Epcos box caps?

[pickdropper]

ECQ-Bs were discontinued around 2009/2010 - ECQ-V is the replacement line, very much in production as far as I know.

OK, well that makes me happy. I think I had those as being the same in my mind.

Now I'm more conflicted though because I like both styles but I kind of want to go one way or the other and the boxes just edge out the panasonics a little bit for some reason.

Go with what you like.  Both will work fine.

[culturejam]

Late to the party, but I basically concur with just about everything said so far.

I dig Epcos. I switched over to those when AVX went from being the "cheap Wima replacement" to mojo gold because of being discontinued.

Way back when I had a little parts store, I bought all of my box caps from Newark. They consistently had the best prices and wide availability. Just look for the online promotion priced stuff, which is denoted with a little red star icon. You basically get the best quantity price break at any quantity.

Here's an example:
http://www.newark.com/epcos/b32529c102k/capacitor-poly-film-1000pf-63v/dp/02M8812

It's 1n Epcos for $0.06 each, any quantity.

[alanp]

my opinion is caps are caps

(snipped)

Agreed with Keefe -- golden eared people might hear a difference. For me, it's past the point of diminishing returns.

[blearyeyes]

I've been buying box caps from Tayda... They work fine and I haven't had any issues. Should I get something else?  I haven't figured out how to use Mousers website yet, too many details and I am lost. Any tips for usage?

[RobA]

The Epcos caps are nice and the QC on them is good. As said above, if you get them from Avnet, the pricing is pretty good.

I love the look of the WIMA caps and their quality. Also, if you really want accuracy from a filter, their FKP series are nice. They have the little 2.5mm spacing guys available too which are great for the super tight builds. The other thing is that the price is much better on them in the EU, or at least it was. When I lived in the UK I could get them for about the same price I pay for the Epcos caps in the US.

Lately, I've been moving to the ECQV's they sound just as good to me, I haven't had a single issue with them and I like the way they look.

[playpunk]

I use epcos caps. I have a whole bunch that I got from an ebayer in bulk. Prices were really good - better than mouser, even at quantity.

[Haberdasher]

I've been buying box caps from Tayda... They work fine and I haven't had any issues. Should I get something else?  I haven't figured out how to use Mousers website yet, too many details and I am lost. Any tips for usage?

filter down caps to film, radial, 5mm lead spacing at a range from 50-100v and it's hard to go wrong in my experience.
i don't usually filter to brand name, but i'm not really picky.  i do however re-sort according to lowest price first and then go down the line looking for the quantity price breaks.
once you get used to it, it's pretty easy.

[micromegas]

The Epcos caps are nice and the QC on them is good. As said above, if you get them from Avnet, the pricing is pretty good.

I love the look of the WIMA caps and their quality. Also, if you really want accuracy from a filter, their FKP series are nice. They have the little 2.5mm spacing guys available too which are great for the super tight builds. The other thing is that the price is much better on them in the EU, or at least it was. When I lived in the UK I could get them for about the same price I pay for the Epcos caps in the US.

Lately, I've been moving to the ECQV's they sound just as good to me, I haven't had a single issue with them and I like the way they look.

How does Avnet price&shipping go? I do not find any info on their page.

I had to cancel an order today with Mouser because they were applying a wrong VAT.
I though they products had already the VAT included because there was no info during checkout!!
(Then I went to terms and condittions and there they said that VAT and taxes are applyed after checkout)

[RobA]

[...]
How does Avnet price&shipping go? I do not find any info on their page.

I had to cancel an order today with Mouser because they were applying a wrong VAT.
I though they products had already the VAT included because there was no info during checkout!!
(Then I went to terms and condittions and there they said that VAT and taxes are applyed after checkout)

To get to their webstore you need this address, http://avnetexpress.avnet.com.

Their prices are really good on some things and not so good on others. Mouser is better for resistors. On caps, it can be either of them that has a better price. They have really good prices on most stuff from TI, ST micro, and Microchip. They usually have better pricing on their bulk transistors too.

I have no idea how their international shipping and service is. For the US, they are fast and about the same price as Mouser. They have free shipping coupons show up occasionally too.

Their website is horrible. It doesn't work at all with some browsers. It's search will cross with other peoples' searches and sometimes return totally unrelated search results. You have to just hit the back arrow to get back and sometimes retry repeatedly to get the search results you want. Still, their prices can make it worth it. If you get really lucky, on some parts they have this weird thing where you can get the bulk price break on singles because they are trying to get rid of a partial lot of something.

I think the Mouser VAT thing is because they are primarily a corporate sales place. I didn't use Mouser when I lived there, but RS, Rapid, and Farnell can be competitive on pricing and availability.

[micromegas]

[...]
How does Avnet price&shipping go? I do not find any info on their page.

I had to cancel an order today with Mouser because they were applying a wrong VAT.
I though they products had already the VAT included because there was no info during checkout!!
(Then I went to terms and condittions and there they said that VAT and taxes are applyed after checkout)

To get to their webstore you need this address, http://avnetexpress.avnet.com.

Their prices are really good on some things and not so good on others. Mouser is better for resistors. On caps, it can be either of them that has a better price. They have really good prices on most stuff from TI, ST micro, and Microchip. They usually have better pricing on their bulk transistors too.

I have no idea how their international shipping and service is. For the US, they are fast and about the same price as Mouser. They have free shipping coupons show up occasionally too.

Their website is horrible. It doesn't work at all with some browsers. It's search will cross with other peoples' searches and sometimes return totally unrelated search results. You have to just hit the back arrow to get back and sometimes retry repeatedly to get the search results you want. Still, their prices can make it worth it. If you get really lucky, on some parts they have this weird thing where you can get the bulk price break on singles because they are trying to get rid of a partial lot of something.

I think the Mouser VAT thing is because they are primarily a corporate sales place. I didn't use Mouser when I lived there, but RS, Rapid, and Farnell can be competitive on pricing and availability.

Thanks Rob. I think is time for me to make an study about where to buy components. I really dig mouser bom/project tools, but the VAT things makes them more expensive than my local distributor.

As the projects I plan to build right now are just for me and not for sell, I might just ask my boss if I can do the order through the company to skip VAT taxes.

[aballen]

I've been using EPCOS since I started.  I'm pretty fond of how they look and they are cheap.  No quality issues either. 

[chromesphere]

Out with the grey, in with the blue?

[Leevibe]

If blue weren't a good sounding color there would be no such thing as sprague atoms or lake placid blue strats.

[rullywowr]

Blue def has teh mojo toanz duder

[aballen]

Honestly I've gotten a lot of kemets with smudged lettering on them never had that with EPCOS.  That pretty much switched me to EPCOS.