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Comment by mdb333 | Hacker News Reader

True but i think a lot of that is in adherence to the original design/specs they're emulating (or straight up ripping off). Folks went nuts over the XVive BBD revivals or even still pay ridiculous sums for original panasonics. Sometimes there simply aren't alternatives to achieve the same circuit or you're repairing something very specific (although that's probably outside the scope of the article's PoV).

As well there's the vintage issue...Sure, I buy NOS caps from the 50-70s for guitar tone circuits. I doubt side by side they sound noticeably better but if you're building vintage it only makes sense to keep the 'tronics true to the time period.

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> I doubt side by side they sound noticeably better but if you're building vintage it only makes sense to keep the 'tronics true to the time period.

In vintage radio repair, they sometimes will replace old caps (usually electrolytics) with new ones, but put the new ones inside the old cans - to preserve the look of the device.

Obviously, though, this won't work with all parts...

This works well with electrolytic caps because modern ones are so much smaller for the same voltage and capacitance rating than older ones were.

You can also hollow out old carbon comp resistors and put metal film resistors inside them. As a bonus you could use resistor shells on the outside with color bands that don't at all represent the actual value of the resistor inside as a practical joke on anyone trying to clone the circuit.

Old car dash instruments are often upgraded the same way. They use new parts to drive the original indicators so it all looks correct, but is actually accurate.

There are even kits to replace the guts of old car radios with modern stereos while preserving the controls and dials and their function.

Speaking of cars, I know I've heard of people who restore old tube-based car radios replacing the "buzzer" (or whatever it's called) that boosts the battery voltage up to the "B" voltage (I think that's right) with something more "modern" (probably a 555 oscillator and some other parts); the metal can for the original part is more than roomy enough for the replacement, and the new stuff is more reliable.

On my '72 Dodge, there's a mechanical device to lower the 12 volt system voltage to 5 volts for the dash instruments. It's a buzzer kind of thingy. Some people replaced it with a modern voltage regulator to get exactly 5 clean volts, and found that the instruments didn't work right.

It turns out that the instruments needed the erratic 5 volts, else they'd "stick".

"Buzzer" = Electromechanical Vibrator

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibrator_(electronic)

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