Tayda Electronics

[timd]

Has anyone had much experience with Tayda Electronics? www.taydaelectronics.com
The prices are really low, and I was wondering if this is too good to be true. They also have a Facebook promo which gets you 12% off your total.

[jonny]

They're one of the best. They always ship fast, and decent customer services too. Probably had about 10 orders through them by now.

[garcho]

Tayda is not the DIYstompboxes' store, nor is it Small Bear, but they're not con artists trying to sell you crap. I have purchased many items from Tayda with success.

Do a search for Tayda on this forum - there's been much discussion

[timd]

I will - thanks.

[mremic01]

Tayda is always faster than Futurlec, but their shipping time varies. I've had stuff arrive in under a week, and stuff take about two weeks to show up. The prices are amazing. I can get almost everything I need for an entire pedal for about 20$. I've built a couple Crunch Boxes that came in at about 17$ a piece.

Their box caps are nice. They're not consistent with what brand of resistors they stock, so some seem really cheap and sometimes you get nice looking ones with sturdy leads.

Their 1/4 inch jacks are so so. I feel ok using them, but they're not as nice as Switchcraft or Neutrik. The toggle switches are a big step up from Futurlec's. I've never had a problem with Tayda's, but Futurlec's are hard to solder to without melting the plastic. Still, it's pretty easy to melt the plastic on the Tayda switches. Their 3PDT stomp switches are the same blue Taiwanese ones you can get from most stores.

I love Tayda's 1590BB enclosures. Glossy photo paper sticks to them very well for etching, even without any sanding.

The pots come with plastic covers, but they don't have a great selection of pots with solder lugs. Most of them have pins, but you can cut up some vero for makeshift lugs.

The DC jacks are very good, but I've seen better. The 9V battery snaps have very thin leads, and I wouldn't be comfortable using them.

Perf, vero, and copper clad PCB material is all very nice and super cheap.

I like their solid wire, but their stranded wire feels cheap and unreliable. I've done many build with the solid wire and never had it break.

Some of their ICs and transistors look cheap or weird, but I've never had a problem with them. I think there was some issue about Tayda's PT2933s not sounding as good as ones sourced elsewhere?

[timd]

mremic01 -

Thanks for taking the time to provide your comprehensive review of Tayda! I placed an order, and will report if I have any issues. I love to build on a budget if possible.

[aion]

Seconding that Tayda is awesome - the prices do seem too good to be true, but they're legit. Also seconding that some of their hardware is (or was) poor quality. I bought a bunch of toggle switches and jacks from them about a year ago, and they were essentially unusable - the jacks were flimsy and the switches melted when you tried to solder them. Resistors are also on par with what you'd get in those assortment packs on eBay (extremely thin leads). However, everything else I've gotten has been excellent - and some here have said that Tayda has responded to complaints of poor jack/switch quality and begun stocking much better stuff lately.

I'm checking out their toggle switches right now - these new red ones look like the exact same ones you'd get at Small Bear, so probably really good. The terrible ones I ordered were blue.

[CynicalMan]

They aren't too good to be true. Most of the stuff is normal quality: ICs, transistors, diodes, resistors, boards, switches, LEDs, poly caps, etc. There is some stuff that's obviously cheaper then something you'd get at PPP, Small Bear, or the forum store. Their ceramic caps and 1/4" jacks in particular aren't as good, but they're still usable. There have also been reports that their PT2399s aren't as reliable as the Small Bear ones. This is how I'd put it: I only build pedals for myself so I mostly order from Tayda, but if I was building pedals for other people, I'd order a lot more from Small Bear.

[mremic01]

They aren't too good to be true. Most of the stuff is normal quality: ICs, transistors, diodes, resistors, boards, switches, LEDs, poly caps, etc. There is some stuff that's obviously cheaper then something you'd get at PPP, Small Bear, or the forum store. Their ceramic caps and 1/4" jacks in particular aren't as good, but they're still usable. There have also been reports that their PT2399s aren't as reliable as the Small Bear ones. This is how I'd put it: I only build pedals for myself so I mostly order from Tayda, but if I was building pedals for other people, I'd order a lot more from Small Bear.

I forgot about the ceramic caps. They're very very chinsy. The leads are pretty weak. But they measure the correct values and work just fine in builds.

