We recap, why not re-sist?

Hi Parabolic,

I re-resist. :) But depends. For resistors there are in fact many boutique or highly sought after brands for electronics as well as speakers.

The big issue in tube gear though is the caps. They are complicated to manufacture, sound quite different and almost always will be in the signal path. I wrote this elsewhere as a joke:

"A good tube preamp is a very nice set of capacitors surrounded by tubes and other crap."

Outside of tubes, transistor gear can be built without a cap in the signal path. Caps are also found in speaker crossovers, especially on the way to the tweeter.

For resistors, IMHO the biggest issue after noise is thermal effects, which cause the resistance to change as it warms up, so the resistors most immune to this command the big bucks.  However, some like a certain vintage sound and seek out resistors just for this.  If you were building a guitar amp, with tubes and wanted it to sound as close to something from the 60's as you could this is the way to go.

Best,


Erik

You might want to check out this video. There's even a parts list at the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9vtk4CONiU

I'm not sure when the Panasonic FC and FM caps were introduced, but they are very nice upgrades.  It seems all the caps replaced are power supply related, so they should be relatively inexpensive.

Hi Parabolic,

Aging and quality are the two reasons why you may recap. Electrolitics have a life span measured in decades, while for filmcaps it's in hundreds of years.

Almost all electronics have electrolytics in the power supply. I'd leave them alone for another decade or two unless there  is a problem. Often these caps leak, or bulge or show signs of burning so problem caps are easier to spot.

As for any film caps, the last 20 years have seen some great improvements, so preamps made before the 21st century may benefit immensely from replacing coupling caps, but again,this tends to be in the tube preamps much more than solid state.  Many high-end solid state pre-s use no coupling caps, so your benefit, if any, is less clear.

Best,


Erik

I should also say, going back to your original question, unless the resistors are thermally stressed, they will probably last thousands of years. :) They are incredibly stable over time, while electrolytics go bad just sitting on a shelf.

That's another reason why re-resisting is not something you should consider in that unit, especially if you like the sound of it. :)

Best,

Erik