It's not a time waster. It's a time saver. Why troubleshoot the obvious? And why risk damaging other components if you have shorted capacitors. Sorry, but I'm in the opposite camp...it's smart troubleshooting. Then you'll be able to go after the real issues.
And in ref to your vintage radio....most likely has wide component tolerances. Not unusual in consumer gear. But I'll bet if you DID recap it the performance would improve.
Had you taken the time to read it, I did have to recap it eventually. It's very possible that the lack of reading and education is what drove us to swapping parts as a way of troubleshooting.
I will admit I did not read the entire thread. All I've tried to present is an opposing point of view. But apparently you want to resort to snide remarks and sarcasm. As far as I am concerned this debate is done.
It's not a snide remark. I believe our education when it comes to technology and science is suffering and in place of it, we get tales. I am not a service tech and don't do a lot of repairs. Of the last few things I repaired at home,
Several of my own power supplies, always a transistor or diode failure
Used Fluke 189, a wannabe tech lost one of the switch contacts
Used Fluke 97, damage to front end and solder fracture
My bench meter & GPIB controllers, damaged ICs from lightning strike
Neighbors sound system, solder fracture
Friends calculator, solder fracture
Laser printer, bad Alum Elec (only changed one)
RF generator, bad relay
Used spectrum analyzer, blown mixer
VNA, bad mechanical switch
Friends old service monitor, bad Alum Elec.
Old ham radio, solder fracture
My old LeCroy 64xi DSO has been repaired at some point and that area appears to be a problem. Reseating the connectors solved it.
I have an old Tek TR current clamp from the 60's that was in very poor condition that required several matched transistors but no caps.
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RLC meter, damage synthesizer IC
Electrometer, damaged op-amp IC
Old HP logic analyzer, tant cap in power supply, one bad but replaced two of them
Now, my old LeCroy DSO has had several tants fail. I would guess I have changed 10 or so over the years. Just not much of a trend really. I would have done more harm than good recapping these entire systems.
If anything I would say my trend is toward mechanical failures. Solder joints, relay, switch.. Besides the people wanting to replace all their caps, the other common repair I see posted a fair amount is where people will reflow every connection.
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Forgot a few recent ones....