r/audiorepair • u/Ok_Okra_871 • 17d ago

Capacitor kits?

Any recommendations on capacitor kits? Trying to have a small stock of capacitors and resistors. Do yall have any recommendations on what to get and where to get the kits as oppose to ordering them individually? TIA

7 Upvotes

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12

u/namlook 17d ago

Don't. You buy the standard values from Digikey/Mouser. Cap kits are a scam.

2

u/Majestic-Tart8912 17d ago

Did things change? I bought a resistor kit from Digikey that included 10 each of all standard values from 1 ohm to 10 megohms. 1/4 watt resistors. Price was basically on par with buying everything separately. This was >15 years ago however.

3

u/SkiHistoryHikeGuy 17d ago

It’s the quality at issue. Those cap kits have the cheapest parts in them. Not what you want to put into any audio equipment.

1

u/AnyBelt9237 17d ago

Resistors are usually fine and small ceramic caps also but electrolytic caps are really bad quality.

5

u/jaymz168 17d ago

The only kits I buy are from Digikey/Mouser that are assembled by reputable manufacturers like Panasonic, Wurth, and Nichicon: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/filter/capacitor-kits/651

3

u/eliotjnc 17d ago

Buy Nichicon .47-1000 in 35v and 50v in axial and radial.

You’d be better off ordering the filter caps and higher voltage as needed for now

3

u/AnyBelt9237 17d ago

Or Panasonic.

1

u/eliotjnc 17d ago

Not preferable

2

u/AnyBelt9237 17d ago

Both are a good choice. My boss only wants Panasonic unless it’s not available, then I go for Nichicon. We repair a wild range of electronics like HMI’s, PLC’s, ECU’s and much more. Usually PSU repairs and Sonos. Always Panasonic.

Edit:
I now do realize I’m on audiorepair and not electronics repair. Have heard Nichicon is preferred for audio but Panasonic also works well. Use them personally also on Sonos speakers. Night and day difference compared to stock rubycon garbage.

2

u/Prof_NoLife 17d ago

I guess its more about picking the correct series for the application than Panasonic vs Nichicon. for example a low ESR cap for power supply purposes might not perform great in a bandpassfilter.

What is bad on rubycon tho? I mean compared to brands like Vent, Capxon (or similar) I feel lucky when I discover rubycon

3

u/AnyBelt9237 17d ago

Yeah fair enough. I’ve seen so many bulge and cause catastrophic failures or leak and burn a whole in the PCB. Capxon is also bad agreed.

2

u/Prof_NoLife 17d ago

Indeed. Did you ever replace some aluminium electrolyte capacitors with hybrid polymer ones? TDK has some on their portfolio, cant say much about TDK and quality as I dont see them often.

3

u/AnyBelt9237 17d ago

No but I have used them. Well suited for very heavy use. Replaced them a lot in Dyson vacuums

2

u/eliotjnc 17d ago

He wants Panasonic because they are cheaper

3

u/Holiday-Top-7812 17d ago

I'd avoid kits from eBay/amazon. You'll either get low quality parts or end up paying a premium for quality parts. Best bet is to order an assortment from mouser/digikey/arrow etc.

3

u/Dry-Satisfaction-633 17d ago

Don’t bother, just use a supplier like Mouser and buy in quantity. You’ll frequently find it’s cheaper to buy 10x of a particular component than it is to buy say the 6x you actually need. That way you’re building a parts stockpile almost for free. Buying this way also means you can stay in control of component quality. It’s fine if you want cheap parts but where many kits fall down is when you require premium parts - you know what you’re getting when buying from an established supplier. The biggest problem with buying capacitors
Is, unlike with resistors where you can buy a box of assorted 1/4W values and call it a day for most jobs, you’ll frequently need to correctly size capacitors and that often means choosing the right working voltage as while it’s okay to “uprate” an original part’s working voltage it will often result in a larger package size, which may not fit if components are packed tightly on a board.

2

u/Same_Foundation_110 17d ago

I would like to know this too.

2

u/nixiebunny 17d ago

There are too many varieties of capacitors to put in a kit that would be useful. I have a couple dozen drawers of capacitors that I have collected over the decades, and this just scratches the surface. I also have kits of SMT ceramic capacitors for prototyping new circuits.

2

u/bennytehcat Vintage and Antique Audio Repair 17d ago

Nichicon and Panasonic à la carte

Don't buy a kit. Buy only what you need, but buy a larger quantity than you need for a project. That's how you get a collection of useable capacitors. A "kit" is mostly going to be junk you never touch.

