What is your experience which rectifier sounds better? It been a few years and no conclusion was posted here. I know some Hexfred are reported to not sound good, my post is referring to good sounding Hexfred that are the majority. Either newer diode is likely a good upgrade to vintage gear.
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There is no consensus on this 15 year old question? Guess both are about identical in performance.
Try it yourself, both ways, and discover which is preferable to you. It's an experiment which is neither expensive nor difficult.
And don't read my article in Linear Audio magazine, which covers 48 different solid state rectifiers. For someone like yourself, it could possibly trigger a bad spasm of audiophilia nervosa.
Soft Recovery Diodes Lower Transformer Ringing by 10-20X :|: Linear Audio
And don't read my article in Linear Audio magazine, which covers 48 different solid state rectifiers. For someone like yourself, it could possibly trigger a bad spasm of audiophilia nervosa.
Soft Recovery Diodes Lower Transformer Ringing by 10-20X :|: Linear Audio
Schottky diodes are problematic for rectification at higher voltages due to the chance of thermal-runaway with the leakage current. If you do use a shottky rectifier at 50..100V sort of range, make sure its on a reasonably sized heatsink to stop it getting more than warm.
Reverse leakage current in big schottkys rises exponentially with temperature to high levels. Standard rectifiers have many orders of magnitude less leakage at all temperatures.
Standard rectifiers are fine at mains frequencies, although soft-recovery is always nice to have. Fast recitifers are more suited for SMPS's where the AC frequencies at in the tens and hundreds of kHz, not 50 or 60Hz.
Reverse leakage current in big schottkys rises exponentially with temperature to high levels. Standard rectifiers have many orders of magnitude less leakage at all temperatures.
Standard rectifiers are fine at mains frequencies, although soft-recovery is always nice to have. Fast recitifers are more suited for SMPS's where the AC frequencies at in the tens and hundreds of kHz, not 50 or 60Hz.
Do Hexfred have same leakage issue as Schottky? I use 1/2 size TO-220 heatsinks on amps to 50 watts out, suggest full size TO-220 heat sinks above 50 watts to 100 watts and above 100 watts to perhaps 250 watts two TO-220 heat sinks back to back. Both Hexfred and CIS Schottky have higher forward voltage drop vs conventual diodes. Your thoughts?
"Fast recovery", click
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Plucked Linear audio #10 from the shelf, happy to know my favorites (BYV27/28/29 are cheap) got good grades 😀
Hexfreds don't leak current, but they sure make your wallet leak a lot...
"Sort by price", click
Plucked Linear audio #10 from the shelf, happy to know my favorites (BYV27/28/29 are cheap) got good grades 😀
Hexfreds don't leak current, but they sure make your wallet leak a lot...
Since synchronous rectification became common and easy i have lost all interest in auditioning compromised rectifiers. They all sound broken in comparison.
Funny how I had Mark's article in the shopping cart, so I finally pulled the trigger.
I was looking at rectifiers recently, remember Mark mentioned ST Micro FERD40H100S devices in a post.
FERD have high leakage I but forward Vf is really low. Price is right. Anyone use them or see anything wrong in using them other than the 100V PIV limit?
I was looking at rectifiers recently, remember Mark mentioned ST Micro FERD40H100S devices in a post.
FERD have high leakage I but forward Vf is really low. Price is right. Anyone use them or see anything wrong in using them other than the 100V PIV limit?
