VOGONS


First post, by subhuman@xgtx

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Good evening folks,

I have two well known, OPL3 equipped AWE32 cards: a CT3900 and a CT3980.

Both cards have started developing output issues over the course of the years, ranging from a lack of output from the EMU8000's left channel (CT3980) to a complete lack of audio output from the speaker and line jacks (CT3900). Given they have gotten crazy expensive during the past years, I've been considering going the repair way.

To those of you with experience in repairing Creative cards: which brands and series of electrolytic capacitors could be suitable replacements for old dinosaurs like this?

I simply thought of buying Nichicon gold muse or similar options, but then somewhere off a dark corner of my mind I recalled one of you guys mentioned that using far too high-end capacitors does affect the sound signature (alas treble and low pass filters).

Much appreciated!

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Bear in mind I usually post to the forums using my old systems.

Reply 1 of 2, by Mike_

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There are no switch-mode converters on the sound card, so any decent general purpose capacitors should be good enough for this. Such as Rubycon PK or PX series, if you want to stick to well-known and regarded brands.

It could also be something else than the caps, but I guess it's worth a try.

Reply 2 of 2, by MagefromAntares

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Hi,

While a recapping certainly would help with some issues, I think these issues, especially the left channel issue on the CT3980 is unlikely to be caused by bad electrolytic caps.

"A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it." - Dune