http://www.bossareaforum.com/Forum/view ... f=14&t=789
There are two schools of thought about this:
- Anything over about 20 years old, just replace the capacitors - if they haven't failed yet, it is imminent.
- Measure the capacitor and if it is within specification, leave it until it does actually fail (years in the future?).
But here is the conundrum. The readings for the capacitors I removed are below. They are still perfectly within specification.
So what is the right approach? In this amp the cost of the replacement caps was about USD$10.
So what I'm trading off is:
- $10 now when I have the amp open anyway.
- The risk/certainty of failure "in a couple of years" with the time to dismantle the amp plus the clean-up of the almost inevitable associated mess (leaked electrolyte).
I had the amp open anyway. The cost was only $10. And I threw away components that tested as perfect.
If it was a tube amp and the capacitor replacement cost was $50-to-$100, I might have decided to leave them...
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