Quote:
Originally Posted by andy
The questions is how old are the NOS caps? If they are from the 80's, or newer they are probably fine, but anything older won't be much better than the originals. Personally, if they test good for capacitance, ESR, and leakage current under full voltage, I would use them, but I don't mind going back in to re-replace the occasional cap.
Now, if you're re-capping for the sake of having all new caps, then you need to use new caps. Replacing the old caps with more old caps won't buy you anything unless you're just replacing the bad caps.
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Agree - I'd rather stick a USA-made Mallory, CDE or Sprague from the 80's in my sets than a Korea/Taiwan/China made cap. Just too many "gray market" caps out there to be sure, and the old Mallory caps (1973 date codes, so replaced sometime or another...) in my CTC-16 have better measured ESR and leakage than the newly-purchased Sprague TVA (Taiwanese made) replacements I was going to use.
Interestingly, the CDE's (WBR series) that Mouser sells are the only USA made caps I have found, outside of the exotic audiophile caps that command 40-50 dollars each. Xicons are nice, but the 105 degree ones aren't available anymore. The CDE WBR's will still set you back 15-20 bucks a piece. A NOS, 80's made Mallory FP multisection cap can be had 20-40 bucks. The hard part is finding one with the correct or close values.
Can anyone recommend a USA-made 450V cap that's easily obtained and fresh?
Cheers,