polarized vs non-polarized caps

[noingwhat]

I am building a RC filter, and the capacitor I need I can wire it in two ways.

I can either use 4 polarized caps wired in series and parallel to add up to what I need,
or
I can use a single non-polarized cap.

I know that if I wire up the polar-caps, it won't be quite as high of fidelity, but I am using a 50 year old amp, so I am not terribly concerned with fidelity.

The non-polar-caps are twice as expensive though, so I am not sure which one to go with. How much will I hear the difference if I had used the non-polar vs polar?

 

[dknguyen]

How about give us the types of capacitors you're looking at? Non-polar vs polar does give us generalizations on frequency response of the capacitor, but nothing definite.

 

[audioguru]

I use metalized plastic film capacitors for coupling and filtering audio. They come in values up to 1uF in small packages and are available with 5% tolerance. They cause absolutely no distortion.

I try to avoid electrolytic capacitors for audio but I have used non-polar ones sometimes. Their tolerance can be as low as 20%.

Over 30 years ago I used tantalum capacitors but most of them blew up.

 

[ben7]

Film caps are best, eltrolytics tend to degrade over time, causing big problems.

Speaking of polarization, an electrolytic capacitor can explode if put in backwards, or fed to high of a voltage.

 

[ben7]

I am building a RC filter, and the capacitor I need I can wire it in two ways.

I can either use 4 polarized caps wired in series and parallel to add up to what I need,
or
I can use a single non-polarized cap.

I know that if I wire up the polar-caps, it won't be quite as high of fidelity, but I am using a 50 year old amp, so I am not terribly concerned with fidelity.

The non-polar-caps are twice as expensive though, so I am not sure which one to go with. How much will I hear the difference if I had used the non-polar vs polar?

Use film capacitors. They are THE BEST choice.

The fidelity also depends on how good your amp amplifies!

Oh yeah, non-polar caps are twice as expensive, and twice as big!

 

[rfs100]

AUDIOGURU...You would probiibly know better than I about this, but cant NPO Electrlytics be simply and inexpensively be made by simply connecting 2 electros in series, positive to posive, thereby creating a 3 legged lectro cap??

 

[audioguru]

You can make your own non-polar electrolytic capacitors or you can buy them.