Capacitor distortion in the Neve 1073 and 1084 channel amplifier

Sammanfattning

Neve consoles are widely regarded by audio engineers as having pleasant sonic qualities. These consoles often feature tantalum electrolytic capacitors for signal coupling, something that may according to research by Gaskell (2011) introduce audible distortion. The goal of research presented in this paper is to provide insight into what electrical and sonic qualities different capacitor types might have in vintage Neve microphone amplifiers. A thorough analysis of how the Neve 1073 preamplifier operates is presented, in order to establish how tantalum capacitors might have affected its performance. Further, distortion measurements with three types of capacitors were made on a vintage Neve 1084 module. A listening test was conducted in which listeners were tasked with distinguishing between different capacitor types in the signal chain. Statistical significance was found in one of nine trials. All tested BAs had different distortion levels, however, the film capacitors had the highest level.