716 Orange Drops

[moodyj2000]

Quick question. Never used orange drops before but picked up a set for some Dynaco Mark III’s with aftermarket board designed around them. On my Peak ESR they measure 18.6 Ohms and do not register a capacitance. Capacitance measures dead on using my DMM. These are brand new from mouser. Should the ESR be that high?

 

[eizner23]

What farad value are they? My tester doesn’t like lower values.

 

[arts]

I stopped using the "modern" orange drop capacitors quite some time ago due to reliability issues. This is a brand name that has passed through several ownerships, and like many other products that go through this kind of "marketing" rebirth, it has become a mere shadow of what it once was.

For that style/footprint I recommend the Panasonic ECW or Nichicon QXP.

 

[Lavane]

I stopped using the "modern" orange drop capacitors quite some time ago due to reliability issues. This is a brand name that has passed through several ownerships, and like many other products that go through this kind of "marketing" rebirth, it has become a mere shadow of what it once was.

For that style/footprint I recommend the Panasonic ECW or Nichicon QXP.

The Panisonics are what I've been using also. I've used a few of the newer orange drops as bypass caps in the power supplies though.

 

[daybreak2350]

"All capacitors with the same value are the same. -- Nope." Interesting article on history and use of Orange Drops: https://www.mouser.com/applications/audio-gibson-orange-drops/
Obviously something is amiss with your capacitors or test meters. Mouser (and DigiKey) are reliable suppliers so you might want to consider asking them about getting new replacements and see if results are any different.

 

[geode]

FWIW I use a pair of orange drops in my tube preamp and some mundorf silver oils as output caps. Switching back and forth I can tell no audible difference. Of course my hearing is not great. YMMV though.

 

[Lavane]

FWIW I use a pair of orange drops in my tube preamp and some mundorf silver oils as output caps. Switching back and forth I can tell no audible difference. Of course my hearing is not great. YMMV though.

I very rarely hear a difference in cap brands. So I tend to use Panisonic film caps a lot. Some Mundorf along with various Dayton caps as well though.