Substitute parts?????

RockysDad · 16th October 2009, 11:33 PM

So, other then not being original, what are some of the bad things that happen if I use some substitute, generic or fake parts? I know the quality is going not going to be the best but maybe they could be okay to use?

What I am really asking is that I need some vintage power transistor for my Harmon Kardon 730 which uses a pair of 2SB541 and 2SD388 for each channel (PNP/NPN). One of these puppies is bad but I thought I'd swap them all out. I can't find these very easily so I want to use NTE 87 and NTE 281 as substitute parts. These were the cross reference parts made by NTE. These are crap parts but what is a guy to do?

What would you do in my case?

I want my amp back...

Geek · 11:38 PM

Generic and fake are not the same. Generic are as good as the name brand. Fakes are good for nothing.

What makes you think NTE are crap? My TV shop would have not survived without them and I never had a call back due to a part.

Cheers!

DigitalJunkie · 16th October 2009, 11:58 PM

Depends on the application I suppose,but I've heard that NTE/ECG parts commonly don't live up to the specs of the parts they "replace". Never tested it myself though. Personally I try to avoid them,but sometimes you just can't.

Enzo · 17th October 2009, 05:15 AM

I don't think of them as crap parts, but you can;t always count on how close the specs are to your original part. Plus they cost several times what real parts cost.

You can usually sub one NTE part for one original part by itself OK, but what causes problems is mixing them. In particular circuitsw like high power amplifiers where there are a row of parallel output transistors. They really need to all be the same type transistor. That NTE thing m,ight or might not share current well and may or may not track thermally with the other original parts. Better to have ALL NTE in that row of outputs than one out of several.

A quick look at MCM showed some suggested subs for them that looked reasonable to me.

MJL21193 · 17th October 2009, 05:31 AM

You could replace all with MJ15015 / MJ15016.

16th October 2009, 11:33 PM	#1
RockysDad diyAudio Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Bay Area, CA	Substitute parts????? So, other then not being original, what are some of the bad things that happen if I use some substitute, generic or fake parts? I know the quality is going not going to be the best but maybe they could be okay to use? What I am really asking is that I need some vintage power transistor for my Harmon Kardon 730 which uses a pair of 2SB541 and 2SD388 for each channel (PNP/NPN). One of these puppies is bad but I thought I'd swap them all out. I can't find these very easily so I want to use NTE 87 and NTE 281 as substitute parts. These were the cross reference parts made by NTE. These are crap parts but what is a guy to do? What would you do in my case? I want my amp back...

16th October 2009, 11:36 PM	#2
Geek diyAudio Member Join Date: Sep 2004	Generic and fake are not the same. Generic are as good as the name brand. Fakes are good for nothing. What makes you think NTE are crap? My TV shop would have not survived without them and I never had a call back due to a part. Cheers! Last edited by Geek; 16th October 2009 at 11:38 PM.

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16th October 2009, 11:58 PM	#3
DigitalJunkie diyAudio Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Portland,Oregon Blog Entries: 3	Depends on the application I suppose,but I've heard that NTE/ECG parts commonly don't live up to the specs of the parts they "replace". Never tested it myself though. Personally I try to avoid them,but sometimes you just can't.

17th October 2009, 05:15 AM	#4
Enzo diyAudio Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Lansing, Michigan	I don't think of them as crap parts, but you can;t always count on how close the specs are to your original part. Plus they cost several times what real parts cost. You can usually sub one NTE part for one original part by itself OK, but what causes problems is mixing them. In particular circuitsw like high power amplifiers where there are a row of parallel output transistors. They really need to all be the same type transistor. That NTE thing m,ight or might not share current well and may or may not track thermally with the other original parts. Better to have ALL NTE in that row of outputs than one out of several. A quick look at MCM showed some suggested subs for them that looked reasonable to me.

17th October 2009, 05:31 AM	#5
MJL21193 Account disabled at member's request Join Date: Mar 2007	You could replace all with MJ15015 / MJ15016.

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