Hello all,
I’m new to the forum and looking for insights on obtaining the highest quality caps to rebuild a pioneer SX-1000td stereo receiver using digikey. I’m simply looking for some good cap suggestions, based on typical failure units or areas, that can work with a 60 year old piece of nostalgia (since this forum is made up of many experts who may have direct experience). This is for my own personal use. Please keep it positive. Thanks in advance
Hello palmerruss74 and welcome to the DigiKey TechForum.
If you are looking for specific capacitors, we would need to know the type and value. If you are looking for a general brand, Nichicon aluminum capacitors are generally considered a good option.
The electrolytic caps are usually the ones with the wearout mechanism that suggests replacement after a few decades. Leaving the others alone absent a definite and unambiguous failure is suggested, due to the bad risk/reward tradeoff that comes with trying to fix things that aren’t broken. (Ancient tube-based equipment may present a somewhat different story, but this is not that…)
Don’t worry about getting the “highest quality caps,” just focus on finding ones that fit, electrically and mechanically.
Electrolytic capacitors are of inherently poor quality. They wear out, they’re lossy, have tolerances sloppier than a 1 year old eating spaghetti, and characteristics that shift all over the place with temperature, frequency, time, what your great-great grandpa ate on his 12th birthday, and possibly a few even more arcane factors. The only good thing about them is that they pack a lot of C into a small space for very few dollars, but that one redeeming quality is nevertheless enough to make them very popular and useful in circumstances where quality simply isn’t that important.
After all, if the unit is still functional despite being filled with crusty, dried-out 60-year old 'lytics, that’s pretty strong evidence that the precise nature of such isn’t critical. And if it’s not functional? There are probably bigger things to worry about than the capacitors in that case.
For a given device, match the capacitance rating, match or exceed the voltage rating, use the lead spacing (for board-mounted devices) attribute and the other mechanical parameters to whittle the options down to a short list.
Pick one, check that the listed dimensional data matches the datasheet and is congruent with the device to be replaced. I’d suggest throwing a dart if you’re having trouble making a choice, but there have been reports that this method doesn’t work as well after DigiKey quit publishing a paper catalog…
Noted, Excellent advice Rick_1976 (good year btw)…. I was wondering about recap overkill. I’m making a list will post soon. I’ll do some cross checking on the digikey site before adding more to this post…. to get some more feedback.
Thanks!!!
