"TDWesty" wrote in message
oups.com...
My NAD 3125 may need new caps (it is 20 years old). All original caps
look fine, and are ELNA brand, either RE or CE series. I cannot find
ELNA online, although I may check a local store. I've been told
Panasonic FC series are good. Are they a suitable replacement for the
originals? They are "low impedance" - is this the important criteria
for audio? ELNA appears to be well respected in the audio world from a
bit of searching I've done, so I don't want to lose any of the
original NAD sound by using the wrong caps.

The one problem my amp has (see earlier post) seems to be isolated to
the left channel infrasonic filter section. Assuming I can resolve this
be replacing the caps in that section, should I just quit there?

Many people have said to just replace all caps on a 20 year old amp,
but the Panasonic spec sheets show that 20-30 years is a reasonable
lifespan for caps at near room temps. The 1000-2000 hrs ratings seem to
be at the max operating temps. Replacing all the caps seems like a
fair bit of trouble, especially if the result is a possible loss of
sound quality if the new caps are inferior to the originals, in terms
of audio quality. Any insight is appreciated!

Panasonic FC capacitors are electrolytics. The high-value electrolytics you
mentioned (50v 4700uF and 1000uF) will be used in the power supply section,
which is working fine in your amplifier (I think you said your amplifier is
working fine with CD and DVD inputs, but not with tuner and VCR inputs.)

For the problem you have - weak signal on left channel when using tuner or
VCR inputs - you need to establish the cause. I'd guess it's a defective
switch or connection somewhere.

It could be a very minor fault, but may take an engineer several hours to
track down.

Tim