Orange drops

Hello. I recently seen a video about Orange drop caps. How the foil end (the black band mark, Mallory's have them but not Sprague s) should be installed in amps . When going down the assembly line, it's not sure , when inked, that the banded side is correctly marked. The tech in this video used an o scope to test a few caps and some weren't marked correctly. I wonder if Mesa checks the caps prior to installing or is it really necessary?

Henz said:

Hello. I recently seen a video about Orange drop caps. How the foil end (the black band mark, Mallory's have them but not Sprague s) should be installed in amps . When going down the assembly line, it's not sure , when inked, that the banded side is correctly marked. The tech in this video used an o scope to test a few caps and some weren't marked correctly. I wonder if Mesa checks the caps prior to installing or is it really necessary?

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I would be shocked if anyone could pick the difference in tone or noise levels, etc. I believe the difference is minuscule.

Interesting reading here:
https://www.aikenamps.com/index.php/where-to-connect-the-outside-foil-on-capacitors

Thanks for the reply. Thanks for the link. It is interesting. The video that I watched on that very well known site, the tech tested them the same way with an o scope. But still, that link does ,in most part, does say that they need to be installed a certain way in amps. So yes, I do agree with you. With so much going on with amp ,natural hum, hiss... etc, it may be very minimal.

All the orange drops I’ve tested over the year have had a “polarity”. I throw them on a scope and look at the 60 cycle electrical noise. Check by squeezing the body of the cap while looking at the scope, which ever side jumps less is the one you want to have towards the lowest circuit impedance. It matters most for relatively small caps, i.e. 22n and below. Your 47 and 100n aren’t as much of a big deal.

Doubtful Mesa checks, they are installed by auto insertion machines nowadays I believe.

Polarity can certainly influence stability, as the caps turn into lil antennas surrounded by high impedance circuits, and this is particularly concerning when you have a lot of gain in a small footprint which Mesa often does. They have other ways to keep the amps from oscillating with signal routing, lead dress, and layout of gain stages across preamp tubes etc.

If you use metallized film you don’t have to worry and can take advantage of the smaller footprint and self healing properties. I like the quality of the leads for orange drops, your circuit board will fail mechanically before the caps do. But there’s a benefit for the cap failing before the board as well.

So many trade offs!