Crossover components rolling ?

[VantheMan]

That´s decided then. Let me fit the new woofers first and then I´ll start on the Xovers.

[VantheMan]

4 years on and I am wondering about trying some boutique caps in my WD25TEx. Just to see if anyone has tried alternative caps to the Soniqs, really.
I am just supposing , in my ignorance, that perhaps the Millenniums might respond to highrt spec toleranced caps. I rather fancy a bit more depth and spatial imagery but have no idea if certain caps really major on such things or is it all in the imagination ?

[Phil Y]

In my limited experience, (nothing mega expensive) more expensive caps do sound better, albeit with slightly different characters.

There is loads of "nice" caps to choose from, almost too many. If you do a search for "capacitor review" or "capacitor shoot out" or variations on that theme, you will find several results. This should give you some ideas.

The only problem is that they all sound different and buying some new ones is always a bit of a shot in the dark. Also, just because someone else says "these are my favourite" does not mean they will be your favourite.

I have used Solen, Ansar and several different Mundorfs. I have never been disappointed with Mundorfs but that is just me, someone else will favour other brands/types or even people who happily stick to "standard" commercial types.

I'm afraid this is one of those occasions where there is no one "right" answer.


Phil.

[VantheMan]

Thanks Phil. I guess I’ll just decide a sensible amount to spend and then read up on the web and choose something that tickles my fancy from one of the more reputable makes. Funnily enough Sugden, my amp is the A21SE, only use Mundorfs in their speakers and they are not exactly well known for splashing out on flavour of the month stuff. Sounds like a safe bet.
Cheers,
Chris

[Phil Y]

Hi Chris,

Yes, it is a case of research and then pick a price point i'm afraid.
I have no experience of the Soniqs PX so can't compare but they are toward the bottom end of the price range for audio grade caps so you should be able to better them (with luck) without going mad.

With my own speakers, Tannoy HPDs, I went from the original caps (commercial grade film caps) to Solen Fastcaps which was an improvement. I then swapped in some Ansars (which I consider to be better sounding than the Solens) in a few places which lifted things a bit more. Finally I replaced the whole lot with Mundorf Evo Oil. These Mundorfs were a step up again sounding smoother, more open & detailed etc.
In the grand scheme of things these are still not especially expensive but were, for me, far enough up the tree.

The Soniqs are I believe, re-labeled Clarity Caps, so you may be able to find them in one of the online test/reviews.

Good luck, Phil.

[Greg.]

Yes, it’s a budget and space thing. If, like mine your crossovers are external, you have more flexibility as size can be accommodated more easily. Golden rule is replace any electrolytic caps with polypropylene which are considerably bigger. The electronic values the caps will probably govern your budget. For example, my crossovers have 6 x 50uF caps, which, apart from being big are also expensive.

I have always found Solens good in crossover applications. I also like Clarity Caps and Mundorf. These last two produce a wide range so you can pick your price point. After Solens, I particularly like the silver foil covered ESA Clarity Caps. This supplier has the widest range I have found and their customer service is really good. They also do Mundorf.

http://www.lautsprechershop.de/hifi/clarity_cap_en.htm

For Solens, I buy from Falcon Acoustics. Don’t be tempted by the cheap Chinese copies on eBay.

https://www.falconacoustics.co.uk/al...tors-400v.html

[VantheMan]

Thanks Phil and Greg,
I suppose we all would like a straight fit these answer but as usual that is not the case. I guess the intelligent thing would be to go for a mid price cap from a reputable maker.
First of all maybe I´ll try a bypass cap as recommended by Tony of Humble Hi-fi. He says to fit a Cornell Dubilier 940C at 0.01uF literally every where so I´m guessing they won´t do any damage to the Soniqs and who knows.......
Cheers,
Chris.

[Greg.]

I’m not sure I agree with that advise. Maybe this Tony works for Cornell. If you bypass your Soniqs caps, you’ll just be changing the value of that particular cap which may mess up the frequency response of the relevant driver which might unbalance the overall response and spoil your listening. I also suspect this recommendation relates specifically to bypassing electrolytic caps. As you already have Soniqs (which are polypropylene) in place, I suggest your best option is to upgrade the resistors (Phil and I have recommended Mills, but there are other choices) and if you replace the caps, you will need to consider a quality better than Soniqs. If you study the Clarity Cap website, you can work out at what point in their capacitor hiarachy the Soniqs sit. From there you can work out what to buy in terms of making an upgrade although there is no certainty that a more expensive cap will bring an upgrade. It may bring a sound ‘difference’ but not necessarily an improvement. However, if you want to make the gamble, I suggest the better Clarity Caps or Mundorf would be the way to go.

[Phil Y]

Hi Chris,

I would not bother with tiny bypass caps. Like Greg, I feel that with film caps there is not much to be gained with bypassing.
When I have upgraded caps in crossovers I have found that it has improved the sound throughout the whole range, especially the crucial midrange. My guess is that bypasses, if anything, will just give you slightly nicer high treble. Not the overall improvement I assume that you are looking for.
Bypasses might be worthwhile as icing on the cake if you already have some top grade caps fitted but I believe the gains to be made for you are in replacement of the "budget" caps you currently have. Again, I'm with Greg, go for some nice "middle of the range" Clarity Caps or Mundorfs.

Phil.

[Black Stuart]

On the K73-16 cap thread on diyaudio, an American speaker manufacturer PMed me - he didn't dare go public as he used some big value caps of this type in his x/overs - you know American inbred COMMIE paranoia, it could have cost him a lot of business.

Well he was worried because his stash of these caps was running low and no more were to be had anywhere. So he commissioned a US company to see if they could replicate exactly the materials and construction of these caps.

Apparently they could and for a reasonable price. He also had a friend who made amps who also used the Russian K caps in his amps, again without saying anything about their origins.

If you check out various forums you will see that plenty use this series in speaker x/overs and nobody has anything bad to say about them, the reverse.

I noted comments about different sounds of different caps - these are just transparent and fast. Sadly there are also many on this side of the pond who also have built in prejudices against Soviet produced gear.

There are still plenty of the 63V variety around - 22uF/10uF. Non of these caps are huge and for what they cost only the prejudiced wouldn't give them a try.

If I hadn't got hammerd by a bad dose of grippe/flu, I would have given you a personal opinion of how they sound in my Heybrook Sextets Mk 1Vs in this post. There's a good seller in the Ukraine - give yourself a cheap delightful Christmas present.