[LAU] Audio interface for newbies ?

[Ralf Mardorf]

More or less all the repairing I had to do myself or in some cases
was done by a friend, within the last years, was replacing capacitors in
new switched-mode power supplies, that were running for around 1 to 3
years. They were simply undersized by voltage, they were neither bad
manufactured, nor did they dry out, they bloat and short. This wittingly
predetermined breaking point is a real plague. For example my Behringer
Eurorack UB2442FX-Pro suffered from this issue. It's not just some
no-name power supply, it's a Behringer designed power supply. ISO 9000
is fraud against customers and criminal against the environment, those
products that failed usually advertised their quality management. 30
years old conventional power supplies with good voltage size, but
aged leaking capacitors, that don't provide the original capacity
anymore usually don't cause any issues. We usually don't notice that
the capacitors for a lot of gear are already broken. Leaking isn't good,
it's better to replace those capacitors, but leaking capacitors not
that often cause noticeable issues, especially not the two kinds of
voltage stabilizing capacitors, either smoothing capacitors
(Glättungskondensatoren) and bulk capacitors, decoupling capacitors or
what ever you name (Stützkondensatoren) capacitors for stabilisation.
Yes, if they aren't good anymore, they could cause disastrous effects,
but I suspect they are broken for a long time without causing a
noticeable effect and if the effect becomes noticeable, than I suspect
that it's more or less always noticeable and not just by random.

YMMV!
Ralf