Rotel RCD965BXLE Black Gate or Muse?

[bottletop]

Hi, can anyone please advise me on what to do or what is correct. I have a Rotel RCD965BXLE UK spec. I bought this player back in 1991 before I went off to study. As a result it got little use perhaps a couple of hours per month until last summer when I got back into my music and hifi. A friend in the state has been guiding me on cap upgrades for my amp and now I am looking to upgrade the electrolytic caps in my Rotel CD player. I have had a look and most of the output caps are Black Gate F (gold and black coloured). I have read that these caps are the holy grail of caps and would appear to be a source of much heart felt debate.
The questions are, do I replace these black gate caps as they are 20 years old now or are they still good (i.e. not dried out like I have read caps can do). My friend recommends using nichicon muse as a replacement to the BG caps. Are muse caps on par with the Black Gate F series cap or after 20 year are the BG caps still better? I have popped in a pair of Muse caps on the final output stage and the sound does seem different not sure if I can say better at this time as the caps still need time to burn in. I find myself wondering if the improved 3D imaging of the presentation is real or my imagination. Any help is most welcome as I am just not sure what to do. I will be replacing all the nichicon power caps and the JPN caps with good quality audio grade ones. Richard.

[Lautar]

Black Gate F - its good caps
bat in output bettr Muse nonpolar

[bottletop]

So you mean the muse nonpolar is better in the output than the black gate?

[Mooly]

I'm not familiar with the player as such but I think the biggest change in sound quality will come from swapping any opamps, particularly if they are originally of the NE5534 type and used for I/V conversion etc.
From experience I know it's easy to "want and wish" that a modification or different part has improved things... so only you can answer that... but opamps do make a real difference and subtle change. All depends on what is in there of course.

[ihear21khz]

I really don't think you should worry about old Blackgates. They are not electrolytics in the strictest sense and they should not dry out. Mooly is right - look at changing the opamps to better sounding types. I would also advise you to add a precision after-market clock.

[Lautar]

Originally Posted by bottletop

So you mean the muse nonpolar is better in the output than the black gate?

for autput stage beter Nichicon Muse BP
BG its good for Analog power
Oscon for Digital power
its my mean