Should You Change Crossover Capacitors – The Great Debate

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You are doing yourself a disservice by rejecting the possibility of upgrading the caps and will always wonder what you are missing....

This is another absurd statement by you. The idea that I am doing myself a disservice is ridiculous.

I do not wonder for one minute what I might be missing. As I have already posted I am absolutely thrilled with sound quality from the Piccolo speakers and particularly for classical music and opera.

I do not sit there and wonder about changing anything, but I know a lot of you do. And I feel very sorry for you, because you can't really enjoy the music if you aren't satisfied with your speakers.
 

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Sorry for you but you don't know anything about blind test , can test only you not stuff ...
buy 20$ of caps and make some test you will learning something really we are diyaudio with 30years of bulding speakers and amp here....

Well, I guess it just comes down to whether I should believe people like Amir, Floyd Toole, Sean Olive and other experts in the field of audio or you.

Problem for you is that I don't know who you are, never heard of you, and have absolutely no reason to believe you know what you are talking about. Hope that doesn't hurt your feelings, but sorry, I'm sticking with the real experts.
 
… A comparison was made and the standard cap was shown to be very good but fell short of the reasonably priced Mundorf Supreme.

Yeah, I know. More expensive capacitors ALWAYS sound better. Amazing how that works, isn’t it.

Almost everyone here who writes about substituting a more expensive capacitor raves about how much better the sound becomes. And what’s even more amazing is how they are able to tell without doing an impartial well controlled blind test. Who really needs to be bothered with all of that extra work just to find out if something sounds better?

Just wear one of those “Trust Your Ears” tee shirts, or maybe a cap with the words on it, and all will be well.

And what’s great is that almost everyone here has that special ability to totally overcome confirmation bias. Yeah, of course they will acknowledge that confirmation bias is real, to deny it would be just plain stupid, but they are so good at this testing thing that it never applies to them. Other people may be bothered by it, but not them. They are really that good. Sure.
 
Just read this thread and others, there is NOTHING else claimed 😉

Oh, they don´t straight use the words "more expensive is better", but always mention a few select "audiophile" brands, which sometimes include the words "Gold", "Silver" , "Copper" , "Superior" , "Audio" something, etc. in their names.

Which by absolute pure random "coincidence" happen to cost 5X to 50X the price of those they are replacing or commercial ones with exact same specs (if not better).
 
I've never seen or heard anyone state this.

How about this from one of the posts that I quoted above:

"A comparison was made and the standard cap was shown to be very good but fell short of the reasonably priced Mundorf Supreme."

Obviously shorthand for more expensive.

And I also like the very scientific and tremendously helpful information that it "fell short" of the more expensive capacitor. Boy, that is really something that I can use to make a decision with.

My point in all of this is that are people posting here who are pretending to know something, but have no clue about audio systems and what contributes to high quality sound. Hopefully, most people ignore them, but I am still going to call out the imposters when I see them.
 
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The idea of any reproduction system is to have minimal distortion, reproduce the sound accurately.
Amplifiers are measured for THD and so on, why can the speakers also not be measured?
Maybe microphone accuracy issues?

If you drive a car on the road, it goes...but if you drive in mud, it does not go so well.
I prefer my reproduction to be accurate.

You want to muddy it up, like driving a car in a place more suited for a tractor, your choice.
But please do not tell others they are wrong.
Be happy that you are right, and all the rest are wrong.

Relax.
Stress can kill you.
 
There is no science to back up those claims nor are there any well controlled independent tests to support them either.

Perhaps someday there will be proof of those claims, maybe not. But everything in the meantime is just hearsay and totally subjective opinions. And many of those are driven by confirmation bias.
Your enthusiasm for the Piccolos is an elegant example of confirmation bias. Confirmation bias works both ways of course, not hearing something is just as likely to be a result confirmation bias.

Back to capacitors, over the years I have read a lot of published work about selection of appropriate capacitors. All manner of a capacitor's innate mechanical, electrical, chemical and dialectric properties can make it suitable or unsuitable for a particular application, including audio.