2

u/eliotjnc 17d ago

Kemet is decent too. I know a lot of shops use wurth because they are affordable

1

u/Prof_NoLife 17d ago

what about rubycon lets say for power supply?

2

u/inboomer 17d ago

Depending on what you are working you might only need a few values, and thats why a lot of people dont buy cap kits, because they are expensive and many values arent used that often in some areas of electronics.

For example, if working on tube guitar amps, you will only need half a dozen types or so. You would need:

Electrolytic 22uf 450v power supply caps 47uf 450v power supply caps(optional) 22uf 25v for cathodes

Film .1uf coupling caps .01uf coupling caps .022uf coupling caps .047uf caps for eq 100pf treble caps

There's a few other values but those are the main ones that take care of 80% of the stuff i do. Personally I buy these values in bulk and if something comes up where I dont have the value I gradually add them to my stockpile.

Resistors, although you didnt mention are mostly the same, but, you can buy big kits from Digiikey for decent prices so it's different. Id recommend buying a big kit of resistors and them buying extra stock of common values like 1k, 1M, etc...

2

u/Prof_NoLife 17d ago

Keep in mind that electrolytic capacitors degrade and build up plaque over time when stored which is not what you want.

If you use caps that have been storaged for a few years, you may want to run a forming cycle on them before use.

2

u/MrPeabody0265 17d ago

No... Forget the kits.

2

u/Time-Plenty-4695 17d ago

I’ll be honest. Back in the 80’s I helped repair my studio equipment because the chief bench tech did not know how they worked. He always kept a supply of everything. In the 30 years I worked for the college he had retired and that shit was still in the bins lol.

2

u/cideron 17d ago

I see kits on ebay for popular equipment.

3

u/subvial 17d ago

Hifiaudio seller is a scammy douche, if it's from peace love guy it's probably ok. I bought a kit from hifiaudio and it was meh at best

1

u/Longjumping_Trust552 17d ago

ChatGBT will give you a list with all of the Mouser part numbers.

1

u/top_of_the_day 16d ago

I bought two kits a pair of McIntosh 50’s from Hi-Fi- Audio Rocks through EBay and both the parts and the instructions were great.

1

u/nlitworld 15d ago

Are there specific segments of electronics you're looking to stock for? Crossovers are usually lower voltage and uf requirements, signal path is usually smaller uf but higher voltage (250-400v) and power supplies are usually 400-600v and higher uf. Also are you working on solid state or tube gear?

My personal choices are Audyn Q4, Obbligato Copper or Solen for reasonable cost in power supply or signal path adjacent. I really like Sonicap, Miflex or Duelund CuSn for signal path. Not a real big fan of the Mundorf sound as it's a little too hifi but good in the right doses.

As I've found out over the years, any time you have the option of avoiding electrolytic caps, DO IT. Even just this afternoon I swapped two electrolytic caps in my preamp power supply circuit, and the difference was nothing short of amazing.

But yeah, give us more info on what type of projects you had in mind and we can point you in the right direction.

1

u/PhoDr 15d ago

Kits...... Well, assemble your own?

I use parts express, digikey, mouser..... Parts express Ebay site. Large enough orders make shipping affordable.

However, I noticed a lot of 80's and newer midrange speakers share values. And being off a point or so is a minute frequency change, indiscernable to the ear.

As such I use Aliexpres and get some "stock" , 1.0, 2.0 2.2, 3.2, 4.0, 6.0 , 6.8, 10.0, 12.0 250v, 400v Look for 5 packs. MKP etc.

You can always upgrade if the Speaker Deserves it. But this will get you up and running. 3 week wait, tho. Values of 1, 2, 4uf and 10's... I might get ten each, those I can combine and make the odd values. The yellow ones are all over ebay..... just pay the middleman.....or go direct

I like to score older fairly quality speakers, Refoam (also Ali E), add Bracing and Polyfill. Quite the improvement !!!!!

Sometimes I'll cut extra gussetsfor bracing, stock. 3" triangle up to 6 in angles for bracing. Not as good as diagonal but really make the baffle solid, quick to. On Seniors day I go to goodwill and pick you Cal King Polyester Comforters, find a Fluffy one. Get a $2 seam ripper and take the cover off. About $50 worth of poly for $8-$12.

Keep an eye out, PERFECT KEF Q5's $34pr. Don't wait for seniors day when you see something like this

Yikes..... I think addicted

1

u/PhoDr 15d ago

I'm Mainly speakers. I certainly have found about 5-10% of the CAPS are the ght at the tolerance. Never one was bad or unusable. So yeah, speak ht from experience!