I've been using their jacks a lot lately and I kind of like them, but they do feel cheaper. Neutriks and Switchcrafts hold onto the plug pretty tightly, and in some cases it takes some actual strength to get them out. I don't like that. The Tayda jacks go in way too easily, so you need to bend them to get a better grip on the plug. Then they're perfect. I've never had an issue with the plastic on the jack melting, but I don't think they'd stand up to too much heat. I'd imagine they'll lose their tension over time and need to be bent back. But compared to nicer jacks, they're not all that cheaper. I just order them from Tayda to get everything I need in one order to save on shipping.

[garcho]

Remember to check if what you're ordering from Tayda is coming from Massachusets or Thailand (Tayda vs Thaishine) because that will change your wait time.
Once I ordered something from them, never got it, wrote them an email and they wrote back right away and sent out another. Very easy and polite.
There's a thread on this forum lamenting the loss of the Beavis Audio site, due to lack of funds. So keep that in mind while you shop and consider the DIYstompbox store if they have what you're looking for.

[chromesphere]

I received my first, decent sized order from Tayda yesterday.  I ordered a variety of different things, 3pdt's, resistors, caps, jacks, knobs, etc so I thought it would be a good oportunity to make a video and show you visually the quality of the components / packaging etc, if you haven't ordered with them before.  So here it is!
* One thing i forgot to mention in the video, the box caps from futurlec are WIMA, i've heard their good quality, where as the box caps from Tayda are nonames.

Paul

[timd]

Great video!

[Pharod]

ive ordered many times from tayda, always without any problem. Still, their input jacks arent the cheapest you can get, ive found a much cheaper ressource here in germany. Their mylar-film-caps are ok. Also the aluminum-boxes seem usable.

Wima: an absolute A+ brand of electronic components, like Vishay. I often find Wima caps in scrap electronics their i rip out some reusable parts. For example, i found Wima caps in an APC uninterruptable powersupply...

[chromesphere]

Thanks timd, glad you liked it.
I see, thanks for the confirmation Pharod.  I wonder if its worth ordering a truckload of wima's from futurlec in that case...What a shame.  Thats the only 'downgrade' i've found with them so far.
Paul

[CynicalMan]

I highly doubt that there's a noticeable difference between Tayda's box caps and the WIMAs for audio use.
FWIW, here's the datasheet for the Tayda caps from Xiamen Faratronic Co. Ltd.:
http://www.taydaelectronics.com/datasheets/CL23B.pdf

[chromesphere]

Thanks for the link cynicalman!  I'm personally not very fussy with componets and just use whatever is cheap / lying around, unless told there is an audible difference, or something worth while going for. Like crunchy 3pdt's, cant stand them.  But for these caps, seems theres prob no difference anyway 
Paul

[Beo]

Thanks for the link cynicalman!  I'm personally not very fussy with componets and just use whatever is cheap / lying around, unless told there is an audible difference, or something worth while going for. Like crunchy 3pdt's, cant stand them.  But for these caps, seems theres prob no difference anyway 
Paul

With caps though, there's an aesthetic aspect that draws me to use colorful caps. The grey ones from Tayda look similar to the box film parts kit from smallbear, and are drab looking. I love the look of my boards when I spraypaint a solid color on the PCB and then place colorful components. I really like the blue and yellow box film caps I got from Mouser. I haven't bought Wima's from Futurlec yet, but I'd love to get some red components on my boards.

Does nothing for the sound, I know, but I build for my own use, and I seem to take forever trying to get each project perfect... so aesthetics on the inside matter to me.

[seedlings]

I've had great success with Tayda and Smallbear.  I must say that the last Tayda batch of 1K metal film resistors were labeled as such on the bag, but were actually 22K resistors.  I sent them a message to let them know and they gave me $3 store credit for their mistake.

CHAD

[Strange]

Damn - I just started a topic on Tayda. I should have scrolled down a little.

I love the fact that everything is well labeled - hell I even reuse their labels.

I dislike the split shaft pots they sell but for the most part I am happy with their componets.

[greaser_au]

Damn - I just started a topic on Tayda. I should have scrolled down a little.

I love the fact that everything is well labeled - hell I even reuse their labels.

I dislike the split shaft pots they sell but for the most part I am happy with their componets.

Split fluted shaft pots are pretty much standard these days. To make it easy for yourself, just order some suitable knobs at the same time as ordering the pots- you'd  even save on shipping!

david