What Does "Audio Grade" Mean?

if you're looking to get the best sound out of your headphones or speakers there is no shortage of ways that manufacturers of audio equipment will try to convince you that with their product your experience will be like sitting in a viennese concert hall and one thing you'll hear about quite a bit is the concept of audio grade capacitors but what makes a capacitor audio grade well in answering this question we'd like to give a big thank you to our friend andy grove at audio note uk for helping us with this video so let's get to it let's start with the function of a capacitor in the first place and then we'll go from there capacitors can be found on all modern electronics and they usually look like little cylinders or water towers sticking out of a circuit board their function is to store electrical energy in audio devices not only do they provide short-term storage of power for small spikes in power draw but they also couple the constant voltage dc signals on your sound card with the rapidly fluctuating voltages that end up ultimately driving your headphones and speakers but unlike a battery which stores energy chemically a capacitor accomplishes its task through its physical construction so inside a capacitor you'll find two face-to-face metal layers usually aluminum that actually hold the charge separated by an insulator known as a dielectric capacitance then is related to how big these foil layers are and how thick the dielectric is as well as what it's made from in fact the surface area of the foils is often increased by putting small pits into them during the manufacturing process in order to increase the capacitance without increasing the physical size of the capacitor now in conventional capacitors the dielectric is usually plastic or ceramic however we often see special audio grade capacitors that are the electrolytic type where the dielectric is actually made of a layer of aluminum oxide formed on the anode so that's the positive foil inside the capacitor this oxide dielectric is very thin and gives electrolytic capacitors a high capacitance for their size which is really important for audio you see larger capacitance means that the impedance of the system is lower which can cut down on unwanted electrical noise something that is especially important in an audio product's power supply because you don't want weird feedback between the power supply and then the separate electronics that actually handle the audio signal but building a capacitor that's good for audio isn't just a matter of choosing off-the-shelf ingredients and calling it a day audio grade capacitors typically use special and often secret electrolyte formulas and separator papers between the metal layers that are supposed to reduce vibration and improve electron flow some of them even use silk as part of the separator paper instead of plain wood fibers additionally while the leads on a traditional capacitor are made of steel to save cost audio caps can use copper leads for improved electrical conductivity okay linus i get it audio grade capacitors are engineered so my electricity will flow more smoothly and make my headphone jack more danceable or whatever but how do i know exactly what to look for if i'm buying a sound card an amplifier or a motherboard so the truth is that finding something that's good enough these days is super easy most capacitors are designed for low cost and high reliability and pretty much any decent quality audio product with them will sound good enough for everyday use as long as you're buying from a reputable brand the days of low end motherboards onboard audio making like like screeching noises as you move your mouse around are thankfully long gone but if you're wanting to go for something more premium to pair with your high-end headphones or speakers well it might behoove you to at least check where the capacitors came from notably japanese companies like rubicon elna and nichikon have an excellent reputation for making caps that minimize unwanted noise and distortion so if you see those same brands being used in well-regarded audio equipment there's probably a reason for it beyond that though remember that while many aspects of sound output can be measured no two pairs of ears are exactly the same which means that sound quality tends to be a little more subjective than certain other things in the technology world for example it's not hard to compare the frame rates of two different graphics cards and say well more is better so but different capacitors may result in a slightly different sound even if their specifications on paper are roughly the same so as always it's best to listen to the different options that are available to you before you buy so you don't end up making a horrible mistake speaking of making a horrible mistake don't make one check out private internet access vpn pia hides your true ip address and allows you to bypass geo restrictions and censorship by making you appear as though you're 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Channel: Techquickie

Views: 346,730

Keywords: audio, marketing, terms, capacitors, quality, clarity, circuits, is it all marketing?, does it actually do anything, headphones, earbuds, sound, audiophile, what is it?

Id: jX3NjL_8PVE

Length: 6min 1sec (361 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 25 2019