"jasee" wrote in message
...

"Serge Auckland" wrote in message
...
With a budget of £1000 (or indeed with any budget) I would buy used.
There is Ebay, with a constant stream of equipment, and/or dealers who
sell on their part-exchanges. Hi-Fi equipment has been of a very high
quality for at east twenty years, so anything you are likely to buy used
will sound as good as something new provided obviously, it's in good
condition. Buying from a dealer will allow you to take it back if it
doesn't work properly. As to brands, QUAD is always good and reliable,
but doesn't have a headphone output, so you may want to look at Audiolab
and A&R Cambridge (ARCAM).

How far does the bad capacitor problem effect hi-fi equipment?. I mean the
notoriously bad ones which were manufactured or should I say incorrectly
counterfeited a number of years ago.


Electrolytic capacitors do need replacing, but generally they're good for at
least 20 years. If you've no hum, then at least the main reservoirs are
fine, but more insidious are the bypass and coupling capacitors which will
reduce bass response as they dry out. Nevertheless, equipment made in the
last 10 years should be fine. As to the counterfeit components, as far as I
know this only affected the "boutique" brands which for marketing reasons
would consider fitting "designer" capacitors. Everybody else would be more
than satisfied with standard commercial-grade components. I haven't ever
heard of QUAD, Audiolab or ARCAM going in for "designer" capacitors, just
properly engineered commercial components.

S.



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