A trend I noticed is that larger in size, higher voltage ratings, often sound better even when using very similar conductive material when selecting capacitors for loudspeaker passive crossover design. I would have convinced myself to try if the Duelund caps were closer to twice of the Mundorf caps.
Ran across an Audio Weenie recently who Swore up 'n down that his several Hundred $ worth of Dueland Resistors in crossovers 'transformed his speakers sound quality.
Truth is to my ears his were of arguably lesser sound quality than Mine (identical speakers sans Duelunds ).
WE believe what we think we should ..or IMO appallingly; what we are 'herded' into.
Reality is irrelevant ..under those conditions
Your opinion is maybe un-mainstream, cos more than three people have already told me the speaker SQ has almost nothing to do with the drivers themselves, the implementation of the crossover and enclosure is the key of the sound.
Every part in the audio system has an influence on sound quality, the difficulty is finding which part is dominant for each particular system.
I'm awaiting the arrival of the AudioCap Theta Film and Kimber Kap capacitors I just ordered over the weekend for the Lyra 3-way I'm building ( using Dayton drivers ). I think both of those brands of caps use a generic form of "Flooby dust", being only about half the price of the Mundorfs. Still, the crossover components total more than the drivers. But I've heard so many reviewers praise the more expensive caps over the $2 a piece brands. And many people say that the crossover is the heart and soul of a good system--- even the most expensive drivers are nothing without a quality crossover.
Hmmmmmmm, hope I'm not wasting my money on bogus Flooby. Only time will tell.
Full range drivers aka audio nirvana don't need crossovers, so you can buy their top neodinium model. I did for my Oris horns.. using only an electronic low pass filter for 12$.. before the Chord base amp.
I will second the mundorf white classic caps they are a worthwhile investment i have new speakers and the crossovers on my rp8000f are were not the weak link they have a very relatively flat response across the audible range they come with air coils and MKP caps and they sound pretty good now getting to the weak link i recapped my NAD C370 got rid of all the electrolytic caps carefully selected best power caps best audio grade electrolytics i had tried silmic 2s and Muse UKZ series from ELNA and Nichicon and it sounded good but was still not as good as my 270 was so i did research and found that changing the input coupling caps to high quality MKP would be a good place to spend the money i bought 2 mundorf mcap classic 10uf 600 volt and did ab with right and left channels with direct i did have it going through my tube preamp though the improvement was IMMEDIATELY Noticeable i do have plenty of experience in audio equipment and repair i am an electrical engineer so i know the places to put parts for most effect I just did not expect it to be night and day and this repaced a fresh nichicon UKZ muse 10uf 100 volt capacitor one of the best electrolytics for audio i know of so it was not some generic or worn out capacitor and since input signal voltage is so low it is crucial that you present low impedance if you want results the mcap classic was no loss shown on esr meter vs 1 percent for the MUSE but the effect was 10 fold on the output as i could hear deeper bass that had punch to it and was tight and crisp vs the shallow bass before the change of input coupling caps the highs did not change alot and the muse cap did great there but the low end was not there i am a firm believer in the mcaps from mundorf and as far as a coupling cap goes i will gladly spend the 7 dollars each for them what a bargain THEY DO WORK THEY ARE NOT SNAKE OIL I EVEN HAD MY WIFE LISTEN AND SHE NOTICED RIGHT AWAY AND MY OSCILLISCOPE SHOWED THE DIFFERENCE WITH BALANCE SET IN CENTER THE AMPLITUDE OF INPUT SIGNAL WAS ABOUT 15 PERCENT STRONGER on the input signal they show their merit and their low impedance allows more to get to the next amplification stage i am glad i listened to the promoters of the MCAPS thank you to all of you promoters and to the nay sayers i say get a hearing aid you evidentally need it
And that does not make you immune to Beranek's Law.
That is the worst cliché in audio...
A non faulty cap replaced makes a 15% amplitude difference? I seriously doubt that. You talk like no EE I've ever met. I also don't recall the last time I used a scope to measure audio signals.
Just saw the date of the previous post before the thread was unzombified.
And as you're an EE, you'll have no difficulty providing the evidence of these audibly significant differences, no?
yes I said I could measure about 15 percent increase in amplitude of signals output with them being driven equ
yes it can and I can tell you are short on knowledge if you cannot see at source I removed an electrolytic with an ESR that is 4 times the ESR of the film cap this is the FIRST CAP AKA signal coupling cap the one in series a 15 percent increase at same input is VERY LIKELY I understand ohms law perfectly I use it daily
tan of loss is LEAKAGE not derived power at output if you would like me to teach basics will be glad to donate my time ask away
Sorry, still don't believe it, not in an input coupling cap. Thanks for the smug offer of lessons, but you have no idea of my quals and experience, and based on the stuff you have posted, I have zero confidence in yours.
If you want lessons, I suggest you take some in composition.
DC bias messing with charge capacity for the AC signal perhaps?
I prefer film caps.. less leakage, less ESR for starters..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logorrhea_(psychology)
You should at least have used some punctuation marks, but of course it could have stopped the stream of consciousness monologue.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stream_of_consciousness
yes that is not part of my skills i was always fascinated by electronics from very young age i paid attention there not so much in English Class even though i know better years of sloppy writing habits And a couple trees worth of post it notes with sloppy writing on them Lol i welcome Any corrections
well go ahead and be a nay sayer hold onto your 50 year old caps and speakers that probanly have foam missing in surround and you call that hifi .well my credentials come from Macomb where i started and Lawrence Tech you may have heard of them Lawrence tech has been compared to MITin its implementation and the Professors they have are some of the bezt in the world feel free to share any of your Knowledge or Lack Of
First, there's a number of variables EE's use to evaluate capacitors. (e.g., Dielectric absorption factor, equivalent series resistance, inductance, resonant frequency, impedance characteristics, dissipation factor, insulation resistance etc., just to name a few. However, who's to say that your measuring equipment is calibrated the same as my measuring equipment. Or that your testing protocols and conditions are the same as mine. Thus all of these factors should considered vastly "subjective" at best. My advice is to select your capacitors by weight. ~Yes weight. Whatevs weighs the most, use that.
For example here is a pic tube preamp I'm currently upgrading the coupling caps in (along the the Aragon 47k - I often have parallel projects in motion). As you can see: We have a selection of .27uf capacitors. The Solen Tin film & foil (a .047 & .22 combined in parallel to give us the needed .27uf), A Quicksilver audio Aluminum film & Foil, and finally a Mundorf Mcap Aluminum EVO Metalized PP.
In the following pic you'll observe the differences in weight The Solen SM film and foils at 13.1g, the Quicksilver at 7.8g and finally the Mudorf are the lightest at 3.8g.
Clearly, the heavier caps are better because they are heavier.
For example here is a pic tube preamp I'm currently upgrading the coupling caps in (along the the Aragon 47k - I often have parallel projects in motion). As you can see: We have a selection of .27uf capacitors. The Solen Tin film & foil (a .047 & .22 combined in parallel to give us the needed .27uf), A Quicksilver audio Aluminum film & Foil, and finally a Mundorf Mcap Aluminum EVO Metalized PP.
In the following pic you'll observe the differences in weight The Solen SM film and foils at 13.1g, the Quicksilver at 7.8g and finally the Mudorf are the lightest at 3.8g.
Clearly, the heavier caps are better because they are heavier.
