Tape Deck Rebuild

[braxus]

Can anyone recommend some capacitor brand names that you would suggest for a tape deck rebuild? I'm thinking of like polystyrene caps which are close tollerance, or one step down polypropylene caps. I was told one name for caps were "cherry drops". Another name that crossed my path was Wima or Elna. Anyone comment? Im trying to get better then stock caps put into my deck and I want ones that will last a long time, not 5 to 10 years like many of todays caps do.

I decided to take my Aiwa 9000 deck out of the place that it is currently at, since I seem to be having some issues with the tech there. It seems every deck I bring him I have to keep bringing back for other issues. And now with my Aiwa he is claiming there are ZERO parts for it, when I did request the caps at least be replaced when we all know caps are fairly common parts to get.

[Scorpion8]

I've always had good luck with Elna, and they appear in a lot of my higher end decks. I doubt I'd go with the more esoteric boutique caps just because of the time and effort and total cost. I'm looking into re-capping a Nakamichi 482 right now and I'm counting upwards of 30 caps I need. I wouldn't trade sound for cost alone, but I think Elna's would be fine. My 482 also uses a lot of Shoei caps, but i don't know anything about them except that they're not the orange ones that fail.

[braxus]

If anyone else can mention anything about caps, let me know.

[NAD613]

Braxus, the issues you've mentioned are why there are some repairmen that only do total restorations. They go thru everything & fix it good as new. They don't want to see pissed of customers & take pride in their work. They pretty much tear a deck apart & rebuild it. I'm not sure how much you Aiwa would cost to restore, probably a bunch. I've heard that Teac & Sony decks are the cheapest & easiest to restore.

[braxus]

Yes. Finding such a place would be good since many won't have the spare parts to do such work. Im hoping this new place I talked to can do the work the other place refused.

[gamve]

If anyone else can mention anything about caps, let me know.

Elans are good but go for the top grade ones Silmacs. These sound very good, some people compare the Silmacs sound to being not too far of Black Gates. Sony Oscons are also very good.

[braxus]

Black Gates. Thats one I was trying to remember. I'll keep those in mind.

[Scorpion8]

Nichicon Muse were the hi-end ones I was thinking about.

Here's a good cap "shoot-off": http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f6/nichicon-muse-kz-series-cap-vs-elna-silmicii-cap-one-better-223543/

And a short discussion on Nichicon Muse caps: http://www.agoraquest.com/viewtopic.php?topic=31746&forum=65&keyword2=electronics

[gamve]

Black Gates. Thats one I was trying to remember. I'll keep those in mind.

Brax the black Gates are the bee's knees but they are not made anymore and are hard to find in the correct values. They are also expensive. On the up side they are constructed entirley different to all other electrolytics,(physically larger also) and they don't wear out with time. If you can shell out for these and find the correct values you won't regret it in the long run.

[Scorpion8]

Nichicon Muse. Nichicon Muse. Nichicon Muse .....