Older amplifiers and worn out capacitors?

[ROLEXrifleman]

http://www.stevemeadedesigns.com/board/topic/146106-oldschool-rf-power-series-250m/

[ROLEXrifleman]

Heres another

http://www.stevemeadedesigns.com/board/topic/142993-old-school-punch-40i-on-the-bench/page__fromsearch__1

[Guest]

damn thats pretty cool. so do you think there is any real/noticeable benefit if i swap them out? even if they dont appear to be leaking/damaged?

[ROLEXrifleman]

In my opinion if things arent bad you risk the posibility of doing more damage then good. If you replace them with exactly the same spec'ed caps it would be a wash.

[Guest]

ah gotcha. thanks for the info guys. if they're bulging i'll replace them. if not, i'll just leave them alone.

edit: what about higher capacity/power caps? just curious

[ROLEXrifleman]

Now your outta the realm of my knowledge. cant help you there, I wouldnt know how that wold effect the output!

[Wicks]

Great post!

I have an older Punch200 that I'm in the process of refreshing at the moment.

Electrolytic caps will degrade over time. If you keep them charged they may last a bit longer but eventually the electrolyte will evaporate out of the cap and it will dry up.

Especially on these units which are 15+ years old.

I was going to start a thread about this, but I can add some details here as well.

I went to Digikey and Mouser online and researched some replacement caps.

I started with the replacement series for the Nichicon's that my Punch200 was originally loaded with (since Nichicon no longer makes those specific caps).

I have access to an LCR meter at work to accurately measure the cap's capacitance and ESR (Equivalent Series Resistance).

You probably wont believe what I found...

The older caps actually had more capacitance and less ESR than the new ones I bought....

From the looks of it, caps were made a LOT better than they are now.

I would guess with companies saving as much money on supplies as possible, the components are not as good as they used to be.

I even bought more caps from the next level of capacitance and they still weren't much better than the originals.

So as stated above, unless they show signs of wear (bulging, leaking, etc) leave them installed.

Rolex is right, you run the risk of damaging something else and then you're in deeper than when you started.

[bassface]

Damn makes me want to buy old amps to steal the capacitors from.

[J R]

I've got an old Alpine 4 channel that was actually my dads back in the mid 80's. He used and abused it and now I'm doing the same. It sounds awesome in my truck I'll never put another 4 channel in it

[Kyblack76]

very neat post, ..

Kranny,.. successful or not,.. please keep us up to date on your findings,success, and or damage......

good stuff guys...