A local dealer builds custom speakers (mostly horn-based, using vintage drivers). I’ve heard these systems being tuned in, which includes changing internal wiring and crossover components. The sound can be quite significantly changed by choice of different caps. This particular builder hates Mundorfs of all sorts in both speaker and electronics builds (he doesn’t like Duelunds either). Most of his builds are done with vintage caps (some very old and hard to find, like Western Electric paper in oil caps) and modern caps from Audio Note.
A previous discussion included a statement about crossover components.
The commentator stated something to the effect that some very high end speakers really cheaped out on the capacitors and resistors in their crossovers, and hinted that replacing them with high quality components might improve the sound quality of the speakers. My question is "Have you ever replaced the caps and resistors in your speakers crossovers, and to your ears did that result in better sound quality?" Also, what brands of caps and resistors do you consider to be "the best", and why?
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@ieales: You have the markup formula correct, but the nomenclature incorrect. Wholesale is the price the retailer pays the manufacturer (or distributor) for a component, which in hi-fi is typically 60 points (percent) of the retail list price. So a piece which retails for $1500 typically costs the retailer $900. The $300 figure you cite is correct (for a component which retails for $1500), but that is not referred to as the wholesale price, but rather the cost to manufacture a piece of hi-fi gear (there may be a more technically specific term for that price, but if so I’m unaware of it). The difference in price between the cost to manufacture ($300 in this example) and the wholesale price ($900) is the amount the manufacturer (or distributor) makes ($600), the difference between wholesale ($900) and retail ($1500) prices what the retailer/dealer makes (also $600, assuming the component sells for full list price). However, in some product categories (cables and hi-fi "tweeks") the cost to manufacture may be far less than 1/5th the wholesale price. That’s one reason those items come under such harsh criticism from the "skeptics". The creators of such products defend their pricing in terms of the man hours that were invested in developing their products. |
@bdp24 It's a cupla decades since I was a manufacturer... of pro audio gear. |
I’ve found changing out caps can make a nice speaker sound much more enjoyable. I started out with Sonicaps there cheap and if no improvement it wouldn’t break the bank, there was a fair improvement. After a few months I pulled them out and replaced them with clarity cap CMR’s. This was a big improvement. I then bypassed them with Miflex and Duelund with another nice improvement. The Clarity CMR’s are big so I just built the crossover outboard. I also changed from Mills to path resistors another nice improvement. I also tried the Jantzen Aluminum z’s they were nice, I even mixed and matched them with the CMR’s. I also tried the Vcap odom’s in other components and would like to try them in some speakers. My other speakers sound very good so I’ve just left them alone but still would like to put better parts in but just haven’t and probably never will. Playing with caps and internal wiring is fun and very rewarding but where does it stop.
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