Technics SP-10 TT motor capacitors?

Dear friends: Pryso posted an advise that he receive for someone else: ++++ " if it ain't broke, don't fix it.. " +++++

this is common sense and I'm with.

I can't remember when was the last time that I read elsewhere that cap suffer of a leak or even " exploit " and certainly never from a SP-10 owner.

My whole/general attitude about is to change ( whatever ) parts ( caps, resistors, wire, etc, etc ) in an audio item where we can/could achieve better performance with out an important trade-off.

Of course that for be " peace in mind " and due that it is a very low price everyone of us like to make those changes. No, I don't do it in my SP-10s yet.

I would like to know ( maybe other people could likes too ) from those SP-10 owners that already change the caps/reistors or the like what real changes we can expect/detect with these new parts on the SP-10 quality performance or none at all other that that " peace on mind ".

Could you?: Strathorncat, Lewm or some body else.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Electolytic have a shelf life. It's accepted in the electronics industry. Depends on the application as to how worried to be. Lewm said it well for me:

"There is a certain piece of mind in knowing the lytics are not going to leak and take out an irreplaceable IC. (Most of the ICs in that circuit are no longer made, and some of them were custom built for Technics specifically for that circuit, so not easy to find subs.)"

I just recapped two SH-10E's and found one cap that had broke open and literally leaked. Probably been electrically leaky for years. I guess it depends on how well you think you could recover if a leaky cap damages other circuitry. Not much of an issue in a power supply, but a very unique servo control circuit; I'd rather err on the side of safety.

Dear " Sp-10s " : Something that I have on mind from sometime is to take out all the " electronics " from the TT ( main unit ) in a separate " control box " ( make a re-build/refurbished CB and PS, almost new units with new circuit boards and up-date parts .) and leave the TT in an " open frame " with a stand-alone " tower " or the like for the tonearm.

I'm not for those beautiful and heavy plinths, my SP-10 " road " is almost the contrary.

My choice an experiences about tell me that if this way is not the best one at least it is not the worst.

I already heard several Sp-10s in new beautiful heavy plinths in different build materials ( in very good audio systems ) and in no case I heard something that could tell me that that kind of plinths are a better " road " that the one I choose: a simple " open frame ", yes I know that looks ugly but I care more on the quality performance level.

What do you think on this/my approach about?, because I don't have any scientific argument to support it: it is only my " feelings ", that are working good in the way I have right now.

To make that open frame SP-10 it needs time a lot of time for the whole project, it is something like to build/design a new TT.
I don't have the time for now but my attitude is oriented to make it in the future.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Dear Strathorncat: +++ " found one cap that had broke open " +++

obviously the change is a must.

Nw, which performance changes do you experience when you made those caps changes? something improve?, the Sp-10 is a very good design and very well made for those times that's why I ask about: it is worth to do it?

could you share with us?

regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

My hope is that it will meet factory specs, and continue to do so for the next 20 years. My table takes a bit to stabilize at 78rpm and I'm hoping that gets better. I'm getting up to speed on the service manual and the troubleshooting tree. My guess is that I'd see something a bit out of tolerance now if I checked with a scope, but I'm going to go ahead and do the caps as I do with all old equipment. I've seen too many old guitar amps with real leaky caps to doubt the fact that they will deteriorate after 20+ years. It would be an injustice (in my mind) to not take care of this classic machine as best I can. I have all I need to do this myself, so no big burden, and I enjoy it. You are asking a fair question and I appreciate the dialog.

I've wondered the same thing about plinth or no plinth.