Recommendations for Audio

• In general, replace any electrolytic cap under 2.2uF with a film capacitor
• For power supplies:
  • Filter capacitors: low leakage, long life
  • Nichicon's PW, FW or HW
  • Panasonic FC, FM, or FR
  • These feature higher ripple and lower ESR than standard caps, and that's what you want the most of in a power supply cap.
• For the audio signal path:
  • You want low DC leakage. Nichicon KL are made to have 1/3 the DC leakage of standard caps (best for audio signal)
  • Signal capacitors: low impedance, long life.
  • Nichicon KL, KA, or ES
  • Replace any tantalum caps (low leakage by nature) with film or UKL
  • If you find any ceramic caps, they could be updated with C0G/NPO multilayer caps as a good upgrade
  • There are some who will use bipolar caps in the audio path if film won’t fit, even if UKL are available. Nichicon UES in the metallic green sleeve are nice.
  • Carbon composition resistors drift and get noisy — replace them with like-wattage metal film (MF) resistors (typically 1/4-1/2W, eg Dale RN60C)

Nichicon Series Markings

TVX Axial General Purpose

USA General Purpose (USR smaller, UST high temperature) USR General Purpose

UMA Standard, Low Profile (UMT high temperature, UMV long life, UMF low impedance) UHE Miniature, Low Impedance, High Reliability (UHD lower life) UKL Low Leakage URS Low Profile (URZ high temperature) URZ Low Profile, Wide Temperature UPM Low Impedance, High Reliability (UPW smaller) UCS Miniature, High Reliability, High Ripple (UCA larger, UCY smaller) UVR Miniature (UKL lower leakage, UVK smaller, UVZ high temperature) UVZ General Audio, Miniature, Wide Temperature (UKT higher audio quality, UVY smaller)

UKT General Audio, Wide Temperature (UKA higher audio quality) UMW Standard Audio, Low Profile UKA High Grade Audio, Wide Temperature

UFW Standard Audio (UFG higher grade, UKW higher audio quality) UKW Standard Audio UFG High Grade Audio MUSE (UKZ higher grade) UKZ Premium Audio MUSE

UPJ SMPS Low Impedance (UPS smaller, UPV long life) UPS SMPS Low Impedance, Miniature UPV SMPS Low Impedance, Miniature, High Reliability UPW SMPS Low Impedance, Miniature, High Reliability (UTT long life, UPA low impedance) UTT SMPS Miniature, High Reliability

UDB Bipolar, Speaker Network UES Bipolar MUSE UVP Bipolar

Nichicon Color Scheme

Audio

KA Pearl Blue/Black KZ Black/Gold FG Gold/Black KT Pearl Blue/Black KW Black/Gold FW Gold/Black SW Gold/Black MW Gold/Black UQ Black on top of case ES Green/Black DB/GD Black/White

Special Equipment

AS Dark Brown/White AQ Dark Brown/White JB Black/White TM Black/White KL Black/White

Standard

VK Black/White VR Black/White VC Black/White VX PurpleBlue/White VY Black/White VZ Black/White RS Black/White RZ Black/White RU Black/White RY Black/White VP Black/White EP Black/White

Large Can (Leaded)

LS Black/White LG Black/White GU Black/White GN Black/White GG Black/White GL Black/White GJ Black/White GJ(15) Black/White GY Black/White GR Black/White GX Black/White GW Black/White AK Black/White AQ Black/White AR Black/White QS Black/White

High Reliability

PM Dark Brown/White PW Dark Brown/White TT Dark Brown/White PA Dark Brown/White HV Black/White HD Black/White HE Black/White PJ Dark Brown/White PS Dark Brown/White TS Dark Brown/White PV Dark Brown/White PT Dark Brown/White PZ Dark Brown/White PH Dark Brown/White PB Dark Brown/White CA Dark Brown/White CS Dark Brown/White CY Dark Brown/White PX Dark Brown/White BT Blue/White BW Blue/White BX Black on top of case BE Blue/White Axial

Ultra-Miniature

MA Black/White MP Black/White MT Black/White MF Dark Brown/White MV Dark Brown/White SA Black/White SR Black/White SP Black/White ST Black/White SV Dark Brown/Silver SF Dark Brown/White

Large Can (Screw Terminals)

NR Light Blue/Black NX Black/White NK Black/White NC Black/White QR Dark Brown/White NY Black/White NT Black/White NU Black/White

Large Can for Audio

KG Black/Gold KS Black/Silver KX Black/Gold

Sources

https://www.maxpierson.me/2009/03/17/how-to-pick-audio-capacitors/

Capacitor Markings

https://www.nichicon.co.jp/english/products/pdf/aluminum.pdf

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/best-nichicon-series-to-use.732762/