Capacitors are one of the most important components in audio circuit. After our tests we realize that silver mica and polypropylene film capacitors are the best choice to get warm, natural and transparent sound without noise. That’s why we use German Wima audio capacitors for coupling and for very low values, we use silver mica caps instead of ceramic caps, because ceramic caps generate high odd harmonics and microphonic noise and cause harsh-sounding. Also we avoid to use electrolytic capacitors in the signal path, because their leakage current higher and cause noise in coupling circuit. We use Japan Panasonic electrolytic audio capacitors just for power supply circuits and bypass.
OCC(Ohno continious casting) is the name of casting process compare to conventional casting process, developed to provide minimizing all grain boundaries in copper or silver. Because the OCC casting method uses specialized heated moulds in order to draw a single crystal up to 125 meters in length.(while in conventional casting process at least 5000 crystals to 1 meter in length.) Oxides and impurities are eliminated thanks to this single long crystal structure. Thus, there is an untrammeled solid path for the best possible signal transfer and Silver is most electrically conductive elements in planet earth and conductivity provides more transparent sound.
Connectors are more important than you think. Poor quality connectors can be oxidized and oxidization gets increased contact resistance, as a result it causes signal loss. That’s why we use high quality Amphenol jacks which are nickel plated.
PCBs are also highly significant for a pedal as its other components. Guitar pedals are actually not high power circuits, so they work with even amateur PCBs; however poor PCB design is one of major reasons for noise. In consideration of this, we design our PCBs with ground planes for low noise performance, because ground is not ground when it is not large enough and should be away from signals that need to be quiet. Ground plane ensures large conductors to carry the currents that will be flow and damps down the ripples and noise. The other important matter for PCBs is traces and loops. The traces that are too thin cause signal loss reason of high resistance; the long loops cause high impedance and reduce the signal quality. We have our PCBs designed by taking into account all of these produced as gold plated PCBs to make them long-lasting and not to face the problems that may occur as a result of oxidation, like crackling, noise.
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