Monitor Audio Studio 6 - Is it worth swapping capacitors and coils?

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I was thinking of swapping the stock capacitors and coils of my vintage Monitor Audio Studio 6 by higher grade ones. Is it worh doing it?

The stock capacitors Expotus', a British brand and are all polyester metalyzed film type. Coils are plain copper type but I have no idea about its Brand.

My idea is replace them by Solen polypropilene capacitors and Goertz AWG foil coil. What do you think of those upgrades? Will it bring huge improvement?
 
Audio Maniac: nothing wrong with your plan just don`t go nuts and invest a ton of money that`s all. Some will find this audio heresy but I like the sound of mylar caps as they have a ballsy energenic sound. Metalized film caps are ok but foil and film versions are better and won`t cost you a lot. For the inductors go with a 14 gage air core solid wire wound type which are available and reasonable. This shold yield a very nice improvement in your speaker. If you are pleased then replace any large value electrolytic caps in the crossover with composites made up with smaller value plastic caps. Plastic caps will sound different in one direcion vs the other so install one at a time in each direction an choose the direction which sounds best. Takes a little more time but worth the effort. good luck and please report back when you are done. Best regards Moray James.
 
You can't just go changing coils willy nilly. Coils have a DC resistance which depends on the gauge and length of wire used to make them. Any substitute coils need to be the same or close to the DC resistance of the originals or you will change the parameters and sound of the crossover and speakers.
 
I didn't know about it. Thanks for warning me!

Then I will only replace the existing caps.

Is this Solen good enough?

Solen 3.3 mfd Fast Cap 400V: Madisound Speaker Store

Or this ClarityCap?

ClarityCap 3.3 mfd SA Range Polypropylene Caps: Madisound Speaker Store

Other choice is Mundorf Supreme caps, but it's quite expensive. I'm under the impression the speakers of my Studio 6 don't deserve such sophisticated caps, do they?

Mundorf 3.3 mfd Supreme Caps: Madisound Speaker Store

You can't just go changing coils willy nilly. Coils have a DC resistance which depends on the gauge and length of wire used to make them. Any substitute coils need to be the same or close to the DC resistance of the originals or you will change the parameters and sound of the crossover and speakers.
 
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Hi,

IMHO you are pretty much wasting your time. You may notice small differences,
whether they will be an improvement or not is a crapshoot, especially if the
currently fitted components are of decent quality, they appear to be.

Golden eared audiophiles don't like double blind listening tests, and don't do them.

rgds, sreten.

Monitor Audio Studio 6 loudspeaker | Stereophile.com

Hmmm..... first order c/o's will always have some
measured issues with "metal" bass-mid units.

I'd think about adding a 5.1kHz trap filter to the bass/mid unit,
if anything, this can be done with a small capacitor across
the bass-mid's coil, if you know what you are doing.
And have a LCR meter .....
 
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I didn't know about it. Thanks for warning me!

Then I will only replace the existing caps.

Is this Solen good enough?

Solen 3.3 mfd Fast Cap 400V: Madisound Speaker Store

Or this ClarityCap?

ClarityCap 3.3 mfd SA Range Polypropylene Caps: Madisound Speaker Store

Other choice is Mundorf Supreme caps, but it's quite expensive. I'm under the impression the speakers of my Studio 6 don't deserve such sophisticated caps, do they?

Mundorf 3.3 mfd Supreme Caps: Madisound Speaker Store

If you a re looking to upgrade do not get Solen, unless you like a lot of treble tizziness. Claritycap SA is a terrific inexpensive choice. There are great cap reviews here.
 
Based on your messages, it seems a waste of money and time replacing the stock caps.

Before open the loudspeakers I didn't know about Expostus brand. I sent some e-mails to Expotus and I was told the stock capacitors are polyester metalized film type caps. At first I thought some polypropilene type caps would upgrade my loudspeakers, but according to you it won't make a huge difference, if it does any.
 
Hold on there Maniac.

