I'm changing out the caps on my BM8000, should I regard the blue Philips caps with the same suspicion as the red RDE's?

There's a cap kit available and it also contains new caps for the axial types.
I have seen a few bad ones but the majority of the blue axial Philips will still be fine.
By far not as bad as the cylindrical ROE capacitors (which were actually very
fine components when new).

Martin

Thanks Martin, glad to know they're pretty safe to leave in place if I need to. I am replacing as many as I can, though. The RDE axials (gold), I assume, should go.

Yes but I would recommend you replace the whole lot while in there.
There is a total of apprx 30 axial caps in your Beomaster and even if good quality axials cost
a little, it's not really worth leaving a few of the old ones in there. Some of the blue Philips ones
are in the signal path and if marginal will have direct influence on the sound reproduction.

You have an answer to your PM.

Martin