[QuadList] The Capacitor Chronicles

[Don Norwood]

Like Guy, I rarely have found the large computer grade electrolytics in the 
power supplies to be bad.  One large caveat however, if the machine has been 
operated without proper cooling, all bets are off.  Park experienced 
numerous power supply problems, but we know that the air filters in his 
machine were completely clogged when he got it.  I suspect that contributed 
to his problems.

As Park mentioned, Ampex used high quality caps in the circuitry of the 2000 
and 1200.  In general, I don't endorse changing them unless there is a 
problem.  There are a number of hermetically sealed, mil-spec tantalums that 
seem to last forever.  If you replace them with the equivalent parts today, 
you'll be amazed at how expensive they are!  I realize that the situation in 
the AVR-2 is different, but the 1200/2000 machines do not seem to have many 
problems with caps.

Don