If the Expotus are metallised polyester then replacing them with polypropylene types will probably be worth it. Forget boutique caps just get Ansars. They're very reasonably priced and used in a lot of pro speakers for good reason. You'd have to pay an awful lot more to better them. I might be wrong but I thought Expotus were rebadged Ansar caps.

I wouldn't mess about with the coils. Full stop.

Try changing resistors for Mills MRA-12 non-inductive wirewound types.

Try removing the crossover from the speaker cabinet and hardwiring from the drive units to crossover and crossover to amp. Keep the cables from crossover to drive units as short as possible. Use the same cables throughout. Ulimately, lose the crossover PCB and hardwire the crossover components directly.
 
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Hi,

FWIW I don't know who makes the caps, but Expotus certainly don't.

With only two caps to replace you could suck it and see, might be worth
it, but huge differences are not IMO possible, they will be very subtle.
Replacing rubbish with decent always makes the most difference.

rgds, sreten.

Still think a notch at 5.1kHz is a possible option, but L value is needed,
and a further check as to whether they are first order series or parallel.
 
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According to Stereophile, Studio 6's crossover is 1st order.

"Crossover slopes: first-order, 6dB/octave."

I couldn't identify the coils as there's nothing written on them. There're 3 caps that are: 3.3μF, 1,5μF and 0,47μ, all of them Expotus'. As I informed, they are all metalyzed polyester film type.

Anyway, I am aware my loudspeakers are not that good but I expect an audible improvement. I will think of all advices given here and decide if it's worth swapping the caps. I will likely buy ClarityCap or Mundorf caps following the reviews given by homemadehifi.

About coils, I have just given up the idea of replacing them. I have no scope to measure impedance and other variables so further modifications are out of question.

Thanks a lot!
 
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I've owned a pair of the Studio 20s. The stock crossover components were garbage. A speaker that expensive should at least have an air core inductor on the woofer. I replaced the crossover in my Studio 20's with foil inductors and Sidereal (which is now Auricap.)

The drivers are quite nice, and the overall speakers are great. They're worth the trouble of a crossover upgrade. If you don't have the gear to measure the inductor (value and DCR), I would see if you could find somebody who could measure it for you. That's what I did. The cap values should be printed on the outside. Depending on how much you want to spend on caps, there's lots of ways you can go. Choose your poison! :D I'll second the recommendation on the Mills resistors.
 
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I've owned a pair of the Studio 20s. The stock crossover components were garbage. A speaker that expensive should at least have an air core inductor on the woofer. I replaced the crossover in my Studio 20's with foil inductors and Sidereal (which is now Auricap.)

The drivers are quite nice, and the overall speakers are great. They're worth the trouble of a crossover upgrade. If you don't have the gear to measure the inductor (value and DCR), I would see if you could find somebody who could measure it for you. That's what I did. The cap values should be printed on the outside. Depending on how much you want to spend on caps, there's lots of ways you can go. Choose your poison! :D
 
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The Clarity caps offer a good compromise between price and performance. Then again, you can get excellent performance out of some very cheap caps if you are lucky. I guess with something like the Clarity cap you are paying a little extra to get something that others have heard and can say OK to.

A bad cap might, just for example, highlight sibilance. It may sound great apart from that. You might change to a cap without this fundamental flaw and then be happy. The problem is rarely major. If you then upgrade to caps worth hundreds of dollars you might find yourself quite disappointed.

As far as the coils, I wouldn't change them if they are already air cored, and then maybe only the woofer. Depending on the value involved I'd probably just make sure the tweeter coil is not interacting with the other(s).

To me upgrading a crossover means first taking it out and putting it on the shelf. I see more in running a properly workable crossover using common and inexpensive parts than in upgrading a stock crossover with specialty parts.
 
Frankly I'd not bother changing anything in the crossover unless you know what you are doing. Without being able to measure the caps and resistors true values, anything you replace them with will probably be of a different value and change the frequency response accordingly Hence the audiophile reports of caps and resistors sounding "better" or "worse" I'd leave well enough alone.
 
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