<html><head></head><body><div class="ydp6a6f2ab0yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;"><div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">> Richard Devine is on record saying that he simply leaves all his modular synths turned on all the time. Perhaps...<div><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">:) yeah but he probably enjoys it when sound becomes unpredictable!</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Don't electrolytics just lose capacitance and gain resistance with age/use? So in theory you can overdesign and get many more years out of them? Classic 7805 circuits always seemed to have mega uF output caps :) but nowadays everything has to be tiny and ppl probably use supercritical values.<br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div></div><br></div></div><div id="yahoo_quoted_8909236145" class="yahoo_quoted">
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On Tuesday, May 5, 2020, 8:24:26 AM EDT, john slee <indigoid@oldcorollas.org> wrote:
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<div><div id="yiv9352030795"><div><div dir="ltr"><div>I have also been somewhat bemused by these comments, having worked with computers my entire career and survived the capacitor plague.<br clear="none"></div><div><br clear="none">Richard Devine is on record saying that he simply leaves all his modular synths turned on all the time. Perhaps...<br clear="none"></div><div><br clear="none">* his synth enclosures are well ventilated<br clear="none">* he has amazing climate control<br clear="none">* all the electrolytic caps in all his modular gear are 105C / 12000 hour rated</div><div>* unicorns are casually shitting the most incredible rainbows on his front lawn<br clear="none"></div><div><br clear="none"></div><div>Even then... why would Panasonic et al put hour ratings on their products if they were immortal?</div><div><br clear="none"></div><div>John<br clear="none"></div></div><br clear="none"><div class="yiv9352030795yqt8703410362" id="yiv9352030795yqt55176"><div class="yiv9352030795gmail_quote"><div class="yiv9352030795gmail_attr" dir="ltr">On Tue, 5 May 2020 at 21:11, Steve Lenham <<a rel="nofollow" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:steve@bendentech.co.uk" target="_blank" href="mailto:steve@bendentech.co.uk">steve@bendentech.co.uk</a>> wrote:<br clear="none"></div><blockquote class="yiv9352030795gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex;">On 05/05/2020 11:31, Gordonjcp wrote:<br clear="none">
> You'll never need to "recap" a power supply. Ever. Unless you've done something crazy and actually damaged it, of course.<br clear="none">
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Sorry, but you post this over and over and it just isn't true. Saying <br clear="none">
that you never need to recap a power supply is every bit as extreme - <br clear="none">
and mistaken - as saying that you should always do it.<br clear="none">
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Two real-world examples:<br clear="none">
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1. I worked on some jolly expensive Apogee converter units that wouldn't <br clear="none">
turn on. They used off-the-shelf switch-mode power supply modules and <br clear="none">
didn't have a proper hard power switch, only a standby mode. This meant <br clear="none">
that the SMPS was running all the time that power was connected; the <br clear="none">
output reservoir caps in an SMPS work fairly hard and these were dead. <br clear="none">
It's a situation that is increasingly common and will cause the <br clear="none">
premature demise of a lot of gear, so Quantec IMO have the right idea.<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
The best electrolytic caps have a rated lifetime of around 12000 hours. <br clear="none">
Yes, this is at their max rated temperature and lifetime doubles for <br clear="none">
every 10 degrees below that temp, but there are 8760 hours in a year so <br clear="none">
you cannot rely on them for too many years if in constant use.<br clear="none">
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I am told that the same problem afflicts the power supplies in Mac Pro <br clear="none">
workstations, with computers costing a five-figure sum being put out of <br clear="none">
action by a handful of worn-out electrolytic caps.<br clear="none">
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2. I work a lot on vintage Lexicon effects and they use late 70s/early <br clear="none">
80s tantalum caps and poor quality electrolytics. Same goes for e.g. <br clear="none">
Prophet 5s. The tants are prone to spontaneously failing short-circuit - <br clear="none">
not all of them, and not after any particular length of time, but <br clear="none">
statistically it is quite common. Presumably in your world you would <br clear="none">
wait for that to happen, then find the one bad cap and replace it - and <br clear="none">
repair all the other damage it might have done. But a lot of people - <br clear="none">
those that can't do repairs themselves, or are already having work done <br clear="none">
on their gear, or just need their kit to keep working because they rely <br clear="none">
on it - prefer to eliminate the possibility of such a failure happening <br clear="none">
any time soon by fitting better quality modern caps. It is a question of <br clear="none">
risk management.<br clear="none">
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I could go on. I accept that good-quality electrolytics seeing moderate <br clear="none">
100Hz ripple in a well-ventilated piece of equipment can go on for a <br clear="none">
very long time. But those conditions arise in a diminishing number of cases.<br clear="none">
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Cheers,<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
Steve L.<br clear="none">
Benden Sound Technology<br clear="none">
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