hron61

No Affiliation. https://www.ebay.com/itm/305436854185

Update.. I have all the caps ordered now. Some are here and some are still in transit. The only significant change I made were the jensen pio caps. I decided to use the Duelund CAST-PIO-Cu Pure Copper Foil. All the Solens were replaced with the same. The xicons were replaced with modern Vishays and one Nichicon. I found a few Elna Cerafines, bought extra for future in case. Only the Cerafine 47uf x 47uf 500v dual section power cap remains. Hopefully it is ok still. Still waiting on other supplies before I can start the project. Thanks to all that have replied here and a special thanks to Henry4841, we have be exchanging PM's and he has given me valuable info to use going forward with this. I built these but only because I followed the manual to a tee, I know squat about electronics or tube amp circuits, I only know enough to be dangerous. Building cables and soldering I can do pretty well.

No worries. 😀

Interesting, never saw a portable GFCI before. Thanks for posting that info about usage too. I may have to rethink using a variac here in the home. I can always go to a friends house and use it there I reckon. Question...Would a dim bulb limiter be ok with or without a GFCI installed? Outlets here are not grounded.

The mono blocks? Yes. Aren't those schematics for the stereo version?

Thats good to know since I'm in the electronic learning phase. Here's a picture of the guts of one of them. Can anyone familiar with laurels point out what caps in the circuits they pertain to? As in filtering, output, etc. Since I can't read a schematic yet that would be a big help.

Makes sense. Is it safe to use a variac on an ungrounded outlet? My outlets are not grounded in this old house I rent. Will a GFCI outlet be good enough?

When I bought them I Almost went with the Moondogs, I figured I would be safer with 8wpc since my main listening is rock music. Would love to hear some. The Laurels will be cremated with me and spread on Mt Rainier, well maybe only the walnut base parts.

Pictures of guts, parts list and schematic have been sent. Let me know if they are legible, I had to resize them a bit. Not really a visual purist, the sound is what I crave, but trying to keep it mostly what the designers created for these amps. I took a look at maybe replacing axial with radials and the would be too tall because of the bottom cover and there isn't any room to lay them sideways, its pretty tight. I have a lead on some of the original ones 10,000uf except they are 16v vs 10v and they are Xicon which is what Welborne supplied I think I will use them for now and I will keep on looking for an upgrade on them at a later date. I did find the Elna Cerafine 100uf 35v so I'm happy about that too. Almost have them all finally but the Jensens will probably stay for now also since they sounded great and when I do upgrade them I will look at a mylar guts inside of a copper shell type, we'll see. I just want to get them operating again, been 20 years.

You are too kind sir. I do appreciate your help. I will try to learn about caps as well. May take me awhile to understand them. The link you sent are for radials, mine are axials. I wish they had a better selection as I would like to have some in the same brand as some are axial and/or radial. If you send your email by pm (if you dont mind) I have a build manual with the parts list including all the caps installed, I can send you the list page, and I have good pics I took of the guts that way you could see it in real time. I have the schematic also.

Amped, I have looked at the new jensens. I think I will try some but they are now audio note branded. So more research is needed for sound and durability, as in leaking. Henry, nichicon is on my radar, besides temp what else should I be looking for, they have many to choose from. Sorry I havent been back to post but since I posted this thread, I have spent many many hours locating capacitors. Looks like the only caps I can replace for exactly the same brand are the Solens, which I did order. The Xicons and the Cerafines are no longer available. For the xicons I was trying to stick with the new but different same brand for replacements but cant seem to do it that way so I have to mix em a little bit. When I do find one that would work its out of stock. My luck. Couldnt fine one brand to get all I needed. Dont know if that matters. Dont know if its just the 300b amp that uses strange values but Its been a journey searching. One order is coming from the UK, one is coming from Canada and some from the US. The film caps I will try not to replace if i can help it, except some Solens which were replaced with same, I located them fairly easy.

That's good news about using 16v caps. I'll order them tomorrow. As for the film caps thats good to know that they usually last for awhile. I really don't want to change the sound, when I listened to them back in 2003-2004 they sounded very nice and was happy with the sound they were making. All the Solen film caps I already found and ordered last night but they are exactly what are installed already, no changes there. Should have maybe posted this yesterday, but oh well. I will leave the Jensens alone, they are impossible to find anyways. Hopefully they have many more years left on them. Amps probably only have 100 hours on them total. All the caps look like new still. Would you have an idea of what I would replace the Elna Cerafine electrolytic caps with? Can't find any of those. Nichicon? Panasonic FR? Maybe. I lost 99.9% of my audio gear along with everything I owned back in the day, (divorce issues) Forte's included. But my tube gear stayed by my side thankfully. Even after I get the amps done I still have to make the power cords and the interconnects as well.

First off I'm not good with electronics but I can solder like a mofo. I built these 20 years ago and they turned out wonderful. Haven't been ran for 18 years (life got in the way). I figured instead of spending 199.99 ea for a check up that I might as well start replacing all the caps and just get em done now so I won't have to worry about failures later on. Some of the exact caps are tough to find like the Xicons, Jensens and the Elna Cerafines for instance. I found most of the Solens and I think I found an Xicon that may work. It's in the power supply and the 2 factory caps are 10,000uf 10v electrolytic and the ones I found are 10,000uf 16v electrolytic, am I good to go with these? I'm thinking maybe keep the jensens in and upgrade the rest of the audio side only. Any ideas on what audio caps work well in these?

Heck of a discount. Wonder if he'll get down to around 750?

First bid in. 3 days left.