Replacing electrolytic capacitors

[a k butler <akbutler@tiscali.co.uk>]

At 02:34 03/04/05, you wrote:
>i just read this in a rang review at harmony-central.com
>
><< As to the sound quality, let me add that there is an option from the 
>factory to upgrade the 'chip'. This is supposed to improve the bit level 
>from 8 bit to 16 bit - I think. This would be identified as the newer 
>Boomerang, labeled the 'Boomerang+'. By all means, I suppose, get the 
>newer one for the bit rate increase. However, as I was about to do this - 
>get the upgrade - I considered instead replacing every electrolytic cap 
>on 
>the circuit board with polyester instead. Trust me, there are maybe 10 
>1uf 
>caps onboard the PCB that can be replaced with amazing sonic results! 
>After replacing these I plugged the Boomerang in and realized that this 
>was a very smart thing to do. The sound quality improved greatly - to the 
>point that I honestly couldn't imagine things getting any better. Yeah, I 
>know, seems unlikely, but that's my story - I'm sticking to it.>>
>
>i wouldn't know an elecrolytic cap from a baseball cap but perhaps one of 
>you electro gurus out there may have an idea if this be so or 
>not.....rangers want to know!.....tanks.....mic

You might expect a barely perceptible change in quality from changing the 
electrolytic capacitors that the audio signal actually passes through.
However, on a circuit board, many of the electolytic capacitors will have 
some other function ,
like smoothing a supply voltage. Should one of these start to fail ( they 
sometime become "leaky") then sound quality can suffer greatly, .....and 
replacement would cause a great improvement.

If you've read this far, then you know at least as much about it as do,
if it works, do it.

andy butler