Does charge coupling really work?

[Ian Mackenzie]

I would bet that if one were to do the same test but add a by-pass cap, the addition of the 0.01 mfd would not be discernable on the meter under these conditions either. But there are certainly people who can hear this difference under ideal listening conditions.

Is it worth the $$$? That becomes a value judgement. The difference in sound may be audible to some and not others, but it will certainly increase the costs drastically regardless. Consider that you not only need twice as many caps, but their values are twice as large and this will get into some coin.


I would bet that there would be more benefit in taking the time to to really tweak the standard cap crossover to the listening room, and use some "creative" electronic architecture to address each drivers adequacies and faults through selective contouring, you would end up with a better result than just taking the standard crossover and making a charge-coupled version

Speed costs money..., How fast do you want to go?

Hi Todd,

You make some interesting points.

The subjective awareness is going to depend on your associated equipment and your sensitivity to subjective differences. The ability to determine subjective differences is acquired through an evolution of listening experiences as a learning.

As a rule the more transparent the source is along with signal chain the more obvious any subjective differences will be in capacitors etc.

For example if you have an old Sherwood receiver the impact of a capacitor upgrade won't be as identifiable as a Mark Levinson or Macintosh set up.

A real example of a capacitor bypass improvement is to bypass a Clarity SA Capacitor with a 0.01uF Auricap. The subjective difference is painfully obvious.

However, I am more inclined to state for the record that getting getting the signal path as pure and neutral as possible is the priority. The marriage of those factors to the innate accuracy of the loudspeaker will determine if you system is in fact transparent and can be enjoyed without listener fatigue. The two are not mutually exclusive and this is where some some experience and judgement is required. For example a very analytical capacitor (like a Teflon capacitor) and an analytical (four way) loudspeaker a driven by harsh sounding amplifier may not be your idea of an enjoyable listening experience.

So be careful what you wish for.

You can't EQ room problems with a capacitor recipe. That and any snake oil is a slippery slope to Hell.

BTW if your happy with your Sherwood amp and like what you hear then there's no reason to change anything. But don't expect every audio buddy you invite over for a beer to agree with you.
Their listening experiences are going to be uniquely different to yours and they will agree to disagree on what you like and don't like in some instances.