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Don't Neglect to check your Caps!

Lately, my system has been sounding oddly dark.

At first, I wondered whether my recently acquired VooDoo Dynasty ac cords were still settling in, then it occured to me that it might be worthwhile having my 18 year old Silverline monitors checked out. 

I found a local tech (Mike at Neal’s Speaker Service in Colfax, CA) who told me the tweeters were fine but the caps were on their way out. I gave him the go ahead to replace them and wow, what a difference!  One advantage to waiting as long as I did is that the contrast is dramatic and immediately apparent, not that I’d advocate this as a deliberate strategy.

I guess it’s like the slowly-cooking frog analogy. Our ears can adjust to slowly degrading sound and we won’t necessarily notice it until it reaches a tipping point. 

 

 

 

 

stuartk
sns
4,026 posts
 

Another reason to go for film caps if there is the physical space and available values.

carlso63
31 posts
 

An especially good idea if you have any 'vintage' equipment (like I do)... I have seen almost "night and day" differences in speaker performance after a recap.

Recapping a speaker crossover is very easy to do (in most cases); all you need is some basic tools and some soldering equipment.

Certainly something to look at if your amplifiers, etc. are of the vintage variety as well - although recapping an amp or receiver is a bit more involved and sometimes best left to a professional....

speedysteve4's avatar
speedysteve4
8 posts
 

Hate to be stupid, but what's a cap ?

ghdprentice
8,098 posts
 

Capacitor.

waytoomuchstuff's avatar
waytoomuchstuff
1,251 posts
 

Chances are that you got a "twofer" here.

- replaced a cap that was approaching end of life

- upgraded the cap to something better than the OEM. 

The second statement is an assumption, but being involved in speaker service and performance upgrades, I can't imagine going thought the motions of replacing an OEM cap with a similar quality piece.  Especially when "much better performance than OEM" can be achieved at a reasonable cost.

So, what you are hearing is most likely a repair/replacement of aging part AND and upgrade simultaneously?  And, yes, the sonic improvement would be immediate and dramatic.

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