Audiophile grade electrolytic capacitor query

[FranklinLG]

Just curious if anyone is aware of a good place to buy high-grade, audiophile replacement Electrolytic capacitors. I had a cap blow today on one of my amps. And while the manufacturer is going to send out replacement caps Monday, I'm still curious in finding some high quality, audiophile caps to keep handy and also to see if there is an improvement. Essentially, I'm on the hunt for a few extra 100v and 160v caps in either 100uf or 47uf flavors. From what I can gather, Black Gate used to be the pick of the litter, and I've read about just how great they mate with my amps, but they are no longer made and are not easily found. So I'm hoping someone here might have some thoughts on this and where I should be looking.

Thanks in advance.

[AmpliFire]

Hi,

Don't know where you live (perhaps you can complete your details?), but in the US I could recommend Partsconnexion and in Europe I could recommend Hificollective.

Mundorfs will do fine


cheers,
oscar

[FranklinLG]

AmpliFire,

Thanks for the reference to the site for purchasing the caps. Do you or does anyone else have any recommendation for which are the best sounding caps? I note that Black Gate was considered some of the best. But since they don't manufacture those any more, I'm curious what is now the primo cap.

Thanks!

[tinitus]

Originally Posted by FranklinLG

I note that Black Gate was considered some of the best. But since they don't manufacture those any more........

bought a few, some years ago
and still unused
not even sure I ever will use them
well, maybe fore a 'crappy' guitar amp

just make sure you get 'new production' caps

[tinitus]

Originally Posted by FranklinLG

, I'm on the hunt for a few extra 100v and 160v caps in either 100uf or 47uf flavors.

relatively low voltage and capacity
you can get good quality longlife Panasonic in that range

[AmpliFire]

Originally Posted by FranklinLG

Do you or does anyone else have any recommendation for which are the best sounding caps?

It really depends on the actual function, location and what kind of circuitry. For example, power supply caps or signal coupling, or decoupling, etc. Semiconductor amp or tube amp, and so on.

Then, this forum is loaded with overheated threads about what are good/best caps, I wouldn't dare to make any statement/judgement here (to avoid online slaughter ). I could recommend to search and read around here.

If you give some more detailed information what the actual function and kind of amp it is, then we could make some 'suggestions'. The voltage you are looking for seems like a tube amp?

Furthermore: what is their size ? That's another criteria when looking for other caps, because you would like them to fit in existing brackets or available space on PCB and inside the chassis as such. There are many manufacturers and models, but the size will narrow down (even direct) your choice. Hence, details please.

Nichicon came up with a whole range of new audio grade caps which are quite good (KG or KW for example) when ending the black gate series. I tend to agree with Tinitus, black gate was also a hipe. Oooops, here we go. I didn't mean/say that. Let's keep it factual and get the details on your current caps first.

cheers

[Tony]

Originally Posted by FranklinLG

Just curious if anyone is aware of a good place to buy high-grade, audiophile replacement Electrolytic capacitors. I had a cap blow today on one of my amps. And while the manufacturer is going to send out replacement caps Monday, I'm still curious in finding some high quality, audiophile caps to keep handy and also to see if there is an improvement. Essentially, I'm on the hunt for a few extra 100v and 160v caps in either 100uf or 47uf flavors. From what I can gather, Black Gate used to be the pick of the litter, and I've read about just how great they mate with my amps, but they are no longer made and are not easily found. So I'm hoping someone here might have some thoughts on this and where I should be looking.

Thanks in advance.

even if you have blackgate caps, it will still explode if used incorrectly......no such thing as audiophile electrolytic caps....

you have to find out why your caps exploded in the first place, what was the problem? if there was a problem, replacing it with a blackgate will not make the problem go away....

[data]

Agreed that the reason for the exploding cap is needed, maybe they were very cheap knock offs or faulty in some way, but it might be that they were not of a suitable voltage too *shrugs*

The two brands I like are Mundorf and Jensen, your preference on each sound (if it is audible) is subjective and dependent on the use, and personal taste, and maybe using a Panasonic cap would be just fine.

Black Gates have now been out of production for some time, I wouldn't bother...

[FranklinLG]

The best that I can figure out on why the cap blew was that we had a power blip - outage and it cycled quickly. When I turned the amp back on it popped. So I'm attributing it to the power surge/cycle. The cap is in a tubed amp. It is running off of the 300B tube socket. the black gate was what the manufacturer recommended as the "best". So that is why I was looking for one. The prior cap was a Panasonic.

[data]

Would decent film caps or tin foil caps fit in those positions?