Black Gate Caps - end of the road
 

Click on the Black Gate link on this page .

And while some of us are desperately trying to stock-pile, the Pelicanists are probably celebrating, a great occassion for a wine-tasting party :)

The thing that puzzles me is that Audionote use Black Gates. So why tell everybody to buy up the remaining stocks and leave themselves short? :confused:

I think at this moment the available stock is larger than the quantity anyone may need. Or the available budget will anyway set the limit. Production is in fact yet not ceased but, according to the info I received today, it seems like it really will be soon. Which is not good.

Yepp, a double blind tasting party ;-)

I have no insight, never used BG caps, but...

Ever thought of it as a means to push sales? It wouldn't be the first time a company issues a last time buy note and after a while suddenly comes up with a letter... "Dear customers, due to the great interest in our products and the impressing feedback, we decided to re-start production for a limited time... Sorry to tell you that we had to increase our prices..."

You know, just pushing the myth, making people talk about it...

Don't panic!
 

Ahem,

I'm as big a conspiracy theorist as the next guy, (and of course the announcement will be great for Audio Note's BG sales) but the story is highly plausible in my view.

Some years ago, I was in regular contact with the sales and technical guys at Rubycon's UK facility, when working for a couple of UK audio manufacturers. To my surprise, (given the trifling share of their annual business that was made up from sales to specialist audio manufacturers) both were quite knowledgeable about the hi-fi scene and explained that Rubycon Japan saw the market for solid aluminium/os-con types as not just far more important than the market for audio specific capacitors, but crucial to the company's future global sucess. They explained that Rubycon's direct response to the success of the os-con was the low impedence ZL/ZA range.

Whatever the truth of the matter, I wouldn't panic. The Black Gate ranges are proven products, with a global reputation. Given Elna's ongoing R & D efforts into audio specific electrolytics, I suspect they will show an interest in picking up the license from Jelmax.

Just my tuppence-worth.

MAYBE ELNA, MAYBE...
 

Hi,

If I had a penny for every time I heard stories like this I'd be as rich as Croesus...

This doesn't mean it's not actually true but with the interest of companies such as Marantz (a Philips subsidiary if I'm not mistaken) and other major players in the audio field it would indeed surprise me no one else is going to grab the license and have a run with it.

Maybe even Audiobanknote themselves have the clout to actually pick up the pieces after they've made a quick one by spreading the doomy news?

Who knows....:xeye:

Cheers,;)