Should You Change Crossover Capacitors – The Great Debate

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There are lots of posts here about perceived speaker performance improvement by replacing crossover capacitors with more expensive ones. Generally, I believe most of these so called improvements are nothing more than confirmation bias. But there is one possible scenario in which they are real.

If the crossover is initially equipped with electrolytic capacitors there is some chance that it is not operating as designed. Electrolytic capacitors are relatively inexpensive and have a very broad tolerance range. In some cases as much as +/- 20%. In that case the crossover would be significantly detuned and not operating at the point the designer intended. And that could degrade the sound.

Now if you replace that electrolytic with a different type of capacitor, say a film type for example, the tolerances are much tighter so you have moved the actual crossover point much close to the one intended by the designer. These tighter tolerance capacitors are more expensive than the electrolytics. Some reasonably priced types have tolerances of +/- 5%, but if you spend enough you can get some with a +/- 1% tolerance.

Changes from being 20% off to just 1%, or even 5%, could very likely be heard.

So some claims that replacing capacitors in a crossover improved the sound are probably real. But the reason given is somewhat misleading. It’s not simply because the replacement was more expensive, although that is true. The actual reason is that the new capacitor’s value was much closer to the designed value.

If you have electrolyics and a meter that can measure capacitance it would probably be a good idea to measure them first before spending a lot of money unnecessarily for more expensive replacements. Disconnect them from the crossover and measure the capacitance. If it is off by more than 5% from the nominal value it probably pays to replace it with something better. If not, you are probably wasting your money.
 
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Let’s just for argument sake agree that there is absolutely no difference in sound between a Dayton poly pro and a Audyn true copper max (same values) in the same tweeter series circuit……..have you ever tried this and found it to be so or are you just assuming from all you’ve been taught that it’s impossible?
 
I'm offering an explanation why some people report that they hear an improvement when changing crossover capacitors and some don't hear any difference at all.

My explanation is very reasonable and entirely based on an understanding of what can happen in crossover circuits. If you have a better explanation go ahead and present it.
 
Banned/scottjoplin ii
Joined 2021
Your explanation is reasonable, but it's only one explanation yet you present it as "there is one possible scenario in which they are real", you are only considering the capacitance as if it's the only factor. Explanations of what might be going on also need to take into account the perceived changes, hearing an improvement could mean a number of different things.
 
hearing an improvement could mean a number of different things.

Let's be honest with ourselves and call it a change or difference. To actually call it or perceive it as an improvement requires the subjective notion. Just being different does not. If we want those who think there is no change to somehow become aware of the changes by personal experience, we have to suggest objectively. They will not come around to the dark side with the notion that we think they are improvements, when in fact that is a matter of preference.

Later,
Wolf
 
in some cases when replacing a crossover's original electrolytic cap with film type, a small value resistor is placed in series with the film cap to emulate the electrolytic cap's ESR characteristics.

If I were going for low loss with a simple xover such as Klipsch type A, I'd try modern DC - link caps with battery bias as a control. A certain system might sound better with metallized paper caps such as old Russian MBGO :)
 
Banned/scottjoplin ii
Joined 2021
I have to truncate the previous according to forum rules. More or less I did that to know that I responded to your post.
Wolf

Gotcha, I mention it because I was talking about perceived changes and was just referring to improvement because that was the word classicalfan used. I take your point though, change or difference is a little less judgemental :)
 
Did you start this thread due to boredom? Due to the lack of evidence you provided in the original post and posts thereafter, this is not going to go well.

I started this post to provide a reasonable and scientifically based explanation for why some people claim to hear an improvement in sound when changing capacitors in a crossover and others do not hear any improvement at all.

I thought that I had made that point very clear in my first post. If you don't understand that rather simple explanation I really can't help you.

And if you have a better explanation other than confirmation bias, please go ahead and offer it.
 
Let’s just for argument sake agree that there is absolutely no difference in sound between a Dayton poly pro and a Audyn true copper max (same values) in the same tweeter series circuit……..have you ever tried this and found it to be so or are you just assuming from all you’ve been taught that it’s impossible?

Dayton Poly Pros have an advertised tolerance of +/- 5%. For Audyn True Copper Max the tolerance is specified as +/- 2%. The likelihood of a difference in sound between them is very small. However, either one substituted for an electrolytic that is off by 20% is likely to result in an improvement in sound and possibly a significant one. That is the point of my initial post.
 
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You seem to be stuck on the impression that the replacement cap must be more expensive to make an improvement? I’ve found that true only sometimes, my question still stands……have you even tried swapping caps to see if YOU noticed a difference or are these statements you make just parroting?
I mentioned the audyn because I couldn’t get away from the brightness it imparted in several different circuits……ended up using a jantzen superior in one and a Dayton in the other although the Dayton ended up rather dull sounding but I traded those anyway so it’s all good.
 
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How about an explanation that it is not always confirmation bias, and that it actually really could be true that they operate differently and therefore sound different? You seem to be adamant that you are correct, when you cannot prove that this is all it is in its entirety.

I think there is more to it than you are allowing yourself to know.

Wolf
 
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