Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions EP500 V2 Capacitor?

Hi, I have a EP500 V2 subwoofer, I shipped it from 1 place to another and upon arrival, it turned on and worked fine. Then I moved it and the light on the back stayed Amber, wouldn't turn to green. I made sure the load knob was no set to Load. I did find a capacitor that looks blown. I searched the numbers but can't find the exact match. Would a different brand capacitor that is 220uf50v work? I've attached a picture of the capacitor and board. Thanks

Just roll your own, man. Just some paper and Crisco mixed with Jolt for electrolyte.

Well that wasn’t very helpful mojo.

I recommend the blue Powerade for electrolyte not JOLT. Geez.

Bonespa, not sure where you are located, but any respectable audio shop / vintage repair shop should be able to solder in a new one. I’d contact Axiom to get a spec for it or they may have some they can send you? ( maybe). I’d start there. Of course the other option is to purchase a new plate amp from axiom. That would be the most solid repair long term.

I know when my original EP600 amp stopped working Axiom no longer carried parts for those older amps. I was able to work with them to get a newer amp. I would assume if you find a cap with similar specs you should be ok if you want to tackle soldering to the board.

Geez, you're probably right. I've personally never tried Powerade but I can see from the electronegativities of the ingredients it's probably the way to go.

Thanks for the info, I'll try Axiom again, so far they haven't responded to my emails, I'll try getting the specs and see if I can get a new one soldered in and price out a new board, if they still have an option.

https://www.axiomaudio.com/ep500-replacement-amplifier

At that price you could just buy a whole sub from the b stock store. Hopefully you can find a cheaper way to get what you need.

How old is the ep500? It’s v2 so probably at least 8-10 years old I’m guessing?

Another less compact option would be remove or disconnect the plate amp and power externally with something low cost. Plenty of reasonable ( for low frequencies) class d options out there. Could be fun.

No, don't do that! That stuff has been tightly engineered.

As a last resort then......

Hopefully he can find something to replace the cap. That would be bugging me big time. You move house then go to setup your system in a new space and it’s broken. Ugh. As if moving isn’t bad enough.

Trade it in. The new stuff is so much better. The electronics are rock solid too. Andrew did a great job.

Jamicon capacitors seem to be middle-of-the-road so it's not likely that changing brands would have an impact, ie it's very unlikely that that particular brand was chosen because of some unique behaviour.

IMO any 220uF/50V cap should work. You can go up on the voltage rating without an electrical problem but might run into a size problem.

When doing a quick read-up on capacitor brands I did see a number of people mention that if an electrolytic cap sits on the shelf for too long (it wasn't clear how long "too long is") it would degrade, so maybe try to avoid anything that is likely to be really old stock.

I don't know if the following info is accurate but it's interesting at least:

Link

The ESR increases as voltage rating increases. Not good.

So will any 220uf50v 105° capacitor work then? so this would be an option Capacitor Link

Yes.

But for others who want to really dig into this, the signal path ne3ds different characteristics than the power path.

Use this chart to choose if you want. Thank you Johnaudiotech

https://www.nichicon.co.jp/english/products/alm_mini/e-alm_mini_daia_c.htm

Thanks, I know nothing about capacitors, so wouldn't have any idea if what i'm replacing is part of the signal path or power path.

Chosse one from the audio section on the table with the same values.

Make sure you replace a polarised cap with a polarised cap and mind polarity or boom.