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I am looking to build the percolator amp and notice you appear to use run of the mill caps/resistors (to keep costs down, which is good). While i wouldn’t split hairs over resistors, i’m wondering if you feel an upgrade in any of the capacitors would have a noticeable sonic improvement? If so, which ones? I’m also curious who builds the transformers for this. Thanks much! (Also, thanks for answering my questions on the cortado i’m building.)
Thanks for asking.
Believe it or not, I actually designed the Percolator intentionally using these caps…the decision wasn’t all about cutting cost. I could have used a few types of cheaper film caps, but I chose the Panasonic because I like the way they sound in the amp. The cheap 470pF ceramic caps probably seem like an odd decision but I am intrigued by the way they distort…distortion in these types of caps is a function of the voltage across them, they tend to impart more odd order harmonic distortion as the signal through them is bigger. I didn’t have a particular reason (other than cost) for using these particular electrolytic caps.
I fully support and encourage tweaking your amp with different parts. But I wouldn’t change any components until you hear the what the amp sounds like with all the stock components. Then if you do want to change out parts, it will give you a baseline for how the sound has changed.
We get our transformers from a supplier overseas and from a company here in the US called Edcor.
Thanks for the questions. Let me know if I can answer anything else.
Good luck with your build.
-Brach
