Best Capacitors for Crossovers

This is the Tweeter I’m using.

http://www.parts-express.com/aurum-cantus-g2si-ribbon-tweeter--276-400

Aurum Cantus G2Si Ribbon Tweeter

Highlights

Thank you all for your opinions and suggestions for web site reviews. They have been very helpful. I will try to obtain some of the caps suggested for comparison.

Question:

For a tighter connection, I soldered with silver solder silver spades to the cap leads. After everything is connected, one of the caps does not work!

Now, I don’t know if the cap was dead from the get-go.

But, can the heat from the use of the soldering iron ruin the cap?

Eric,

I think I did have to hold the soldering iron for quite a while to get the solder to flow into the spade hole. The spade hole was impossible to crimp down. Later I learned that with a hammer I could bend the spade hole small enough that only a little of solder was needed.

Well, I received a replacement cap this morning, and this time no solder. It works!

But, as usual the sound is kinda bright. But there are some very good quality's. It's been quite a while since I have had new woofers, tweeters, crossover, wire etc. Any idea how long it will take for my Frankenstein project to sound it's best before I move on to a different arrangement?

I also have seen some breakers designed to reset after an overload event. Are these worth installing before the cap or tweeter?

Grannyring,

*The Tweeter that is used =

Aurum Cantus G2Si Ribbon Tweeter, 6 ohms.

Highlights

• High 96 dB sensitivity is great for efficient designs
• Excellent high-frequency extension, can be used as a supertweeter
• Extremely fast transient response allows reproduction of the finest details
• Smooth and effecient frequency response from 1,700 to over 20,000 Hz

http://www.parts-express.com/aurum-cantus-g2si-ribbon-tweeter--276-400

*Capacitor that is used=

5.6uf 800 vdc +/- 2% Jantzen Audio Silver Z-cap.

*The Inductor that is used =

Jantzen Cross Coil Copper foil .27mh, 99.99 pure copper windings, 14 gauge, 500 watt rms

*Woofer that is used =

6.5 inch mid bass/midrangeWoofer.

This speaker is rated at 150RMS. It produces solid mid-bass and midrange response.

This woofer has an impressive frequency range of 60hz-7000hz.).

• 1’’ Kapton voice coil Stamped steel basket Strong black paper cone Cloth edge Suspension
• Bumped & vented pole piece
• 8 ohm impedance
• 30 oz. magnet

Specifications: • Power handling: 150 watts RMS/400 watts max

• VCdia: 1" •

Impedance: 8 ohms

• Frequency response: 60-7,000 Hz

• Fs: 94.3 Hz

• SPL: 88.5 dB 1W/1m

• Vas: 0.15 cu. ft.

• Qms: 2.97

• Qes: 1.27

• Qts: 0.89

• Xmax: 6.5 mm

• Magnet weight: 30 oz.

*No resistors.

grannyring,

Thanks for the info. I also wired the cap with the tweeters using .9999 silver cable. I know that when I had the Von Schwekert’s speakers as new they sounded pretty tight for about a month. I even ran one out of phase and moved the speakers together face to face for several weeks.

I am not too concerned at this time though. I know wire takes at least 200 hours to flesh out and what I am using is all new wiring, caps and speakers.

With my Pass Labs amp, I don’t want to play it continuously so it may take a month to fully develop. So, at that time I may experiment further with other caps.

enliten,

Active crossover is an idea. I was thinking of eventually getting a DEQX unit.

ptss,

I read the attachment lustformusic added. I'm not sure I totally understand the concept. I need to read it again.

I am getting very good soundstage wide separation along with a pretty deep presentation. The upper frequencies are definitely pronounced at this point however.

grannyring,

I may try some of that wire.

Eric,

*Capacitor that is used=

5.6uf 800 vdc +/- 2% Jantzen Audio Silver Z-ca

Just a little more info. I put the speaker crossover's in wooden boxes and made them external to the speakers. Seems like all speakers should come this way. Especially for tweakers (Like me).

Also, has anyone tried the speaker breaker from Parts express to protect tweeters? Now, I wired the tweeters using ultra pure .9999 silver wire, so I am reluctant to add a breaker with its crappy wire to the connection.

georgelofi,

I have tried the Solens and they are ok but they seem to compress the dynamics. The caps I am using have silver leads and silver wiring

eric,

I do like to play the Pass Labs amp pretty loud sometimes. I'm crossing over the tweeters at 4500hz. There frequency rating is 1700-20000+hz, 6 ohm and have a 30 watts rms rating .I have not added any resistors. First off, I am not sure what they contribute. Can someone explain? Is it for equalizing the levels between the tweeter and woofer?

I have been using the Purist break in disc quite a bit and I do believe the brightness is toning down.

Eric,

I can't open your sample files.

The woofer I'm using is 90db and crossing over at 4500hz seems to be quite fine. Perhaps the tweeter is a little too much but with my "old" ears sounds pretty good to me. Even at this early stage of breakin my DIY 2-way sounds better than many of my other high priced speakers including B&W's.

I tried to limit the amount of components in the crossover networks.

As I stated earlier I made the crossover in a external box. They were made bi-wired, with separate wbt posts . For the woofer, I used military spec cryoed 12 gauge silver/copper wire. The inductor is also 12 gauge. With the tweeters I used 14 gauge pure .9999 silver wire internally and the Jantzan Silver 5.6uf Cap.

I just ordered a DEQX Premate, with my JL Audio F-113 subs this ought to turn into something really special.

barrysandy,

Thanks for reviving this thread.

Those Duelund caps are verrrryyy pricey!

I ended up installing Mundorf silver/gold/oil caps. And I switched to the Aurtum Cantus G1 tweeters.

There is about a 14 db.SPL difference between this tweeter and the mid/woofers I am using.

So, now my quest is to install resistors to pad down the tweeter. I will use a 6.2 and a 2 ohm resistors that are rated at 10 watt.

Question:

Most high end resistors are rated between 5-12 watts. This seems rather low to me, is that enough wattage?