benefits of using 1/2 watts resistor

quaternotetriplet · Post by **quaternotetriplet** » 07 Apr 2010, 23:41

are there any benefits?

and also larger electrolytic caps. are there benefits?

to the mods... I'm quite not sure where to post it.. sorry if i posted it here

soulsonic · Post by **soulsonic** » 08 Apr 2010, 00:15

In theory, a 1/2 watt resistor would have less self-noise than a 1/4 watt resistor of the same value. But that's often impossible to hear in the average pedal.
Sometimes you NEED a larger resistor; like if it's being used to drop voltage for a zener regulator. I built a ring mod a few months back that sucked alot of current and I used 2 watt resistors for regulating... and they still got pretty warm.

Personally, I like to use 1/2 watt resistors when I'm doing a fun turret board or point-to-point build, but that's just for fun and mojo.

With caps, in some cases, electrolytics will have a lower ESR when they are larger physically. And there's also an open debate about high-voltage film caps sounding different/better than their low-voltage equivalent. In most cases here, it comes down strictly to taste, because once again, the currents and voltages in the average pedal are so small, most of the differences aren't noticeable.

quaternotetriplet · Post by **quaternotetriplet** » 08 Apr 2010, 01:08

thanks for your input...

lolbou · Post by **lolbou** » 09 Apr 2010, 20:13

quaternotetriplet wrote:I'm quite not sure where to post it..

Moved to... FAQs !

earthtonesaudio · Post by **earthtonesaudio** » 10 Apr 2010, 04:38

Big parts require less eyestrain for the reverse engineer.