Hi,

there is a lot of dicsussion on capacitors anyway, but i've a special question: Despite their bad reputation i've found tantalums in the audio signal path of comercial products from time to time. My examples are : Thorens PPA 990 :MC pre-pre-amp: tantalum as coupling capacitor between discrete transistor stages

Marantz 2325 : Tantalum as input coupling capacitor in Phono MM preamp

DENON POA800 : Tantalum in the inverter for bridge mode

You might have more examples. I admit, at least the Thorens and the Marantz are somewhat vintage...not shure about the age of the DENON design. So if there are designers designing devices with say 50 + electrolyts, and deciding to throw in a tanatlum at only one out of 50 positions, i assume they have good reasons to do so !?

Most likely it is not the costs.

So are there any situations where a tantalum beats a standard aluminium (or whatever) electrolyt?

My examples 1 and 2 could lead to the assumption, that a tantalum is better, when there are yery low signal levels together with relative high DC to block? Can someone confirm ? Other Ideas? Probably, nowaday's electolyts are better than those from 30 Years ago, so a tantalum would have been a valid choice then but not today? What would you recommend? Leave them in place, replace against a new tantalum, replace against a regular low-ESR electrolyt ? (Pleas no not suggest replace against foil etc, I know, these are better then electolyts, but those foils won't always fit)

Thanks a lot in advance for your valued comments