Help with crossover capacitors


I am re-capping some Altec Lansing 890C Bolero speakers.  They have 6uf/50volt and 3uf/25 volt caps.  What will change if I use 5.6uf and 3.2 caps?  I can't find the exact 6uf and 3uf values.  Should I go a little bit higher on those values or lower?  Any suggestions?  I'm looking at Dayton, Mundorf or Jantzen caps but I'm open to suggestions.

dannybad

Showing 2 responses by millercarbon

Be careful dannybad, a lot of people around here are eager to advise on things they have no actual experience with. Differences between caps are easy to hear. I'm talking electrically same value caps. Back when I didn't know this the designer of my speakers sold me a tweeter upgrade that called for a different crossover. He gave me the circuit which when built sounded nothing like what I had heard in his lab. It sounded like crap! After asking a bunch of questions and being assured I used all the correct value caps and resistors and point to point soldering he finally asked which caps? Well, Radio Shack. A week later with a Hovland MusicCap and Holco resistor and wow, magic! Bye-bye grain and etch, hello lovely liquid music!

Bear in mind this was going from Radio Shack caps sold five to a pack for a buck fifty, to Hovland MusiCap sold one for about $35. How much difference you hear will depend on what you're comparing. In any case, as long as your values are as close as you're saying then virtually all of what you hear will be due to the caps themselves and their quality and NOT have anything to do with the values being slightly different.

If your crossovers are working then I'm not even sure why you would want to replace the caps, as there's a lot easier/better places to put your money. That said, if the caps in there now are as cheap as they probably are then you should be able to easily hear improvement in smoothness and detail when upgrading to some quality caps.
The value of the cap changes the frequency response of the circuit. Such slight changes will be very hard to hear. Essentially all that will happen is one driver output will be a fraction of a dB higher or lower. But because the values are so close this will only affect a very tiny frequency range. In other words very, very hard to hear any difference- from this aspect of the cap swap.

Each different cap however will have its own individual sonic signature, and this by contrast will be across its whole range and so very easy to hear. Bearing that in mind I would not worry too much about the values. 

In other words, you will know instantly that you changed the caps. But the difference you hear will be due to the brand of caps and not their values.