Riken Ohm? Is it really the best?

[tINY]

I bet that the guy who told you that sells overpriced resistors from a company called "Riken ohm"....



-tINY

[csonics]

Multiple people have told me that they have a warmer, clearer sound than cheaper resistors. Anybody have any suggestions for something that is cheaper and compareble in audio quality?

[Tim Farrant]

Goodness, maybe we should a "resistor shootout" CD!

I fail to see how how one resistor brand would sound "warmer" than another, they are all pretty much made in the same way - but I may well be wrong. I think as long as you use a good brand metal film, you should be OK. If these particular resistors are not much more expensive than standard ones, then go for it - nothing to loose.

Tim.

[csonics]

Ok, I know that this might sound ignorant but has anybody heard of Holco resistors? I hear that they are another quality brand and they're cheaper than Riken Ohm.

[Jim Williams]

Here's the food chain of resistors:

1. Vishay bulk foil, $1.35 to $11 each!

2. Caddock power films, $1.50 to $10 each

3. Old Holco resistors, not the new ones. about $.75 each, if you can find them

4. Dale RN series. About $.09 each

5. Resista/Roederstein, about $.04 each

All the pacific rim resistors use ferris end caps and steel wires, this should be avoided. The Dales are the best value as they are the only MF's that use non-ferris end caps and copper wire leads.

Yes sluter's, resistors do make a BIG difference! Try them and hear for urself!

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

[tINY]

Is there a technical reason to avoid ferrous materials, or is this just a religous thing?



-tINY

[Jim Williams]

Not religous, just the physics of the material. Ferrous end caps react magnetically to passing currents, just like running a current through a ferrous wound coil. The results are up in the high Mhz range, but the "Golden ears" claim to hear a difference, and I would agree after comparisons. Also, most far east resistors use steel wires, the same problems exsist, you have a magnetic response to passing currents. Besides, steel isn't a great conductor compared to copper.

This may be why steel wire isn't too popular for audio.

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

[csonics]

Thanks for that info Jim! Do you have any opinions on good capacitors? I've heard that AudioCap is a good brand. Do you know of any others?

[Jim Williams]

Here's some capacitor suggestions:

Avoid Mylar/polyester caps for audio, except for low frequencies. Polypropylene film caps are very musical and polystyrene is good too. Avoid far east film caps.
I use VTV Ultratone silver foil, paper and oil caps for my high end coupling, like AD converters, speaker crossovers. They are no longer made although there are other companies in Europe making similar parts.

Other favorites are Wonder InfiniCaps, MIT multiCaps. For the financially challanged WIMA makes good polyprop film caps, use the highest voltage you can fit. They are also good for bypassing electrolytic caps.

For Electrolytic caps, Panasonic FM is good as is Rubycon Z series. Rubycon Black Gates are very good but expensive. Contact MichaelPercy.com for small quantities.

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

[snoopynow]

Originally Posted by Jim Williams

Not religous, just the physics of the material. Ferrous end caps react magnetically to passing currents, just like running a current through a ferrous wound coil. The results are up in the high Mhz range, but the "Golden ears" claim to hear a difference, and I would agree after comparisons. Also, most far east resistors use steel wires, the same problems exsist, you have a magnetic response to passing currents. Besides, steel isn't a great conductor compared to copper.

This may be why steel wire isn't too popular for audio.

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

Forgive me if I disbelieve the inductance theory, or for any resistance greater than an ohm or so, the conductivity one. To get apreciable ringing you'd have to run current round the resistor rather than through it, and a few tens of microhms of linear resistance isn't going to be detectable in multiple kilohms.

The most probable source of error is electrochemical in the plating process- you can't solder to steel, so you plate it, and differing metal interface resistances are not guaranteed linear. Capacitors, being microphonic, are a bit more difficult to analyse.

[tINY]

That seems like it may be more of a convern than paracitic inductance. Plated steel is likely to have boundry/junction charateristics that could be significant at low voltages and currents....

Anybody know where there is a study of this or have a thumbnail approximation of the effect for a given junction area?



-tINY

[Hussyh]

This is an old thread, but I have done many resistor-type shootouts in loudspeaker passive crossover networks, ,and I have established beyond any doubt that the various resistor types have different sonic signatures. To my ear, the differences are not subtle...not by a long shot.

[tINY]

Got a demo at work today about cheap "power resistors" in a test fixture.

Turns out, there are thermo-electric effects. body heat from your finger could push a precision meter to 40uV or more. Finger on the other side was a negative 40uV....

That could play hell with cross-over points and damping circuits as the cross-over heats up.




-tINY

[Matt Syson]

Hi
A loudspeaker crossover is a rather different animal to say the anode circuit of a preamp valve.
The crossover is considering amps of current for which any magnetic effect could become significant, compared to a handful of milliamps.
Unless I am mistaken there is a 'square law' involved relating to magnetic field strength which would make the preamp case less significant still.
Thesre is also the layout of circuit traces and other components to consider in any 'manufactured' version of any 'circuit'.
Matt S