Those caps have a shield shape not a rectangle, hence they are Chemi Con SME.
Chemicon makes good caps in general but these are their standard grade stuff. A commonly available Nichicon equivalent would be type VX.
The yellow caps don't look like anything special either...MKP, perhaps? Possibly made by TDK?
These look like 400V 1uF caps..."K" means 10% tolerance. 501 on a Japanese cap usually means 500V rating but these say 400V, so who knows?
My guess is that Kondo was only interested in one capacitor...his silver foil unit. Anything else in there looks generic...which does not mean that they don't sound good.
Tantalum is quite often used for metal film resistors and has been for decades. Western Electric did this back in the 60s and they might not be the inventors. (The other metal commonly used is NiChrome). Tantalum is more inert than NiChrome so it can be more reliable.
To me, this is another case of nothing special. What would interest me more is the metal used in the end caps and leads.
Chemicon makes good caps in general but these are their standard grade stuff. A commonly available Nichicon equivalent would be type VX.
The yellow caps don't look like anything special either...MKP, perhaps? Possibly made by TDK?
These look like 400V 1uF caps..."K" means 10% tolerance. 501 on a Japanese cap usually means 500V rating but these say 400V, so who knows?
My guess is that Kondo was only interested in one capacitor...his silver foil unit. Anything else in there looks generic...which does not mean that they don't sound good.
Tantalum is quite often used for metal film resistors and has been for decades. Western Electric did this back in the 60s and they might not be the inventors. (The other metal commonly used is NiChrome). Tantalum is more inert than NiChrome so it can be more reliable.
To me, this is another case of nothing special. What would interest me more is the metal used in the end caps and leads.
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Yes, Joe and mbede you are right. As I checked the very internal part of Ongaku, I found a lot of SME caps. The cathode caps value is 100uF/250V, but some caps are paralelled with I do not know what kind of yellow (foil?) caps. Even the T 501 value on their surfaces is not clear to me. The SME caps are signed by rectangles as you may check the attached photos. And yes, there are a lot of ELNA Cerafines, white block wired power resistors and Shinkohs.
Thx to egg me on to finish my project.
I am happy to say that my old Ongaku DOES NOT have ANY of the yellow film caps. Supposedly those have been used as "compensation" after they have reduced upper frequency range of output transformers as a compensation.
Value of my cathode bypass cap is not 100uF in my device. That backs up my theory that later produced devices are not as good as older ones...my unit also does not have any feedback. BR, mbede
🙂 
::: : : --/\/\/\--
Standardized symbols:
🙂 = I
= still looking for
::: : : = any
--/\/\/\-- = Shinkoh 100 kOhm/2W resistor
::: : : --/\/\/\--Standardized symbols:
🙂 = I
= still looking for::: : : = any
--/\/\/\-- = Shinkoh 100 kOhm/2W resistor
AN Tantalum Non-Magnetic resistors
Sorry I don't have any Shinkohs for you, but I just came across this today: Audio Note 2W tantalum non-magnetic resistors.
Might be the next best thing if you can't find the Shinkohs. I am eager to give them a try.
Sorry I don't have any Shinkohs for you, but I just came across this today: Audio Note 2W tantalum non-magnetic resistors.
Might be the next best thing if you can't find the Shinkohs. I am eager to give them a try.
mhalsey11, firstly thx for your finding, indeed.
It was a surprise a bit to me, because I felt that no progress in the area of the highest grade resistors year by year. But it is not true of course, please take into consideration the Vishay naked resistors or this new AN resistors. I am really happy with this innovation and I am very curious about the resistor's finest sound quality itself.
I have never met with this new Audio Note resistors and I only have the old, slightly magnetic versions. It seems to me it is a slightly modified, but new kind of tantalum resistors with special regards to the non-magnetic parts. The description of the new one on: Audio Note 2W tantalum non-magnetic resistors is quite impressive considering the sound difference of Shinkoh's and non-magnetic AN's.
But I think the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The Ł 60 price for four new AN resistors with tax is within the margin of my $ 100, but probably I will waiting for our excellent audiophile friend's experiences about the new AN resistor's character before I am going to take the plunge to buy them. I suppose that the new resistors will come into view within the top-grade AN devices soon and I hope we will meet with some really valuable reviews opening the sound character of the new AN resistors later. Who knows, may be the new AN will not be worse comparing to the Shinkoh resistor just a fine one, realizing a different taste of excellent sound?
It was a surprise a bit to me, because I felt that no progress in the area of the highest grade resistors year by year. But it is not true of course, please take into consideration the Vishay naked resistors or this new AN resistors. I am really happy with this innovation and I am very curious about the resistor's finest sound quality itself.
I have never met with this new Audio Note resistors and I only have the old, slightly magnetic versions. It seems to me it is a slightly modified, but new kind of tantalum resistors with special regards to the non-magnetic parts. The description of the new one on: Audio Note 2W tantalum non-magnetic resistors is quite impressive considering the sound difference of Shinkoh's and non-magnetic AN's.
But I think the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The Ł 60 price for four new AN resistors with tax is within the margin of my $ 100, but probably I will waiting for our excellent audiophile friend's experiences about the new AN resistor's character before I am going to take the plunge to buy them. I suppose that the new resistors will come into view within the top-grade AN devices soon and I hope we will meet with some really valuable reviews opening the sound character of the new AN resistors later. Who knows, may be the new AN will not be worse comparing to the Shinkoh resistor just a fine one, realizing a different taste of excellent sound?
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