Noticeable Sound Improvements With Speaker Re-cap?


Hello!

I own a pair of Infinity RS 4.5 speakers. I drive them with either a Krell FPB 600 or a Sunfire Signature 600.

Right now, they sound near perfect to my ears.

I keep reading in multiple posts that a re-cap will take them to the next level.

They are over 40 years old, so they are definitely due for new capacitors.

My question is this, for anyone who has performed a full re-cap on their speakers, what were some of the most noticeable sound improvements?

Thanks in advance!

bassfreak373

Measure the caps and determine if they need to be replaced.

On my IRS Beta ALL Solen caps were totally off spec or totally dead.  All TI and Wonder caps measured perfectly.

I replaced with new Solen to maintain a level of originality.  LEMIMs and EMIMs came to life. 

Big change that I had not immediately noticed due to the gradual deterioration of the capacitors (and of my ears).

Back to normal now and fantastic

These Speakers were built to a Budget that was constraining the cost allocated for the Xover.

Move forward to the current times, Xovers from a particular era, especially a Vintage era, when met with State of the Art Components from the current era, will create a very attractive circuit to divide the Source Signal into different frequencies. A lot less distortion is likely to be created using the new components, resulting in less corrupted Signal being converted to become the End Sound.

The Link will show how adventurous other Owners have been willing to express their speakers.  

https://www.davidsaudio.com/html/infinity_variants.html

Recapped about 12 pair speakers using generic Solen to Mundorf Gold and variations in between.  Always a big step up in performance.  Simple enough, keep values close.

Speakers ranged from $300/pr. to $3,000/pr.  More expensive speakers usually came with proper crossover.  Always rewired with better also.  Cheers

I would think it depends on where in the crossover the electrolytic capacitor is.  Depending on the location as they fail you could end up with drivers not receiving as strong of a signal as they should or getting frequencies that aren’t ideal for them to be trying to reproduce.

Replacement capacitors can have different effective series resistance which will also affect the crossover.

The downside of replacement is if you are thrilled with the sound now that may change.

On my 20 year old speakers that had an electrolytic in line with the tweeter there was a noticeable improvement in the high frequencies.  Now, I don't know how much of that was form a half ohm less resistance.

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