As for today, what is the best replacement part for the Black Gate WKZ 100uF+100uF 500V?
Any one has experience with Mundorf M-Lytic and Panasonic THSA?
Thanks in advance for help.
Any one has experience with Mundorf M-Lytic and Panasonic THSA?
Thanks in advance for help.
Thanks Johnny.
I will try Mundorf M-Lytic first then since it's much cheaper 🙂
Anyone try F&T (germany)?
I will try Mundorf M-Lytic first then since it's much cheaper 🙂
Anyone try F&T (germany)?
I use J&J 100-100 / 500V, so far it is good with the price far less than BG WKZ. The (sound) quality may be above standard Nippon Chemicon I used before. Never use F&T yet.
I think better to use 4x500V film caps, if space allows. They will be better and more reliable then any electrolytic caps on planet earth. I have a couple of 47uF/400V and dimensions are 45x70 mm. IMHO demise of Black Gate is largely due to development and sharp price drop of large film and multi-layer ceramic caps.
I've tried using Solen polyproperene film capacitor for the B+ bypass. I just don't like the sound of it. It sounds thin and lack of dynamics. I used all Blackgate caps in my 45, 2A3 and 300B SE amps.
I still have one or two WKZ caps for my future projects.
Johnny
I still have one or two WKZ caps for my future projects.
Johnny
This is definitely not true. The caps were produced at Rubycon that needed the production line for larger numbers of other caps ( AFAIK computer grade polymer caps ). Jelmax asked several times if there was a possibility to continue production but got no for an answer.
There was no price problem whatsoever compared to film caps. Black Gate WKZ were simply superior and they were well worth the money. Heard them a few times and I heard the owners being very satisfied with them. As I am not a true tube guy I never used WKZ but I still use N and NX HiQ series and I think it is a great pity that they are not produced anymore. I would not know what to use if my stock is gone as there are not so many caps so small and so good. Whenever I found a replacement they were much too big for my application, and way more expensive than BG too.
Only the standard series were not very special, you could compare those to large film caps ( but not multi-layer ceramic caps, no way ).
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I would recommend the Continental Capacitors Type A oil-filled---25uf, 650v. I am now using it as the first cap in my amp CLC filters. The second cap position is still a 100uf WKZ. I haven't done a side-by-side comparison with the BG WKZ and it's not an exact swap in any case, but the Continental sounds very good regardless. I prefer it to the other oil-filled caps I've tried in the same spot---ASC 20uf and GE 97F 15uf.
Dave
Dave
They could be manufactured at many others factories if there was a real demand for them. BTW, some Rubicons (and many other so called audiophile grade caps) are actually sourced from third-party Chinese OEM.
It is not possible to listen caps alone because there many other components in between - from tubes to speakers and room. BG may have certain advantages over other electrolytes (and may not, taking into account continuous improvements of technology). And none so far conducted double blind tests which could prove BG magic sound hype. High-voltage 50uF film caps are quite large and quite expensive, but they worth their cost.
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This is off-topic but for the sake of accuracy I heard this is not possible because the license holder of the technology has refused to license it to anyone - they will not allow any future production. There was apparently a big acrimonious falling out in Japan which resulted in some un-business like decisions.
Let's revive this threat, we are now almost 4 years down the line, BG is even more difficult to get and unaffordable, same goes for Elna Cerafine meanwhile. Needing a couple of 100uF / 500V for my AirTight ATM1 I wonder what's the best option. The ones mounted are Nichicon "Audio Professor". Any new ideas on the best high end choice?
Leonard
Leonard
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