Best Capacitors for Crossovers

I highly recommended Jupiter copper foil caps. I prefer them to Duelund and have tried both. Far superior to Mundorf in every way, but most especially in the mids and micro details. The Jupiter cap is very linear with no part of the sound spectrum highlighted.  I find the top of the line Mundorfs a tad boosted in the highs. The Duelunds a tad bumped in the upper mids. The Jupiers are so smooooth! 

You might want to try DIYAudio, but in the "affordable" boutique crossovers my favorites so far:

Clarity MR (now CMR)
Clarity ESA
Mundorf MKP
Mundorf Supremes

Yeah, I list the Supreme’s lowest due to an artificial Disney-like sheen or scintilation. It is NOT natural, you don’t hear it when listening to live music, but if you like it, do it! :) Magico is enamored of the entire Supreme line and why I’m not enamored of Magico. :) Clearly I’m in the minority.

Solen’s have been such a mixed bag now I refuse to even look at them. I hear good things from the top line models, but meh, not about to try them.

I also like Audyn Truecopper (Bypass values only)

The Mundorf MKP is a great upgrade for many, and the prices are hard to beat.

@grannyring Thanks for that. I've been seriously considering the Jupiter line, especially since Soniccraft has them on sale often.

I have a pair that sounds very nice, but I am thinking about completely re-doing the crossover design, and Jupiter caps in the tweet would be just the thing. :)

Best,

Erik

Technology before brand.

There are two main types of quality caps: metallized, and film-and-foil. The former are cheaper, the latter better: by better, I mean smoother, more refined, more detailed.

Dielectric thickness doesn't matter very much, but metal thickness does. Just about anything thick enough to be wound up on a spool is thick enough for sonics, but a deposited conductor is a different matter.

Construction is also important. The larger the capacitance, the more the cap can suffer from inductance. MIT Multicap have a connection scheme that minimizes this. Duelund has a flat pack topology which is just about optimal.

Polypropylene tends to sound pretty good, but compared to styrene, is dull. PTFE (teflon) sounds a little bright compared to styrene. Styrene is, to my mind, the most neutral of the conventional dielectrics. These are the films.

For metal, the best is one which connects easily (usually solders easily). Those are silver, copper, and tin. These are the foils.

Now to the brands. I have used many, and MIT are my favourites. Solen f&f are less expensive but less good in my opinion, except for their PTFE f&f, which are as good as anyone's. Relcap makes a good capacitor. For the very best sound, I use MIT RTX series, which is a styrene / tin capacitor.

YMMD. Hope that helps.