I have also read with interest how capacitors constructed of different materials and dialectric, with different methods of assembly vary quite enormously in nonlinearity and harmonic distortion and how those nonlinearities can be significantly affected by both AC and DC voltage levels across the capacitor. These effects are quite easily measurable with appropriate equipment, and are routinely by capacitor designers. It would be unprecedented if capacitors didn't influence sound, not the other way round.

I have not seen published peer reviewed "science" that proves, or even attempts to prove, that differences in the sound of capacitor are inaudible. If you have read science on which you have based your proposition, you must be able to point to something in support. I am very keen to broaden my knowledge and look forward to you posting references.
 
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I think you are saying that the same value capacitor from different manufacturers would sound different if they were on spec...?
That would make the circuit designers job difficult, I think.

Then there should be no point of having specifications and tolerances.

And the speakers, nobody is discussing modifying them by coating the cones, changing coils and so on.
We should have comparisons of different coatings on cones, maybe how fabric color affects the sound (by manufacturer), maybe glitter paint on speakers and cones?
 
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You want to muddy it up, like driving a car in a place more suited for a tractor, your choice.
But please do not tell others they are wrong.
Be happy that you are right, and all the rest are wrong.
....

Watch the video that I referenced in Post #137. Then you can decide for yourself if most of the opinions being offered here that aren't based on well controlled testing are of any real value or not.

And please don’t try to tell me what I should or should not tell others. It's none of your business and I don't need or want your advice on it.
 
Your enthusiasm for the Piccolos is an elegant example of confirmation bias. Confirmation bias works both ways of course, not hearing something is just as likely to be a result confirmation bias.
...
I have not seen published peer reviewed "science" that proves, or even attempts to prove, that differences in the sound of capacitor are inaudible. ...

Confirmation bias as we see it here is usually based on comparing two items and favoring the one that costs more, is more attractive, has a better reputation or some other attribute. It is a comparative judgment.

That is not the case with my comments on the Piccolo. I wasn't comparing it to anything. I'm simply saying that I think it sounds great. Exceeds my expectations. I've had other speakers that I would never make that comment about, because they really didn't sound that good. At least to me.

Now might there be a better sounding speaker than the Piccolos? Of course, there could be. I'm not say it is the ultimate. But it rates very high on my enjoyability scale.

Finally your comment that:

"I have not seen published peer reviewed "science" that proves, or even attempts to prove, that differences in the sound of capacitor are inaudible."

proves absolutely nothing.

The exact same comment can be made with the opposite conclusion. I can safely say that:

"I have not seen published peer reviewed "science" that proves, or even attempts to prove, that differences in the sound of capacitor are audible."

Between the two it makes much more sense for someone to try to prove the later rather than the former. But apparently neither has been done.
 
You can't make up your own definition of confirmation bias to suit yourself. Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or values. As I said, your enthusiasm for the Piccolos is an elegant example of confirmation bias.

Where is the science which supports the the claim that perceived improvements from replacing crossover capacitors are nothing more than confirmation bias. Please share the source of your adamancy.

It is well known that vibration can modulate the value of capacitance of some constructions of capacitor. If such a capacitor is used inside a loudspeaker cabinet there is a known and scientifically understood mechanism whereby that capacitor will alter the signal passing through it compared to a capacitor that is not subject to this mechanism. This is not voodoo, it is the natural consequence of the application of the laws of physics.
 
With your definition of confirmation bias no one could ever say that they liked something. It would be impossible. So that obviously isn't valid.

And then please explain why the AN 10" Classic speakers that cost the same amount as the Piccolos I don't think sound that good. If confirmation bias was valid I would say that those sound great also.

So I'm afraid your logic just doesn't hold together.

With regard to capacitors please show the actual tests where vibrations in cabinets have been proven to change the sound from the drivers.

Thanks. Waiting for your data.
 
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Well, I guess it just comes down to whether I should believe people like Amir, Floyd Toole, Sean Olive and other experts in the field of audio or you.

Problem for you is that I don't know who you are, never heard of you, and have absolutely no reason to believe you know what you are talking about. Hope that doesn't hurt your feelings, but sorry, I'm sticking with the real experts.
There are, of course, other real experts who say otherwise.
 
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