what are these (i hope cheap) resistors ?

[mahleriana]

I now tried a lot of "audiophile" resistors with mixed results, especially when looking at their prices (kiwame, mills, riken, allen bradley...to name a few). If my 20 cents no name carbon comp resistors had no steel caps, they could be perfect resistors.
I could have bought a brand new amp with the budget of the unused parts.

In fact, i found myself actually learning a lot at just looking inside commercial amplifiers, especially the renowned $$$ ones. For example getting back to electrolytics after Obbligato MKP in Oil was a revelation...in a word naturalness.

Could someone help me identify the brands and types of resistors i find very often inside the amps : sites like 6moons offer very useful close up photos, for example
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/h...sasacokic.html
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/l...plifier_2.html
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/fi/mono_3.html

especially the large blue, green and gray ones.

One of the difficulty is that is France direct buy from radiospares and such global sellers is now forbidden to individuals. And small retailers always sell the same few references.

And it is difficult to buy 10$ parts in the US knowing you wil pay 5 times shipping etc...

Thanks again everyone,

eric

[mjf]

hello.
i think the green res (with the colour rings) are metal oxide (mox), 1 w- 2w ....................not expensive,easily available.
greetings............

[kevinkr]

I see some square ceramic wirewounds (white) some relatively generic (possibly Korean) carbon film and some generic metal oxide types. Brands are anyone's guess but these are the kind of parts you can readily purchase at Digikey, Mouser, Farnell, etc.

This is not to say that you should necessarily consider some of these as acceptable in the signal path, but certainly all are ok in power supply applications.

I'm not a fan of Kiwame resistors anywhere, RikenOhm are just OK (and expensive) - seem colored but may compliment the sound of certain op-amps in particular. I use a lot of Vishay MK-132 and similar types which personally I think are way too expensive, but sometimes available surplus..

I really liked the old Holcos before they changed their construction - still have some in my stash..

2W 5% Allen Bradley carbon comps are nice, but not stable enough to last a life time IMO and too noisy for some low level applications.

I am confused about the comment about not being able to purchase directly from a major vendor in France, Radio Spares is like Digikey, Mouser, Newark here in the USA - surely if need be you could purchase them elsewhere in the EU where things aren't quite so regulated?

[ANDYLASER]

The large blue resistors in pic 3 look like Koa metal oxides.
http://www.koaspeer.com/resistors.asp?part=51

or possibly wire wounds.
http://www.koaspeer.com/resistors.asp?part=73

[wa2ise]

"Reference" in the defense electronics industry meant that the meter or other device that was presenting a reading of some sort was NOT a calibrated standard, and thus could not be trusted to give a reading you could use to validate a piece of equipment.

[mahleriana]

I made a few researches, finding cheap, buyable or low shipping mox resistors won't be easy...

The problem with matching different resistors is that there is no absolute solution : If you add some salt in your coffee, you can't drink it, but salt will be just the right ingredient with some others recipes. I found that there is no definitive judgment concerning resistors