Power supply questions. How to know when it needs repair?


I have 3 separate power supply units in my system. They are all getting old. How do I know when they need recapping or whatever they may need? How can I test them? They all use umbilicals to hook to turntable, preamp and phono preamp. What might I hear that would be an indicator? Thanks,

Bill

billpete

for the pre amp and phono amp, you will notice a sharp drop in gain, or perhaps a drop in audio quality. it would be significant. A turntable, the motor will slow down under load.

If I were to test them, I would put a VOM meter on the output and measure DC voltage, just to confirm. I'd also measure AC voltage. All under load. It's the simplest test i can think of.
There are others were you can measure resistance, and watch it reduce as it charges. But  the time it takes to do that will vary depending on the VOM meter.