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

[Audio Maniac]

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?

[jerome69]

I think you'd better change the speaker.

[Audio Maniac]

Jerome, I know there're much better stuff out there, but loudspeakers cost a lot in Brazil (3 time as much). I would like to have something like Dynaudio 25 years, but they cost $11.000 here. No way!

Originally Posted by jerome69

I think you'd better change the speaker.

[moray james]

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.

[Gopher]

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.

[Audio Maniac]

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

Originally Posted by Gopher

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.

[sreten]

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 .....

[wushuliu]

Originally Posted by Audio Maniac

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.

[Audio Maniac]

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.

[Gopher]

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.