<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">-Put a TANT in backwards.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>Oh yeah, they are polarized (duh). <SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><BR></DIV><DIV>What is worse is that they will sometimes work initially backwards, and then fail days or months later.</DIV><DIV>Also, if tantalums are ever overvoltaged, even for a few milliseconds, they will also fail at some unknown future time.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Once overstressed, tantalum caps are a reliability problem waiting to happen.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>In my previous life as an industrial engineer, tantalums were the most common field failure.</DIV><DIV>That was for Steel Mills and Oil Rigs. I'm sure they would be fine in studio environments.</DIV><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000DD"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></FONT></BODY></HTML>