Acoustic Zen Crescendo speaker crossover capacitors ... who makes them?


I own the MKl version of the Crescendo and see the crossover uses all Acoustic Zen branded capacitors. Most are blue in color with the smallest values bring black. Does anyone know what company makes these for AZ? I did email the builder, but no answer. Love any information the community may have on this topic. 

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Showing 3 responses by sherod

I recently emailed Robert Lee, owner of Acoustic Zen, telling him that I was following a thread on Audiogon where certain people had upgraded the crossovers in their Crescendo speakers with superior boutique parts with excellent results. I didn't mention any names. I asked him if he would give me a list of cap and resistor values of the Adagio so that I could experiment with upgrading parts in my speaker crossovers. His response was basically, " Please don't mess with my crossovers. They are perfect the way I have designed them. I don't know why they want to change it. I would recommend that you experiment with speaker placement and room acoustics. Please call me for recommendations. Email me photos of your system and room." I thanked him for his response, but haven't followed up with him at this time. 
I am a firm believer in upgrading with better quality capacitors. I have improved my Reference 3a Dulcet and MMC crossovers with Audyn True Copper Max with spectacular improvements. I also have refurbished at least six vintage tuners by replacing all electrolytic caps with Elna Silmic II and Black gate caps with amazing results. I have no doubt that just replacing all the sand cast resistors in the AZ Adagio crossover would make for an improvement. 
I spoke with Robert Lee at Acoustic Zen recently because as I was attempting to extract the crossover boards out of my speakers(Adagio), there was so much hot glue under the boards that I damaged the boards to where they were no longer functional. I asked Robert if he could sell me another set, not mentioning that I was going to upgrade the caps and resistors, but he told me that he discontinued the 3rd order crossover configuration about a year ago and is building his own 1st order -6db crossovers for all his models. He agreed to sell me a set of his new crossover boards and before I install them into the speakers, I will upgrade for sure the caps. Robert said he would provide instructions for easy installation, this time using special screws instead of hot glue.
   I know this is an older thread but if anyone is interested in the results I get, I'll post back again later.