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Nickt, what do you like about the Hovlands? Have you compared it to any of the others I mentioned? Thanks. |
Don't forget Sonicaps. Some of the most natural and musical caps I've heard in a crossover (for my drivers - Scanspeak's).
But it all depends on the speakers and drivers that are being used. Each cap has a "style" or "sound" to it, as does each driver. You really want to mate them.
Bottom line - there's no "best" cap for all situations.
Enjoy,
Bob |
What are the cap values? Some are QUITE large, and replacing with, say, TRT D-Caps would cost hundred$.
Personally, I've been very satisfied with NorthCreek Zens in large values--they seem a little smoother than, say, SCR/Solens/Axons--with TRT D-Caps as smaller values and bypasses on the (larger) NCs. But the SCR/Solens/Axons are unbeatable in quality v. performance, especially in large values.
See http://www.altavistaaudio.com/caps.html for a highly experienced person's opinions on cap quality.
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Dear Draculel: I try in my speaker crossover all the caps in your list plus: Hovland, MIT RTX, Solen, Aeon, Wima, etc.
I do extensive tests with all those brands on my speakers and no one of them can meet the neutral balance and naturalness of the V-caps: this is the less colored cap that I ever know for a crossover speaker use: small and large values and if you have the money you can do the by-pass with Teflon V-caps ( very very expensives ).
If you really want an improvement on your speakers performance is that you can change the caps and the inductors, for these one I can recomemnded the Alpha-Core ( cooper or silver ), nothing come close to it.
Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul. |
Rauliguegas, the V-caps now come in two flavors, Teflon and Oil-film(?). Which would be better for speaker applications? By the way, I've always thought about using Alpha-Core inductors. Any thoughts on what type of wire to use inside the speaker and speaker terminals?
Thanks guys for all your input. I figured the V-caps would come out on top for most applications. Too bad they cost so much. I'm not willing to put in more than $300 tops for caps. I'm going to have to take a look at the X-over in the future and figure out how much it's going to cost me.
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What are the cap values?
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Jeffreybehr, I have not had a chance to look at the caps yet. I will post the values in the future. |
If you can afford Jensens, I can't imagine it getting much better. As has been stated already, caps bring their own sonic signature, but who could argue against a cap that sounds lush, dynamic, detailed and as musical as the Jensens? |
Has anyone bypassed the motor run caps with the relatively cheap russian Teflon .1uf or.057uf caps? If so what were the results? In a speaker XO application primarily,although feel free to chime in with your power supply results. |
Breginato, I started this thread because I had a specific question. Now you're on my thread with a question that belongs on a different thread. I don't mean any offence. I would appreciate it if you start your own thread so my thread doesn't go off in another direction. Thank you. |
Often, one should be pretty judicious when changing caps. They definitely add a "flavor" to the sound, and the direction they take the sound can be the opposite of what is desired. One should begin with the baseline, assess what changes are desired, and move on from there.
I have found a lot of the more upscale MIT cap variants, while great in many other instances, can often sterilize the sound of a loudspeaker, actually making things worse than the starting point. As you get into the polystyrene and teflon caps in general, this becomes more of a danger. Detail, clarity, and low noise, yes. Musicality, many times, not in my opinion.
The best everyday caps are Solen, SCR/Axon, and the NorthCreeks Jeffreybehr recommended. All are very evenhanded, offer a nice blend of punch and detail, and never sound harsh. When you get into smaller values (less than 15 uF), I like AuriCaps which are smooth and musical, and even better, the TRT-DynamiCaps, which also add spectacular weight into the mix.
Paper in oil caps offer a smoothness than can soften a tube amp's shimmer gone too far towards being like a spotlight in many a system.
I have never tried V Caps or Mundorf, though a lot of people are high on the Mundorfs. |
Mundorf supreme /silver line. BUT, they are expensive and one MUST finalise the value required before purchasing. It's too expensive and not worth experimenting with.
Also, the differences between say Mundorf and dynamicaps and some of the (v. good) Axons, etc, ARE there... BUT: IME, the cap won't magically transform a Tangbang, excellent though it may be, into a Lowther PM4 or a Supravox 215 field coil.
I think good quality, "honest" caps make the difference; going (financially) overboard is not always necessary! |
Dear Dracule 1: The Teflon caps are not for speaker XO: are too expensives and build to small values.
The standard V-caps is the one for the XO. About the internal speaker wire you can use Kimber Kable: cooper or silver, I'm using the silver type. Kimber is a hard to beat wire for this aplication.
Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul. |
I thought that the best sounding "afordable" cap is Cresecendo from North Creek Music. Very musical and makes an instant and audible upgrade in any speaker. |
Hi Dracule 1: Jeffreybehr ask for the caps values, this issue is very important: not only because their prices but because maybe you can't find all the values you need from the same source and you have to combine two or more caps to meet what the XO needs.
Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul. |
Check out this site:
http://home.versatel.nl/geenius/Cap.html
This guy is from Holland so the caps reviewd are the ones that are mainly availabble in Europe but included are Hovlands, Sonic Caps and North Creek. This is in general a very interesting site. |
Hi Manga: Very good link. I never heard the Mundorf caps that this man " loved ".
I woul like to know which are the music/sound reproduction priorities that he has and his audio system, because the Sonicaps are better than he say: maybe between 9-9.5. I think that he rated at 8.5 because is a " low price " cap, I don't know for sure.
I know that it is an expensive way to try to tests differents XO caps in our own system but I'm positive sure that if you try with the V-caps you will be extremly " happy " with them, Chris VenHaus of www.v-caps.com is a very nice people and can help to any one of you about. No I'm not a dealer of V-caps and don't have any comercial relationship with V-caps other than like a customer.
Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul. |
Again, thanks all you guys for your input. Rauligruegas, have people tried the V-cap oil impregnated series for XO? |
Hi Raul,
Tony Gee's site is one of the more interesting ones on the internet. You can visit his home page at http://home.hetnet.nl/~geenius/index.html
There he offers an extensive array of speaker designs for the DIYer that are very well documented. What's interesting is that he uses almost exclusively series crossovers in his speakers. For many, series crossovers done properly are more coherent/organic than their parallel equivalents but a bit more difficult to dial in, one of the reasons being that they place higher demands on the drivers themselves. Of course as in all things audio opinions will vary. Some commercial companies that use series crossovers include Fried, vmps, Gallo(Ref III), GR Research and Reimer.
In any case, go through the write-ups where he describes his speakers' sonic characters and his design goals for each, to get a feel of what his sonic preferences and priorities are.
As I understand it, Sonic Caps are now in their second generation said to be better sonicaly than their predecessors and they also offer a teflon cap that is allegedly comparable in performance to the V-cap. As for the V-caps the word is that they are an excellent capacitor but as stated elsewhere in this thread their higher price would make them a more suitable application for electronics. Unfortunately I have no direct experience with either of these caps so I cannot offer an opinion.
Cheers. |
Dracule, I use the M-Cap Sup. S/Os in my ASL 805DTs as couplers--a 2.7- and a 0.47/1200. I use M-Cap Supremes, a 6.8- and a 0.47/800 in parallel, as a bypass on the final B+ rail for the output stage. I can't tell you exactly how these particular caps sound, as I changed LOTS of stuff in the amps--see http://community.webshots.com/album/287782641gYWTlA for some details and also for the Audio Refinements Pre 5 6-channel preamp in which I've used the S/Os as couplers.
The modified amp, when compared with the stock amp, sounds less gritty/grainy and retains more instrumental- and spacial-decay info. I'm sure some Golden-Eared Audiofile could describe lots more differences, but that's not me!
I had forgotten how much this fellow loved both of the M-Cap Sups. Madisound sells them in the US--http://www.madisound.com/mundorfcaps.html.
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Dear Dracule: I use the V-caps in my speakers XO.
Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul. |
Dear Manga: Tks for your info, interesting.. I use the Sonicaps ( last generation ) in my speakers XO and I really like it, right now I'm very happy with the V-caps: recomended !!!. For me the Sonicaps and V-caps are the best for XO, but I have to try the silver Mundorf.
Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul. |
I have tried Solens, Mundorf Silvers, Hovlands, Theta Audio Caps and Auricaps and Cardas caps in the x/o. By far the best are the Cardas caps which allow a seamless, unforced and supremely balanced sound. The highly touted oil-filled Mundorfs had a harsh, grainy sound that superficially sounded lively in the characteristic Solen Fashion. The Theta AudioCaps are slightly smoother yet less detailed. The Auricaps have a creamy deep midrange but compress dynamics and sound too rolled off at the HF. |
You should also take a look at Clarity cap from IWC - their SA range is extremely good, and unlike so many other brands, dont emphasise any particular part of the freq. Also - compared to many of the other brands, they are "relatively" cheaper.
PS. They are also the caps used by B&W in their nautilus range.. |
