Upgrading coupling caps - which ones first?


I have been experimenting with different coupling caps on the output of my amp.  I now want to try some more expensive caps (Vcap, etc), but cannot afford to replace every coupling capacitor in my system.  Therefore I want to place the best capacitors where they will make the most difference.

For each channel of my amp, I have one coupling cap between the driver and phase splitter stages, and a pair between the phase splitter and output tubes.  There are also output coupling caps on my DAC that feeds the amp which I am thinking about upgrading as well.  Which ones benefit the most from an upgrade that should be targeted first?
solman989

Showing 1 response by ultra_fi

I concur the furtherest up the signal chain.

That in itself isn't much help though.  Perhaps, think of it like this: the capacitor is a bell and music signal is a hammer.  The further up the chain the smaller the hammer and the less the bell will ring imparting its artifacts to the signal.

So, as you move from small to large signal the capacitor needs to have more and more dampening effect.