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Hello Perun,
let me split your questions into two different sections, first the recapping part.
Any audio gear that is older than 20 years is in desperate need of recapping, due to chemical break down of the electrolytic capacitor.
All cap manufacture give an warranty for the proper working of their electrolytic with 10 or 20 thousand hours. Please do the math how long it takes in 8 hours a day six days a week when the estimated life time is up. What you use to change your caps is completely up to you, a 50 cents or a 50 Dollar cap as long as you do it.
There are huge improvements in capacitor technology, so updating is an option but not needed if you want to keep the original timbre of your gear.
Here is an analogies that might help you, if you have a 1966 Thunderbird that is all original, you replace oil/air filter, motor oil, tires and spark plugs before you can enjoy the ride.... Than better aftermarket part to get a smoother ride, like shocks, mounts (motor), etc. are optional... We can go on an on....
A 1965 V76 might pass signal but do you really think it sounds as it did when it was new?
Gefell!?!?!?!?!? East german caps and resistor just sucked form day one....
20/30/40 years later they are in desperate need to be replaced and my experience that comes from repair/rewinding of broken stuff shows that most of the x-former could have been saved if a new cap would have been installed at the given time, the DC leakage slowly roasted the x-former.
The life time of east german components are 1/2 than a 2/3 less than any westen origin component.
Also there is a little triangle on old GDR parts with a number, either 1 (first choice/export/military use) 2 (2nd choice preferred domestic use) or none at all (domestic use) indicated the quality. You will find lots and lots of those mics with none quality label at all... Shall I say more?
And just to give you an other good example, if a cap in your PSU burn out/chemical breaks down, the spike is enough to damage your capsule as well as other expensive to replace parts.
In general 10% of the cost of the gear/equipment should be used for maintenance/service of the unit to insure good working use.....
You have all the choice of gear that you want to use, and if some gear works for you better than other , that is mighty fine, but the old saying
"You get what you paid for is still valid",
especially when you want to get return of your investment.
A reworked/rebuild Neve sells in general for more than one that was never touched and comes with all the problems of vintage gear.....
Best regards,
Oliver
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