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Steve Cohn wrote:
I'd rather not mess with loss values and calculations of the resistance
needed to compensate. Sounds like my best bet is to replace the
polystyrene capacitors with some higher quality films caps of the same
value, and replace the electrolytics with the same as what's already
there. Agree?

While I'm no expert in this area, I can give you some information. Capacitor
quality and sound became well known to the audiophile community from a series
of articles by Marsh and Jung in Audio magazine in about 1980-81. Peter
Moncrieff of IAR took this a step further and had his Wonder Caps made to his
specs for high end equipment (Audio Research used them among others). Since
that time there have been many brands of exotic capacitors made which are used
in many high end products. One of the things Moncrieff recommended in the
early 1980s was to bypass electrolytic caps with small value polypropylene or
polystyrene, say 1/100th or 1/10th (or both using two smaller low value caps)
of the value of the larger cap. That was because larger value, high quality
caps were not available or were very expensive then. And as another poster
mentioned, by bypassing the bigger, poorer quality caps with smaller value
higher quality caps, the theory was that you get the some of the benefits
without the high cost. Sonic Frontiers (now Anthem) in Canada used to have a
subsidiary called The Parts Connection that stocked all of the exotic caps. I
believe it's gone or operating under another name now. Perhaps someone could
help you find their successor.
Regards,
Mike