Most and Least Reliable Electrolytic Capacitors
TomJ said:
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There’s a lot of capacitors either coming out of a few factories and being labelled with multiple brands, or there’s more capacitor factories coming on line all the time. A huge number of electros are clearly coming from Chinese factories, particularly the flood of fakes. In my opinion, the fake capacitors are one of the biggest contributors to the overall failures on cheap gear (not so much HiFi, but consumer electronics in general).
When it comes to audiophile approved capacitors, I can safely say all (except genuine old pulls from gear) Rubycon Black Gates being sold now are fake. There is one little thing the counterfeiters didn’t take into account and it’s obvious to us techs.
I posted a very useful graphic last year on identifying fakes from real. I won’t repost it here, but have a search. Suffice it to say, a huge proportion of Nichicons sold across Asia are fakes. They are capacitors and they work, but internally (when you cut them open) they are not Nichicon. Exterior also gives away clues they are fake.
So along with unreliable 3rd tier brands, we have fakes of tier 1 caps. A bit of a nightmare, unless you source the best caps from a known and verified supplier/supply chain.
At least no-one is faking the 3rd tier brands- or are they? 
There’s a lot of capacitors either coming out of a few factories and being labelled with multiple brands, or there’s more capacitor factories coming on line all the time. A huge number of electros are clearly coming from Chinese factories, particularly the flood of fakes. In my opinion, the fake capacitors are one of the biggest contributors to the overall failures on cheap gear (not so much HiFi, but consumer electronics in general).When it comes to audiophile approved capacitors, I can safely say all (except genuine old pulls from gear) Rubycon Black Gates being sold now are fake. There is one little thing the counterfeiters didn’t take into account and it’s obvious to us techs.I posted a very useful graphic last year on identifying fakes from real. I won’t repost it here, but have a search. Suffice it to say, a huge proportion of Nichicons sold across Asia are fakes. They are capacitors and they work, but internally (when you cut them open) they are not Nichicon. Exterior also gives away clues they are fake.So along with unreliable 3rd tier brands, we have fakes of tier 1 caps. A bit of a nightmare, unless you source the best caps from a known and verified supplier/supply chain.At least no-one is faking the 3rd tier brands- or are they?
