That's a great suggestion. The Traynor YBA200 is right in line with his power and price range.
Yup. An electrolytic capacitor is generally 30-50% smaller and the more expensive ones can tolerate prolonged excessive heat. And that means absolutely nothing. ANY electronic device in its third decade of service is going to probably (but not definitely) need new caps. That goes for tubes, transistors, and the BS amps that don't exist yet that Seamonkey is so fond of.
Linear supply, class AB is the standard, is the most stable, and easiest to service. Not surprisingly, it also happens to work. And gee, one of the selling points of an old amp is that it IS an old design that isn't going to sound like a modern amp. Seamonkey would have you believe that an old design won't be as authentic as a "modelled" simulation of one.
Let me highlight some of his more misleading statements and appropriately clarify what it is that he's actually saying:
So if you put new caps in an old amp it's going to sound like a new one of a completely different design? According to Seamonkey, that's the case. This notion is ridiculous and just an extension of his vehement anti-tube crusade. While he throws around impressive sounding words like "capacitor" and "transformer," you shouldn't take what he says at face value because he's speaking in very broad generalized terms that don't apply in MOST cases and he really knows next to nothing about electronics.
And this is a lie as presented, a complete and total lie. An amp needing repairs, whether it be tubes or capacitors or even a transformer is not "normal." An amp that needs those things is one that is malfunctioning. He's trying to scare you about things that are a normal part of maintenance for ANY kind of amp, tube, s/s analog, s/s digital... etc. To accurately paraphrase his mumbo-jumbo into real English: ' A broken amp may need new parts.' Doesn't sound so ominous now, does it?
And here he reveals exactly how limited his knowledge of electronics is. Higher capacitance power supplies (what he alludes to) do not stress a power transformer any more. In fact, they lessen the draw through the transformer and actually make it run cooler because they are supplying the additional current. The ONLY caveat to this is for really old amps that use tube rectifiers. With higher capacitance, the rectifier tube can be run into an overcurrent condition and burn out. None of the amps you mentioned use rectifier tubes, so you don't need to worry about it.
..or ignore the troll posting false and misleading information because he hates tubes.
Modern electrolytic caps are longer lived, but will eventually require replacement. The resistors made today will be just as good as the ones made 50 years ago, but they will be electrically less noisy. Modern transformers are no different from "vintage" ones.
. I find my 400+ fairly clean for a tube amp, definately a lot cleaner than the Traynor. Definately try both though, assuming that you can find a Mesa.
