Sozo new vs. old vs. Synergy Royal caps

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BesaMoogie

BesaMoogie

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Hi,
I am trying to find out, which Sozo caps are the "right" ones and would need some help, as I`m finding different reports. To make things easier, I am focussing on the yellow ones.
So there are the old Sozo 400V caps as well as the Sozo next gen. 500V caps. But somewhere I red, that Sozo started producing overseas and Synergy actually took over and is now producing the same caps as Sozo before.

So when did the change happen?
Are there actually two different types of Sozo next gen. 500V caps with the new ones being produced in China and the old ones being out of production or manufactured by Synergy respectively?

I am asking, as I have two Sozo next gen. caps that differ in size. I`m assuming, the bigger one is the China cap as it is the newer one.
 

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The old Sozos and the Synergies are literally the exact same caps. Sozo didn't pay their manufacturer and Synergy took over their contract. The NextGen are the replacement caps Sozo came up with.
 
I like the Synergy Royal Mustards, I think Dave Friedman says they are about as close to OG Mustards as you can get. I am fairly certain Dave Friedman uses them is alot of his amps.

The old original Sozo's sound kinda of dark and muffled compared to the Royal Mustards which I believe were the revised next gen caps. I have not tried the newer NEXTGEN Sozo's, but the first gen ones are not as good as the Synergy Royal Mustards.

I swapped out all the old original MK1 Sozos circa 2005-2006 for Illinois IC MPW coupling caps and noticed alot more clarity , just all around better tones.

Don't rule of the Mallory 150's Suhr used them in all the SL68 MK1 builds and more than likely using them in the SL68MKII from pics that I have seen.
 

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So to my understanding, the Sozo MK1 are not the same as the Synergy caps, but the (early) next gen are.
And I think, that the first next gen. were produced in the US and than later production went to China where they actually changed but kept the same label.

The time line is, that Sozo next gen. were introduced in 2014 (per the homepage of Sozo). The thread @harddriver posted is from 2017 were people saying, they are the same caps. I remenber Dave Friedman confirming this around that time as well.

But somewhere down the line, production went to China. At least, this would be an explanation why I have two different sizes of Sozo next gen. caps in the picture.
 
BesaMoogie said:
So to my understanding, the Sozo MK1 are not the same as the Synergy caps, but the (early) next gen are.
And I think, that the first next gen. were produced in the US and than later production went to China where they actually changed but kept the same label.

The time line is, that Sozo next gen. were introduced in 2014 (per the homepage of Sozo). The thread @harddriver posted is from 2017 were people saying, they are the same caps. I remenber Dave Friedman confirming this around that time as well.

But somewhere down the line, production went to China. At least, this would be an explanation why I have two different sizes of Sozo next gen. caps in the picture.
Click to expand...

That's entirely possible... The current Synergies are from the former US manufacturer of the Sozos. My statement above was from what Dave has said as well, I just thought the NextGens were after the US manufacturer stopped producing for them.
 
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