Paper in Oil durability

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Hi!
Can someone tell me more or less what is the durability of paper in oil caps?
Sameone is trying to impose me an amplifier, very old - CROFT SOV.
I think the caps leaked.
He says they are impeccable!
Please, I need some information, I'm being roubed.
PS ; the person in question don't belong to this forum.

Thank you!

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6568u05jxnuxd1m/AAAjzQXLInrC8cSVX3b-4Ib1a?dl=0
 

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Why do you say "imposed"?
You don't buy it if you don't want to.

By the way that amp and its way of marketing looks like a truckload of bullsh*t to me.

"Old"? ... It's mounted in a modern rack case !!

Horizontal NON ventilated tubes inside a shallow cabinet, without a fan in sight .

For what is presumably a stereo Class A single ended amplifier !!!

That amp is a fire hazard.

About PIO caps, what you would find everywhere in great 40's and 50's amplifiers ... because there was nothing else available ... they can and do leak, Amp designers were happy when they were replaced by modern options.

And what the seller says is ridiculous: so he "wiped" them?
Who cares?

This is not a motorcycle or car where we worry about OIL leaks which might stain the floor, we are talking about ELECTRICAL leaks which mess with circuit parameters.

Stay WELL away from that seller and what he's trying to peddle.

There's thousands of excellent quality, well built amplifiers out there, why waste time with this one?
 
You're absolutly right JMFahey.
But I already made the trade - the Croft against a Benchmark HDR.
I sent the amp back and he's trying by all means not to accept and he lies, etc.
We are 1000 km away from each other.
I will not accept the amp if he sends it back, saying it's working well.

I tried and it was a sound a litle bit like a cd palyer connected to a phono pre amp...

I made one of those stupid mistakes and I"m trying to fix it. I told him to send me the dac back and sent him the amp.

Wel, l there are millions of good amps out there.
I recently received a pair of Dared VP20 (another trade, this time against a Yulong D18), and I had a very good surprise.
I also have other amps and had thousands of it, but this dared is surprisingly good.
I will buy some very good tubes and I connected an old Philipps 473 TDA to it, just very nice, I am going to lampizate it and replace all caps, you know all the old thing.

It gives better sound than a CECTL51x with a Yulong DA8 dac or even Anedio. Yes, true.
 
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Hi davidsrsb
Yes, it's clear.
I told the guy that I will not take the amp and I returned it to him
and he must send me my dac...
I just wanted to tell him that an amp with more than 15 years with PIO caps, should have those caps replaced.
Should yone change the 15 years pio caps at once, even without hearing the amp?
I think yes, one should do it.
Sorry, this is not an interesting subject and I am not adding anything to the forum, I just wanted to make a point, to make this guy accept my defence...
 
If they are old PIOs then they could in fact have electrical insulating oil containing P.C.B.s and that is not good to play with health wise. Old oil filled industrial transformers had this too. Remove by cutting the leads from them don't unsolder , use gloves and don't throw in trash..bring to household hazardous waste disposal or electronics recycler.
Somebody mentioned boutique suppliers using veg oil, which is crazy as the dielectric constant is way way higher than mineral oil. A real PIO would use silicone oil these days. I hand built a couple for fun, and they work. Don't think they sounded better than polyprop ones though, and I wouldn't try them on high DC volts blocking and if your over 40 volts I would not even attempt. Some boutique or reissue stuff is film capactors in PIO clothing at ten times the price.
I would replace with orange drops or similar..they will sound and perform fine. Just my deux sous.
 
If they are old PIOs then they could in fact have electrical insulating oil containing P.C.B.s and that is not good to play with health wise. Old oil filled industrial transformers had this too. Remove by cutting the leads from them don't unsolder , use gloves and don't throw in trash..bring to household hazardous waste disposal or electronics recycler.
Somebody mentioned boutique suppliers using veg oil, which is crazy as the dielectric constant is way way higher than mineral oil. A real PIO would use silicone oil these days. I hand built a couple for fun, and they work. Don't think they sounded better than polyprop ones though, and I wouldn't try them on high DC volts blocking and if your over 40 volts I would not even attempt. Some boutique or reissue stuff is film capactors in PIO clothing at ten times the price.
I would replace with orange drops or similar..they will sound and perform fine. Just my deux sous.

Hi shank
I was thinking about buying clarity caps MR series.
I know they are very good.
Do you think that orange drops:2c: are as good as claritys?:confused::)
If yes, that's very good news, thanks!
Why do you say I should unsolder the leads and cut it instead?
 
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If the caps are already leaking, and you unsolder , it's probably going to leak out more, bubble out, splatter etc. Messy. Cut the leads , remove the offending caps and then desolder the remaining leads from the tag strip will be cleaner and hopefully easier.

With respect to Sprague orange drops comparing to Clarity MR series I wouldn't be able to qualify if ''they're as good as'' Clarity. They will work reliably for sure. I have not heard or used Clarity, have heard Auricap and they are fine too. If you are happy with the price/performance that is what matters.
 
Hi shank
I was thinking about buying clarity caps MR series.
I know they are very good.
Do you think that orange drops:2c: are as good as claritys?:confused::)
If yes, that's very good news, thanks!
Personally I trust more high quality parts made with proper materials on high precision machinery than homemade (or garage factory) ones.
And trust more measured specs than vague verbal descriptions such as warmth, soundstage, or the latest creation: PRAT .

As of price, here cheaper means high quality huge production, and expensive means very inefficient production.

FWIW commercial "cheap" (I would call them efficient and competitive) capacitors are made with this machine:

epcos-bawal-opening-w-machine-HighResolutionData.jpg


epcos-malaga-opening-production-HighResolutionData.jpg


while famed silver foil Audio Note caps are made by this gentleman (who claims it takes 3 weeks to make one):

10_new_cap.jpg


using this machinery:

6_machines.jpg


Judge for yourself.

The full note:
Audio Note Factory Tour [English]
 
I believe Audio Note have better sound but I think they make a mystic story around it...
I heard all audio Note amps like Kondo, etc.
Like those amps from Gaincard : they are really good, better for me than many expensive tube amps, but you can do them by a few hundreds.
I didn't find orange drops with 0.33, fortunately, because it makes things easier for me!
I finally choosed [FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Jantzen Audio Superior Z-Cap, 0.33 uf - 1200 volts.
It can't be bad. 6 caps, 58 euros. I will survive...

Nice photos!
[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]
 
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