pF values and a dozen or so large value dipped caps, which are probably tantalum. I mean, I suppose there are dipped multi-layer ceramic caps, but AFAIK, dipped tantalum are orders of magnitude more common. For that matter, (some?) silver mica caps are dipped, but I can pretty much guarantee they aren't those. :D
 
Let me find the parts I used. I got some specific recommendations and links on what to order here on the forums but I can't find the thread. I'll do some digging and get back to you.
 

i just checked these out, and i noticed they're both 50V. is that gonna be a problem like minion mentioned (being so close in rating to the 48V supply)?

also, the panasonic caps are 1uf instead of .22, so now i'm really confused. i know in my field i can up the uf rating on a motor cap (within reason), but i'm clueless on the electronic stuff. does this same principle apply?
 
i suppose i could've just asked you first, since you sent me the link.


Ha! I shouldn't have been so lazy and dug up the info for ya when I sent you the PM.:)


i just checked these out, and i noticed they're both 50V. is that gonna be a problem like minion mentioned (being so close in rating to the 48V supply)?

also, the panasonic caps are 1uf instead of .22, so now i'm really confused. i know in my field i can up the uf rating on a motor cap (within reason), but i'm clueless on the electronic stuff. does this same principle apply?

I actually bought some .22 caps and then Marik recommended the 1uf caps so I went with those.

There are a few simple tricks with the 603 modification you can turn it into quite an awsome mic.
The easiest and obvious is cap replacement, where the 0.22uf ones should be increased to 1uf, and use your favorite 1000pf type for the input one.

I'm not sure about the 50V they seem to work fine in my 990 but I couldn't tell ya why.:D
 
I recomended 63v caps because I don"t know were in the curcuit each cap will be used , if they are there for supply Bypass then you would need 63v caps but if they are in the audio path or the Drain of a Fet a low voltage cap would be fine .....

Cheers
 
I recomended 63v caps because I don"t know were in the curcuit each cap will be used , if they are there for supply Bypass then you would need 63v caps but if they are in the audio path or the Drain of a Fet a low voltage cap would be fine .....

Cheers

i see, thanks. so, does it make any difference at all if i use the higher-rated caps (voltage i mean, it appears that upping the uf is fine, and even preferable, per marik).

i mean, is it a "when in doubt" kinda thing? cuz i'd rather be safe than sorry as long as the higher voltage isn't gonna matter either way.
 
Hey Dross -- if you want, PM me a mailing address and I'll send you (for free) some capacitors that I have waiting to send for free to people who PM me with mailing addresses.

When we were discussing the mod here a while back, Marik recommended going with 1uf capacitors instead of .22 in order to improve bass response. At the local electronics store, there were a bunch of 1uf WIMAs (63v) that I grabbed for really cheap, as well as some 1000pf poly[something] for the capsule coupling.

Since the capacitors were 10% tolerance or or something like that, I sat down with my multimeter and matched them as best I could into sets to go with two MXL 603s -- that is, 4 of the 1u ones and 2 of the 1000pf ones with pretty much the same capacitance, and then I taped'em together and put them in my toolbox - I've got several sets that I won't use.

(BTW, I modded my 603s this way, and noticed a big improvement, but I've since sent them to Marik got them completely overhauled.)
 
Hey Dross -- if you want, PM me a mailing address and I'll send you (for free) some capacitors that I have waiting to send for free to people who PM me with mailing addresses.

When we were discussing the mod here a while back, Marik recommended going with 1uf capacitors instead of .22 in order to improve bass response. At the local electronics store, there were a bunch of 1uf WIMAs (63v) that I grabbed for really cheap, as well as some 1000pf poly[something] for the capsule coupling.

Since the capacitors were 10% tolerance or or something like that, I sat down with my multimeter and matched them as best I could into sets to go with two MXL 603s -- that is, 4 of the 1u ones and 2 of the 1000pf ones with pretty much the same capacitance, and then I taped'em together and put them in my toolbox - I've got several sets that I won't use.

(BTW, I modded my 603s this way, and noticed a big improvement, but I've since sent them to Marik got them completely overhauled.)

dude.

you ROCK!!!!

thanks so much, pm sent!
 
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