Best Capacitors for Crossovers


I am now in the tweaking stage of trying different caps in my crossovers for my DIY homemade 2 way. I presently have and will soon try a 5.6uf 800 vdc +/- 2% Jantzen Audio Silver Z-cap.

I see that Mundorf, V Cap get a lot of accolades, and the Dueland are quite pricey.

Does anyone have a favorite?

I am trying to cross over at about 4500HZ at 6db.

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Vaguely, caps are often not rated to withstand more than 200 degree environments, electrolytics and film. Of course there are exceptions, and higher temp caps. Also, this is usually rated lifetime. LIke, 10,000 hours at 105C or something. The cooler they stay, the more life. The hotter, the faster they can die. Using high temp caps also means longer lasting in the same circuit.

I think this is very much in the scale of temperature we are talking about. Even low temp solder can’t melt until it reaches 360 degrees or so. So yeah, holding a soldering iron to the leads for a while can really damage a cap. I usually have my iron around 620-650 depending on how much metal has to heat up, BUT....

The time of exposure matters a lot. A quick hot iron can expos parts to less total thermal energy than a slow one, and therefore the internals of the cap will heat up less.

Anyway, this is all theory. :) The fact that the cap that failed was in fact exposed as I was worried about kind of explains it in my mind. :)

The cap is dead anyway. Try again and make sure you can solder fast. Lesson learned.

Best,

Erik


Side question: what do you guys recommend for a tweeter protection cap in an active system? Protection for DC on amp turn on, or eventual active crossover malfunction.

A good rule of thumb in an active system is the protection should be set two octaves below the tweeter crossover point. For my case, xo is 2000Hz so I'm looking at 500Hz. The calculations show the ideal cap for my tweeter and for 500Hz would be 65uF, which is large and expensive. Several of the top lines mentioned here don't even have caps this large.

Since it was only for protection I initially thought a less expensive cap would do. But the whole signal goes through it. What do you recommend?

thanks!

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?

About 2-3 days of continuous play.

You may be better taking this thread over to DIYAudio where you can post images like schematics and measurements.

Best,

ERik
Please let me know the components you are using. What caps and resistors etc.  This will help me better tell you what to expect and break in based on my experience with these various parts and brands.