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MBM Capacitor Sound Good But Measured Bad

Most of my posting in this blog is about capacitors. Let's say Wima, Nichicon and ELNA Silmic. That is my choice for best performance to price ratio for audio application caps.

Wima it self come with many size. The MKP is the best one for the audio signal. They are offering natural sound and slightly thin to the mid range frequency. Elna is also good at it. Especially the Elna Silmic, it is small size electrolytic caps which offering warm and natural sound. Both Wima and Elna Silmic caps have small size. If the capacitor placement is not an issue at all, then look no other than the paper in oil capacitor. Frankly speaking, this is the best capacitor I've ever use for the audio signal. The sound-stage is wider, the layer sound is separate nicely and the sound is smooth and natural.


I just bought the MBM caps for my own stock. This caps is a Russian paper-in-oil type. I often using them for input caps, cross-over network, or even for bypass caps. Just like I describe earlier, I like the sound from this caps. It is just my curiosity to test them and find the match value for my next project. The result of this testing is quite surprising me.

In this test I am using Sanwa multimeter CD800a. It has the capacitance measurement. This multi-meter is very reliable in term of measurement tolerance. The marked value of each capacitor tested is 0,5uF +/- 10% of tolerance. This means the value will not going further to 0,55 or down to 0,45. Quite promising right? And this is the result.

None of those measured value is on the tolerance range! The very near is 0,57 and it is only one from 11. Most of all is between 0,8 and the highest value is reach 1uF. I remember when I measure the Wima caps, they value will not above the tolerance stated. But not for this MBM caps. So, I know I love this caps, then I should measure again before using them in any application to avoid imbalance between channel and to the overall sound quality.

Disclaimer: Any statement and photos in this article are not allowed to copy or publish without written permission from the writer. Any injury or loss from following tips in this article is not under writer responsibility.

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