ARS vs F+T

[RockinRocket]

Do you guys consider ARS better quality than F + T??

[TUBEDUDE]

No.

[RockinRocket]

Their bigger so they gotta be! Right lol

[Stevem]

No! As I recall they are made in Tiwan!
I have replaced so many of these in Fender amps that gone bad after just 4 years it's passed being sad and bordering on criminal!

[Leo_Gnardo]

Do you guys consider ARS better quality than F + T??

Plastic wrapper marked ARS, they don't make 'em, just order from "lowest bidder" China whether mainland or Taiwan. Maybe they're the cheapest. You get what you pay for.

F+T, made in Germany, have an excellent reputation. I've never had to replace one.

[RockinRocket]

No kidding.
These are not sounding to good. The marketing pitch is LCR replicas.

https://www.watfordvalves.com/product_d ... sp?id=2866

[Cameron]

If you are talking about the axle type ...I'm not to sure ..but the LCR type ..for me...have been very good and reliable...and have preformed good and lasted along time in the Bogner amps that used them ....the F&T I'm not a fan of ...ESR on a few I checked was not good ..and the thin leads on the axle type..I have seen break in some amps...although the amps manufacturer should have had them zip tied down...

[Dai H.]

(as I vaugely remember) the "ARS" are made in China (by TTC?" and seem to be low cost (and presumably very low cost in quantity which I'd guess is why you see them in production amps). The longevity spec. was average (85deg C 1000 hours?) for the Chinese "ARS" and much longer for the F&T (85deg C 5000 hours?).

There is another series of can caps made by (Unicon if memory serves) that are actually made in Taiwan but I don't think I've seen these on any guitar amps (possibly mainly sold in Japan). The specs were (IIRC) a bit better than the "ARS" but not as good as F&T. The "ARS" labeled with other brands that I checked out personally (just visually--didn't buy any) looked a bit substandard with the terminal lugs.

I suppose you could use the hardiest one (not necessarily exclusive to the above manfs.) for the most stressed position after the B+ rectifier (usually sees the highest voltage and most ripple) and lesser ones for other positions.

[pdf64]

Jan provides max temperature/life specs for the F&T caps he supplies http://www.die-wuestens.de/dindex.htm?/k1.htm
But the spec for similar F&Ts from other suppliers may differ.

[dorrisant]

Jan provides max temperature/life specs for the F&T caps he supplies http://www.die-wuestens.de/dindex.htm?/k1.htm
But the spec for similar F&Ts from other suppliers may differ.

Love the link! Makes me want to finish my nixie clock.

[Cameron]

Can someone point me to where the LCR types are made in China ..I would like to see this ..not to argue..but for my own info and for others. The F&Ts for me... have not lived up to the hype and have had problems in the amps I have seen...no matter what they're own website says..ESR and general quality was not good.....maybe just a bad batch? ...I'll have to look into them one more time and give them another chance...

[Dai H.]

this is the thread I remembered finding some of the info for the caps on:

http://music-electronics-forum.com/t25109/

(sorry, I seem to have mis-remembered some of the details! i.e. *TMC* instead of TTC, and so on)

re: whether F&T are actually good, kind of hard to say. Could be that some were bad "out of the box", or possibly they were mis-used, or damaged, etc. Who knows?

[Leo_Gnardo]

re: whether F&T are actually good, kind of hard to say. Could be that some were bad "out of the box", or possibly they were mis-used, or damaged, etc. Who knows?

There are counterfeits too, be aware. Anything considered good, can be faked. Not just caps, strings too. D'addario reported on this website a couple years ago, over 80% of the strings sold in China as D'adds, turned out to be counterfeit. They have made their way to the USA too. Any deal that appears to be "too good to pass up," beware.

Another thread from TAG a few years ago about caps, fun reading!

http://ampgarage.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... sc&start=0

[Davidg]

I would definitely give F&T another chance. I bought a decent stash ayear or so ago and found them to be excellent on first impressions. Can't say about longevity yet as first ones I bought were a few years ago. What impressed me most was that all values I bought all the caps were within 2% tolerance on mF and ESR. Never bought a quantity that were that close before especially the ESR. But I'm not buying production quantities either. I would imagine shelf life and storage environment could contribute to having a "bad batch" also.

[Cameron]

re: whether F&T are actually good, kind of hard to say. Could be that some were bad "out of the box", or possibly they were mis-used, or damaged, etc. Who knows?

There are counterfeits too, be aware. Anything considered good, can be faked. Not just caps, strings too. D'addario reported on this website a couple years ago, over 80% of the strings sold in China as D'adds, turned out to be counterfeit. They have made their way to the USA too. Any deal that appears to be "too good to pass up," beware.

Another thread from TAG a few years ago about caps, fun reading!

http://ampgarage.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... sc&start=0

Definitely going to be checking them out again ..from what everyone is posting here.....it seems they've improved the quality a lot.....the ones that I ran into before were not counterfeit....they where definitely the real deal.....in a few amps made by a well known guy ....and I have run into them before in other amps for repair...and they were the problem.......and all had the same problem..the leads where very thin ...which I really didn't like...and the ESR...and tolerance way off...but again ...I will give them another chance now from everyone's else's great reviews here!! Thanks guys!!