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Recapping C304 & C305 capacitor cans on Mcintosh C26 Preamplifier

H

h00kem

New Member
Need some confirmation regarding the replacement of my C304A&B and C305A&B electrolytic capacitors on the Power Supply board of a C26. The original capacitors are contained in two silver covered caps. It is a real pain to dismount, cut, empty and refill them so instead I plan to disconnect the power wires from original caps and connect them to the 4 replacement caps on the underside of the C26 chassis. Attached is a picture of the two power supply cap cans C304 & C305 capacitor cans as original on my C26.

QUESTION ONE:
The original cap values in each can per the service manual are as follows: C304A (160uf / 200V) C304B (200uf / 150V) and C305A (160uf / 200V), C305B (200uf / 150V. The seller of the rebuild kit says to replace each of the caps with 4 electrolytic caps each with a value of 220uf / 200V. The seller says caps with the original values are very hard to source. Does using 220uf caps in replacement for all the originals sound reasonable, or should I expect it will noticeably impact the sound or operation of the C26?

QUESTION TWO:
I plan to connect the new caps as follows (referencing the colors of the wires in the attached picture: Connect the positive side of each of the 4 caps to a power wire (one red, one yellow, one orange, one orange white) and the negative side of each cap to a lug grounds on the chassis (note the black wires in the picture - I have checked to ensure the lugs are in fact common grounds). Does that sound like a solid plan?

Thanks for your help. Just want to make sure my read of the picture, which seems to correspond with the service manual schematic sounds right to more experienced people!
 

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Should be fine on both accounts. Some folks might be more picky but I've never encountered any major issues or noticeable changes in sound using higher capacitance caps in that application. Especially when they are so close in value. The key of course being that you stick with 200V or better if you use the same cap for all of them.
 
smartin53 said:
Should be fine on both accounts. Some folks might be more picky but I've never encountered any major issues or noticeable changes in sound using higher capacitance caps in that application. Especially when they are so close in value. The key of course being that you stick with 200V or better if you use the same cap for all of them.
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Thanks so much for your response. This is the first recapping job I have done on a preamp so your thoughts are quite assuring. Any thoughts regarding my question #2? Do my planned connections based on the picture sound reasonable? Best, Kevin
 
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