Non pol voltage specs. ?

[Ron Rich]

Hi All,

Does anyone know how important voltage specs. are on non pol caps, used for output sections of the amp ?  For example-- Seeburg used a 1500x 35 volt cap on that circuit for years. Well you can't find that today, so guys are using two "regular" 3300's tied together-- BUT, one of (at least?) the "kit suppliers", is sending out 16 volt caps-- Izzdat OK and if so, why ??  Thankx !  Ron Rich

[jukenorman]

Hi Ron,
Yes that's OK - two electrolytics in series form a non polarised capacitor with the capacitance halved. Voltage wise, the example you have given is borderline I would suggest, in that it would give a 32V capacitor with the half the voltage developed across each capacitor like in a voltage doubler circuit. The tolerance on electrolytics is fairly high so you might not get exactly half the voltage on each one so I think it would be better to go up a voltage rating. You would definitely be OK with 25V caps!

Norman.

[Ron Rich]

Thanks Norman-- that makes sense ! Ron Rich