audio-talk

I was contemplating buying some caps on Ebay. Some of the ones I looked at didn't seem kosher for one reason or another.
Out of curiosity I searched for Black Gates. There are a staggering number of Black Gates still available. They are almost all in Hong Kong, China or Taiwan. I hope this doesn't seem prejudiced, but my Dad used to visit Hong Kong a lot. He would always stock up on a few fake Rolex watches, fake designer shirts etc. He said you get get almost anything, and it was available on the street. Quality was actually pretty good. You could get shirts made to measure etc.
There are also a lot of Silmic II for sale but they are black and gold, whereas current production are brown as far as I know.
Anyway, after seeing the number of Black Gates for sale, which I assume are fakes, I am now wondering if any of the premium 'audio' caps from sellers in that part of the world are real.
But then you also start to ask yourself about cheap op-amps and so on....

The counterfeit Hilti builders tools are shockingly poor quality.

See what you mean! Just searched for Black Gates ~ all Hong Kong / Taiwan. One seller does state no longer made by Rubycon, so either he stock-piled or they're copies.

At the other end of the scale, you get dreadful 2nd hand tat out of old radios, pedalled as "vintage". Well OK it is, but still wouldn't touch with a long pole

I bought some rubycon 47uf 450v capacitors from hong kong a couple of years ago I put some in a guitar amp I built and they seemed to be ok, I then saw a thread about fake caps on AX84 with pictures showing the difference between the fakes and real one and mine looked like the fakes so I cut one up and found a smaller no name capacitor inside that was only rated at 400v instead of 450v and seeing as I was running 360v B+ it was a bit too close for my liking so they were replaced.

I won't risk buying capacitors from china/hong kong again its just too risky I think.

Bizzie wrote:I bought some rubycon 47uf 450v capacitors from hong kong a couple of years ago I put some in a guitar amp I built and they seemed to be ok, I then saw a thread about fake caps on AX84 with pictures showing the difference between the fakes and real one and mine looked like the fakes so I cut one up and found a smaller no name capacitor inside that was only rated at 400v instead of 450v and seeing as I was running 360v B+ it was a bit too close for my liking so they were replaced.

I won't risk buying capacitors from china/hong kong again its just too risky I think.

Blimey that's priceless
I assumed they would be branding generic caps as Black Gates or Silmics - I never imagined they would actually 'encapsulate' them. Amazing.

Black Gates - HFC appear to be completely out. Pcx have a few values left.
If you look at some of those Hong Kong sites, they are listing 20 or 30 or 40 values, typically Buy It Now with 'More than 10 available'
Its a license to print money.

'If something seems to good to be true it probably is'.

I will only ever buy components from someone with an established 'pedigree', such as PartsConnexion, HiFi Collective or Percy Audio (or for mainstream, RS, Rapid or Farnell).

I would never even consider buying from an ebay listing that says 'From Hong Kong' or 'From China'

I had forgotten that I had ordered some Nichicon LF from Ebay.
They arrived today.
Nichicon datasheet says the negative lead is minimum 15mm long, and the positive lead is minimum 4mm longer.
The leads on my caps are equal and about 3mm long.
Ho hum.

Edit:
I have tested these on an ESR meter. There's no doubt that these are genuine Nichicon LF. Regarding the lead length, the seller has some LF with long leads and some with short leads. The ones with short leads are identified as such in the photo and in the item description. The ones I have received are immaculate and there is no evidence of them being reclaimed.

Max N wrote:The leads on my caps are equal and about 3mm long.

They sound used/reclaimed. I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole myself.

Jeez they might get the Volts and value a bit closer

At least if the little one blows up the can will prevent it spreading its guts all over the insides of the amp

I've just opened up a 100uf 400v Nichison from HK and it is (or looks) genuine inside.

Meaning you've now knackered it?

Mike H wrote:Meaning you've now knackered it?

Almost.

Might be worth passing on the plug I've been getting from Parts Connexion that they have a few genuine Black Gates for sale currently .
Of the small range they are offering , the three that stand out are :
22uF/350 VK ($39.95)
150uF/350VK ( $99.95 )
470uF/16V ( $39.95 )

Of those, the most useful and best value, in my opinion, are the 22uF/350 which are very good for decoupling stages in phono amps , better than anything I've used in that application ( vs. ordinary electrolytics, Ansar PPs, and Russian PIO ) . I already have about 6 of them , some unused, so will probably not buy any . The 470uF/16's look over-priced . The 150uF/350's are expensive but probably as good as WKZ's , if you feel flush this month ....