Acoustat caps

[Barmy]

I recently got a new amp (class D , Nuforce ia7 v2 ) sounds great with my old acoustat spectra 1100 speakers.
I have one question, to do with replacing the 20 year old filter.

I have found Siemens epcos MKV 100 uF capacitators, (from ebay germany) and have been told this is so much better than the tiny paper based cap in the speakers.

I am about to replace them but there seems to be a bypass next to
the offending article (see picture)
Would it be safe to remove the bypass?, as the new cap must not be bypassed.

http://i1044.photobucket.com/albums/...artels/ac2.jpg

[Acoustannoy]

Hi Barmy

If i'm right the 100µF capacitor is connected in paralled with the 10µF one (the yellow one). Then both are part of the High pass-filter. you can change the chemical 100µF against another type (polypropylen...) without any risk. You might have sound advantage in the bass-middle frequency area.

Mathieu

[bear]

Definitely change the electrolytic to polypropylene if you can. Mylar (polyester) is second best.

However, if you are not listening for "sound stage" (the stereo presentation) you will not hear much of a difference, as it does not appear so much as frequency response as it does spatial placement in the very upper mids, lower highs...

There is no reason not to have a bypass cap, unless the bypass cap is lower in quality than the main cap. One of the purposes of using a smaller value bypass cap is that it will improve the way the larger cap works at higher frequencies. For example, if you use some paralleled polypropylene caps to get to the 100ufd value, there could be value in bypassing them with a 1ufd to 10ufd value polypropylene or maybe even a "teflon" cap... otoh I have found the polypropylenes to be a quite substantial improvement to the point that a bypass is not of real value...

_-_-bear