I have a 9090DB that i have been listening to for sometime and I believe the caps are still original. Will changing the old caps worth the expense? Will the sound be of much improvements or continue using the old caps?

Change em and re-adjust. They are affordable enough to change and the payoff is more than good.

If you're curious about replacing caps I recommend reading the Exclusively Sansui sticky on the subject :

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=111667

It's 6 pages of posts but very informative...

- Neil.

thank you all

A couple of months ago myself and another AK member did a head to head comparison between two Sansui Eight receivers. They were played through the same speakers and used the same CD player a source. They were identical receivers except one had been recapped and the other had not.

The receiver that had not been recapped sounded great. Listening to it with a critical ear there was no noticeable flaws in the sound. But when the same music was played through the same speakers connected to the recapped receiver, there was a noticeable improvement in the sound. The musical notes were fuller and more detailed. We played several musical styles at different volume levels and in each case the recapped receiver sounded better.

There is no doubt in my mind that replacing the caps will improved the sound of this old gear.

- Pete

c3conv
If you have young ears and great hearing, go for a recap. If you have older, hunting or industrial damaged ears in need of hearing aids, save your money and time.

Charlie

I have older industrial damaged ears and I can clearly hear the difference. I'll bet you can too if you ever have the opportunity to do a head to head comparison.

- Pete

One more thing; recaped receiver (amplifier) will work trouble free for next 10 or 20 years. Capacitors I can compare with battery in car, some old battery can produce power for turn on engine, but you can have a big problem if you try to turn on engine with old batteries two, three times in short time, but when you put brand new battery, that is different story :yes:
Regards!

Sonic improvements aside I feel you can never go wrong with replacing 30+ year old capacitors. After all, capacitors have a lifespan (on paper) of only half that!

For a unit as awesome as a 9090 the ounce of prevention is worth several kilos of cure!

Pete, when you are talking about a recap on that Eight, did you do 100% of the caps, 100% of the electrolytic's? or just the 'lytic's in the signal path?

100% electrolytic replacement. Nothing fancy, Panasonic FC/FMs and some Nichicon PWs. Panasonic TSAs for the filter caps. Everything else was original. It sounded wonderful.

- Pete

My friend just replaced the power caps and the ones on the output board on my AU-555, to me it sounded great before this (I have old but great hearing) and it is 2 to 3 times the amp it was before in every way, just awesome!

He did bypass a lot of the new ones with Orange drops and glass encased Russian PIO caps, along with some better wiring and I'm sure that added to the end result :)

Go the recap ;)