Pioneer SA-9100 Integrated Amp Electrolytic Capacitor Recap Listing

Retired HVAC

New Member
An eBay seller, who is a engineer, generously provided me some insight and off I went. Please reply if you experts out there see any errors. Chart was created as follows:
  1. Pulled all data from Service Manual and selected every capacitor listed as an electrolytic. C22, marked with an asterisk, shows in the list but does not exist on the PCB X-rays. Hmmmm.
  2. Made sure stuff was in-stock (08/2018).
  3. Matched uF values exactly.
  4. Next was to try and match voltage exactly.
  5. Next was to select "Audio Grade".
  6. Next was to select "Nichicon" for one list and "ELNA" for the other.
  7. For Nichicon's, attempted to follow quality series; always trying for "UKA" first as I believe these are the best.
  8. For ELNA's, selected SILMIC II series.
  9. Finally I upped the voltage rating by one step (if it had not already been done due to availability) as this was a suggestion of the engineer. I will mention that he stated he did this for certain conditions that I am not smart enough to discern.
I will post a PDF for your viewing. Will provide Excel if you ask. The Excel has some other handy things. I also can provide the SA-9100 Service Manual (thanks HiFi Engine!) that has the cap locations and polarity highlighted. Makes it a little easier.
Thanks everyone.
Old Guy That Likes Making Lists
 

Attachments

  • Pioneer SA-9100 - Electrolytic Capacitor Listing.pdf
    208.5 KB · Views: 121
Attached is what I used. If I did it again I would use Nichicon FG (UFG) instead of Silmic II's. I find that the Fine Gold caps are just right when installed and don't require the tedious break in that the Silmics do. Unfortunately, once you work on a 9100 you never want to touch it again. The boards are tight and tough to work on.
 

Attachments

  • 9100 BOM Silmic.txt
    6.4 KB · Views: 62
I use Nichicon KT for Audio path, and Nichicon PW for power supply, then Nichicon KG for main caps
I can't say I have ever really noticed any "break in" on any of the dozens of restorations I have done, I always run them for 3 or 4 days before I give them back to the customers...

You don't need to stick to the exact voltages, sometimes its necessary to go up in voltage to get the desired lead spacing.
 
You have me looking at the Nichicon site again. UKT are good value ecaps. I see they have the higher grade UKA, Mouser sells them, lowest value is 22uF. UKA are a few more cents :)
I am sure most modern day ecaps will outperform the Pioneer "CEA" type originals.
I did read that someone at diyaudio measured ecap thd on a AP tester and found the UES series to be the lowest of the lot. Not sure if UKA was included in the testing. I like the UES green colour, easy to tell what you changed and orientation does not matter :)
 
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This is great that you all are helping me with this. Here is another chart I started that needs your expert review. These series designations were recommended by the fellow from eBay. A visit to Nichicon's website is confusing. That's why I just went ahead and always tried to pick UKA's first. Like you said, a couple of cents.
Interesting that you state that modern ecaps won't beat old ecaps. I haven't started this project yet as this SA-9100 starts right up and purrs like a kitten. Absolutely zero issues with operation. And sound just fine to these old guy ears. The whole recap as listed will cost around 100 bucks. And nbndtrain is scaring me to even contemplate starting it. Should I leave the darn thing alone? It is a barn queen. nbndtrain will know that that is!
 

Attachments

  • Electrolytic Capacitor Selection Listing.pdf
    32.9 KB · Views: 49
Recommend minimum voltage at 25, maybe 35 based on ConradH's discussion the Capacitor Abyss, a thread I started to get some discussion of different topics about caps.

Many like to go film caps when below 4.7µF. As you can see, Nichicon is halting availability of <1µF electrolytic caps below 50 or 100 volts.

I like to go up a notch in the big caps for the reason that modern manufacturing will allow a cap to be made more accurately and the ±20% allows them to make them at -10% and be on spec, saving material. This material savings add up. So I bump the main caps a bit to compensate.
 
Your list is fine. Blue Shadow advise is fine as well.
Interesting that you state that modern ecaps won't beat old ecaps.
I am sure most modern day ecaps will outperform the Pioneer "CEA" type originals.
if you are not experienced with this service, I'd leave it alone as you do not want to break it and struggle or make extra expense to fix it. You can practice on less expensive equipment first to get experience.
 
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