Capacitor pricing

Good to see you- dgarretson.

I have no problem paying for these "caps".  They make our systems sound excellent to outstanding- priceless!

One thing I forgot to mention the Gen1 Sonicraft cap review done VS 
The VH- OIMP  .  I can tell you without reservation this review was totally biased.
Myself and audio friend compared the two caps as well as with Jantzen  supreme and Mundorf Supreme  the VH cap was more extended on the Bottom end the VH smooth on top more sense because of thd oil on paper foil. the Sonic caps is excellent for the money and much better then stock Solen caps and excellent for the Bass ,but no way as well balanced as any of the above. It does appear very open, but jot much depth. In 2005 Enjoy thd music reviewed the VH oimp
Cap with totally different outcome. the 10-10 audio review Not accurate at all.
I stand by this statement I have been doing  mods for almost 20 years now.
In most cases you get what you pay  for. try  gor your self and give 3-400 hours
Of actual play time . 100 hours to start opening up.

I owned a Hifi shop in the U.K  for 10 years before moving back to the U.S and did many mods. The Solen capacitors unless usjng the green Teflon caps 
Are a starting off point Tony Gee of the Netherlands is a Authority on Loudspeaker building and caps and gave me good advise . check out this cap cook book it is very true and accurate,your taste may differ a bit but this is the capacitor reference book to read .he has not done VCAPS Which currently I am using 
The OIMP, fair price and a good alternative and cheaper to the Mundorf Silver oil  with better Bass.with the addition of the VH Teflon CU, .22 cap fantastic combo makes it better still.
http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Cap.html

It would be simpler to distinguish the rebranders from the OEMs

In Australia your up for legal action if something goes wrong.
Common guys I know so far you are capable of doing your own comparison searches, I’ll give you the link to the Solen 400v Metallized Polypropylene build specs because I’m not defaming them, but the "boutique" ones you’ll have to search out yourselves.
http://solen.ca/wp-content/uploads/fastcap.pdf
Chart regarding length, diameter, lead length ect, is near the bottom of the page. And this is just for the middle of the road Metallized Polypropylene one, there are much more higher and lower spec.
Cheers George

George, don't leave us hanging. What are the brands you think are the same?

I won't outright name a product of rebadging, but if you spend the time and do your homework you will see for yourself. They have selected 20 from 1uF to 100uF from that Solen series and voltage, and if you compare dimensions specs cap for cap you will see, that all "boutique" are not what they appear to be. 

Cheers George

George, don't leave us hanging. What are the brands you think are the same?

One of the "tells" for me is the 7.5uF caps, which AFAIK only Solen/SCR makes.

To all I was just making an observations and assumed  everything was within 
a percent or two  to see a $40 difference per capacitor is lot . Parts connecxion 
runs 20% sales on capacitors off and on ,as well as other things . Just compare 
between all like Madasound , Sonicraft, Michael Percy audio and other 
lie Hifi collective in the U.K  sometimes less money and reasonable shipping
one pet peave if you list it ,it should show how many in stock. Such as a Hifi collective does.

The upper level Solen are solidly good capacitors however there are better. My amplifier uses Solens as first stage coupling capacitors and I replaced them with Jupiter copper foils for a noticeable improvement (not night and day).

My speakers have Duelund CAST copper foil caps that replaced the Solen at the tweeter, a "very " noticeable improvement. Money well spent IMO. To be clear, the sound was quite good with the stock Solen but superior capacitors will make a positive contribution.
Charles

Here's something for all to ponder over. 
Just for my own interest and those here who are interested, I viewed all the dimention specs of one of the expensive "boutique" favourites against the same from Solen, both in "metallized polypropylene capacitor 400v" versions.

And in every instance for 20 different value the same uF 
1:The cap body length = exactly the same!
2:The lead lengths = exactly the same!
3:The body diameter was always 1mm more on the "boutique" "maybe re-badged" favourite, what would cause this?
I'll leave that to everyone's imagination.

Cheers George   

@georgelofi

Solen = SCR = Axon. Axon is essentially the middle of the road Solen for half price. Focal and others do seem to source their caps from them.

However, I would only use an Axon as a bypass. The middle to low end Solen’s are, to my ears, easily outclassed by the low end Mundorf’s and Clarity caps.

I’ve heard good things about the latest high end Solen’s but I really don’t wish to play around with them. Your mileage and ears may vary.

Now other brands, who knows. Winding machines are expensive, so if you can get cheap caps with your brand on them and get someone to put out a few positive reviews for you then you may indeed make a few bucks.

Now, what's absoultely best is if you can find a capacitor brand that costs $1/cap or less and sounds best to you. I hope you find that for yourself. 

Best,

Erik

Best bang for buck Solen one of the big majors in capacitor manufacturing. And the word is a few very expensive "boutique" branded caps are the same just re-badged.

Pick which one you can afford.
http://solen.ca/product-category/capacitors/

Cheers George 

Different models -- one is the "Supreme EVO" the other is just the "Supreme".

I think it's a little unfair to say Parts Connexion "marks everything up" AFAIK comparing their  list prices has been pretty consistent with other US vendors.

If you ask Chris at PC nicely you can usually get 20% off at PC, which is their sale price.

Jupiter copper foil at SC is essentially 20% off so, in this case it’s kind of a wash. I haven't done an extensive comparison of every single brand, but as a result for things I get I go through PC, but of course, it always helps to compare prices. My free to build speaker kit uses Peerless woofers, which are usually $20/ea. cheaper at Madisound thatn Parts-Express for instance. Even if things cost the same, Madisound has better shipping rates (or so I think) than PE.

By the way, Clarity ESA and MR caps are on big close-out sales at both PartsConnection (PC) and Madisound right now. Sonic doesn't carry Clarity.

Madisound also carries Mundorf and Clarity but I’ve only seen them on sale when being discontinued.