Amplifier Signal Path Capacitor Recapping. Which Cap Is Best. Nichicon, Rubycon, WIMA. Sansui au-217

[@MichaelYates]

-- UPDATE it looks like the WIMA caps used were fake or faulty -- Thanks to subscriber "hugobloemers4425" for pointing out this might be the case Please check my new test on new batch here - kzbin.info/www/bejne/hoOXfaCbhbOahZo

[@hugobloemers4425]

Hi Michael, I am happy you still do audio. This is a great experiment and I think a lot of people not watching this are missing out. I was surprised that the Wima capacitors where disappointing. Having said that, you may have a Chinese knock off capacitor. Wima capacitors do not have printing on the top, but on the side. Also 50P is a bit cheap if you buy them in low quantities. I would expect that you have to pay at least double of that to get the real deal. Also, it is good to know that Wima has a wide assortment of applications and dielectrics within their film capacitor offerings. What you need is either an MKP04 (I believe this is the correct one) or an MKP10 series. Also, if you loose base, you could up the capacitance value to 2µf if the MKP4 type still lacks that (which surprises me). Other than that, I believe that electrolytic capacitors have a much worse reputation than they deserve, and your experiment proves that. Certainly they have their own sound, and it could be the more vintage sound many of us love so much. If you are doing more experiments with this amp, I hope you will make more videos of it as well. PS, if you get a real Wima MKP4, it will say Wima and MKP4 on the side, left, besides other information on the right. And the printing is black. There should be a black vertical line on it was well. Have a look on google images. And e.Bay and even Amazon is not your friend when it comes to buying new premium electronic components, it is a bit of a wheel of fortune.

[@MichaelYates]

Thanks Hugo, I think I got the ones I used from Farnel, but now you have me thinking. I have just ordered some 100v ones from Rapid, they look like the ones shown on my thumbnail to this video. I will give those ago as the ones I tried here were not great at all. I will pin my findings on this video comments and also reply back to your comment

[@matthewtaylor7355]

Wima Caps the Poundshop Audio grade capacitors

[@theoloutlaw]

Here's a tip, when using solder wick, use a little extra flux on the board, it will really help the removal of solder to the wick. :)

[@MichaelYates]

Thanks for the tip

[@theoloutlaw]

Cheers! You'll be surprised how much it helps. I learned from another youtuber myself.@@MichaelYates

[@ohger1]

Every time I did a double blind test on capacitors with a group of audiophiles, the results were always inconclusive.

[@MichaelYates]

Think that would be the case here to. Its very much to the listeners taste I suppose

[@MichaelYates]

Sorry I have been watching the replies to this comment and now remove a user for being derogatory to another user for their grammer and being insulting.

[@ThinkingBetter]

You tell them the price of each cable and magically the more expensive one will be the best sounding one.

[@gaineyjohnson6628]

If sound isn't really the question, then which is better in terms of durability. I have a feeling they are probably close but asking my betters seems a good start to find out.

[@ohger1]

@@gaineyjohnson6628 The metal film caps are probably the most durable as any internal short is pretty much blown clear - self healing. But really, any modern plastic cap of sufficient voltage is fine for vintage restorations and will last many decades or more (or "forever") longer than the originals.

[@bohdan2752]

I recapped my sansui 350a preamp board. Use nichicon FG and Muse. I can hear more low end but sound became very moody. I replaced electrolitica 1uf and 3.3uf with wima film. High end frequencies came back but music sounds very harsh . Then i put old original capacitors back. And it sounds very clear, detailed and very pleasant. Old Caps are out of specs on capacitor tester but they do better job than new at least for my ears. Will try one more time with Elna capacitors but definitely i can say i dont like wima and nichicon combo

[@MichaelYates]

Yes I think its a case of trying a few different combo's, I have left the old 1uf and 0.47uf in on a 331 receiver as they sounded better than a few replacements I tried, but changed the 0.47uf to a fine gold and left the original 1.5uf on the phono stage and that sounds real nice now. Amazing how some new caps cannot do what the olds ones did. I read on a lot of forums people doing recaps only to take them all out again and put back the originals.

[@bohdan2752]

I tried recapping because a lot of people said new capacitors will make it better. But i got completely opposite

[@jimsregaturntableshifijukebox]

Another interesting video .

[@MichaelYates]

Thanks Jim, all the best Michael

[@Conservator.]

If you’ve done these tests ‘by ear’ you should have find a blind test and all tests should have been done back to back (which would be a real challenge in itself). If not the results will be subjective. I’m sorry to be so harsh after all the effort you’ve made.

[@MichaelYates]

No problem not harsh at all and a fair point. First of all I dont claim to be an expert as I explain in a lot of my videos . I did want to give that caps a day to burn in shall we say then do the test for that cap. One thing I also did not mention in the video was after doing all 3 new caps over 6 days the last day I hot swap all the caps in turn to double check my thoughts and of course these are subjective. I did have a comment that I need an scope and spectrum analyzer to do a proper test, but I do not have either and would have no idea how to set them up to show space and airyness on tracks. The main idea of the video was just to let people that do a recap on old cheap vintage amps to maybe get a few different makes to experiment with on thier units as they can give different results.

[@Johny666EU]

i thisnk the wima u use MKS means polyester and there are no so greatest for audio signal path. try to use MKP series which is polypropylene, there are bigger so make sure u have space for them.