Black Gate caps

My H/K Citation 18 tuner was upgraded with Blackgates in the power supply, audio, and multiplex and each location with added Blackgates made the tuner sound better in every respect. I do leave my tuner on all the time so that probably helps. Maybe if you mentioned your preamp make and model, someone with the same preamp can give you their impressions.

Gslone,
I don't know how many hours you have on your Blackgates, but they don't sound very good until they have at least 300 hours on them. They will get even better after the 300 hour mark.

It was a sad day for me when Rubycon announced that they were shutting down production of the Blackgate caps. A large chunk of their inventory was sold to Parts Connexion in Canada, but the inventory is slowly being depleted. Many values and models are no longer available. Like many revered NOS tubes, I'm sure that certain values of NOS Blackgates will probably sell for a premium, but then, unlike tubes, capacitors have a finite lifespan. I can only hope that some manufacturer will take over where Rubycon left off and begin manufacture of comparable or better, with technological advancements, audiophile-grade electrolytic capacitors.

From the Stereophile article:

"One audio manufacturer we spoke with speculated that Rubycon, the firm that manufactured the Black Gate capacitors, was concerned over the expiration of the technology's patents, which date to the mid-1970s. Another Deep Throat insider claimed that it was simply a matter of supply and demand: The big demand for capacitors these days is for the organic semiconductor models used in computers, so that's what manufacturers, such as Rubycon, focus on, not low-demand, difficult to manufacture devices such as the "super" electrolytics."