Best electrolytic capacitors

3201

Yeah. Another project involved finding good replacements, I was finding it difficult to locate similar three point mount caps, still am!

Vishay 021ASM were used to replace the axials, at the time no cap was found with the three point mount.
The good thing was the mechanical stability of the mount, looked like a good idea.

The sikorel 125 have a mount version that looked similar, souring anything less than 100's stopped that.
Kemet PHH223 was the other, but the info was 'shelved for later'. a similar sourcing quantity frustration.
 
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RDE caps are a areal source of trouble in Revox and Studer equipment.
RDE I haven't heard until now, but probably you mean "ROE" - the Logo on Elcaps for Ernst Roederstein (on the foil versions was the Logo "ERO")
Concerning a lot of trouble on this brand you are right - especially on certainly series like "EK" under
Roederstein 'BAKELITE' series EK capacitors - "Living Legend" OR "Looney Legacy" ...?
often to find even in top class devices from Krell and Mark Levinson, so as the low voltage versions below 40VDC from Roederstein's EDG series (unfortunately also often to find in STUDER/REVOX devices).
By consistently collecting and storing defective electrolytic capacitors over 30 years, it was possible to clearly identify which series were particularly affected by failures.
 

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Hi tiefbassuebertr,
You're correct. I don't pay much attention to the exact brand name for poorly performing components. Having been warranty for Revox, I have had my fill of these terrible parts. I just recognize and replace.

There are many bad brands of capacitors, but there is no "best" capacitor. It depends on the application and many good brands are in fact equivalent.
 
I prefer Mundorf mlytics.
They even survive short circuits for extended periods, sound excellent, and all have very similar values.

What's the point of one 10,000uF Sikorel capacitor if the second one differs by 15%! I'd rather buy Mundorfs and not have to buy a dozen because I have to measure the correct values. Mundorf mlytics are always the best choice for me!
 
I prefer Mundorf mlytics.
They even survive short circuits for extended periods, sound excellent, and all have very similar values.

What's the point of one 10,000uF Sikorel capacitor if the second one differs by 15%! I'd rather buy Mundorfs and not have to buy a dozen because I have to measure the correct values. Mundorf mlytics are always the best choice for me!
Also one of my favorites. Interesting to know are a listening test to this BHC version:
https://www.hificollective.co.uk/components/kemet-slit-foil-electrolytic.html
Some advices to Mundorf caps:
 
Apologies, yes, ROE.

Mundorf are relabeled F+T caps.

The slit foils caps have more 'tabs' to connect along the plate length (T-power BHC Aerovox ALN20S1108DF since relabeled) ,
these were designed by Denis Morecroft of DNM, specifically for power supplies in audio to reduce the current path.

It's interesting that Tesla cars newer larger production 4680 battery cells take that idea to the max, facilitating extreme current discharge, essentially an extra width foil that becomes a long perforation of tabs folded to form the negative terminal:

Screenshot.jpg
 
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looks like a pejorative comparative, typical of academia. Both types have raised the bar.
Scalability in manufacture, whilst reducing costs was a large part of Teslas 2022 intro.
We know development in the battery world is ferocious, but that's drifting off topic.
 
We can't always afford polypropylene capacitors, much less
Teflon (tm), so we often make do with electrolytics when
we need those higher values.

There's all sorts of caps out there with claims to being better,
and they certainly are more expensive.

My favorite is the Elna silk capacitors, available from Digikey,
and really cheap. The measure spectacularly, sound great,
and the manufacturer's translated description of why they
sound better is a Babelfish classic.

So before you run out and spend a lot on the highly hyped
spendy caps, try the Elna silk caps.

There's hemp in them, too.

😎
Come on man...you just take two Panasonic Aluminum Electrolytic capacitors back to back like a super capacitor. Cheaper than dirt.
 
Depending on the side of the PCB you're looking at, it's a metallic circle, or a four petal "flower" on a circular pad. Once you see one, you can pick them up easier. There are many of these things, look closely to get them all. They are all the colour of solder.
Thanks for clarifying. Luckily, in my CD303 there aren’t any. I’m told that the Philip CD players of which the model numbers end on a four tend to have these gribblets. Don’t know why that would be the case. Anyway.
 
The PCB can be double sided, how they connect the two sides matters. If the board is plated through you don't need any other form of attachment between the sides. If not, you use "gribblets". These must have been less expensive or it would have been done properly. Normally we would use a nice epoxy, plated through PCB. They used an oil impregnated PCB material (phenolic), cheaper. Tends to warp and easily delaminate. In all fairness, Philips wasn't the only one. It is a vastly inferior PCB material and not too stable. It is possible that plating through phenolic tends to fail on it's own, so they tried to avoid going epoxy, plated through.

We used phenolic as young kids due to cost, but never for anything important.