Recapping questions

[Whaka]

 Some germans seem to love replacing the electrolytic caps with ceramic ones, any problems with that ? Other than microfractures from bending/soldering ? I certainly wouldnt want tantalum caps, they make a mess when they are goners....

i think they replace them with tantalum. ceramic are not polarized, and through hole ones work usually with low capacities. they can't replace polarized electrolytic in all case.

tantalum are really great nowdays. (and when i say nowdays, i think about something around 20 years now )
they maybe have been more problematic at their begin, as for first gen smd electrolytic... but nowdays they are "mastered", and are wildly spread.

[Whaka]

tantalum can explode as electrolytic can too... they are wildly used now, and some amiga extension card use them for more than 20 years now without any problems (CV64 - 64/3D, blizzard, cyberstorm... for exemple)
tantalum is an old technology, late 70's early 80's...

[Whaka]

they were designed with, yes. they should have put classic aluminium instead to reduce costs. they did this choice because they wanted durability.

you can replace without any problem aluminium electrolytic by tantalum. the major difference is... price.
tantalum are best than aluminium on every aspect. they could work at higher temperature (125°C) without reducing lifespan. they have less leaking current, more precision in capacity, ect...