Recap, or leave alone -- advice sought.

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rockrink

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Joined 2007
#1
I have a Rotel Integrated Amp, RA-985BX. I bought it new in 1996 or so and thought it could use a freshening up. I found the schematic and identified several smaller value -- 4.7uf, 10uf -- electrolytics. I thought I would replace them with Wima 5mm film caps. Before ordering replacements, I took the covers off. I also wanted to check the ESR on the filter caps in case I needed to order those as well. I figured since I had the covers off, I would preview the project to make sure all of the smaller electros were accessible. Lo and behold they all measure fine with low ESR readings and they are Rubycon Black Gates, which I guess Rotel used at the time as stock.

Thus, I am looking for opinions -- should I swap the BlackGates for Wimas, or leave things alone?

Thanks
 
#7
I am going with the consensus. I will leave it alone. I did clean up the pots and switches -- great suggestion. And I also set the idle bias according to the manufacturer's service manual. Now, she's back in service.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions.
 
#8
mbz said:
Only 26 years old, give it another 10 or so years conditional on it sounds good now. Is bass still tight?
Click to expand...

Yup, my olde worlde 1998 MF A220 only got recapped due to blowing a fuse and the only thing that could short were the caps or the fets. Fets tested fine and I suspect the capacitance was getting low enough to cause ripple/inrush issues blowing the 6.3A fuse.

The main thing is keep using it. When the caps get used they can self heal (depending on type).
 
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