DYI upgrading B&W N805 to Diamond 805?

When I pulled the factory caps and resistors out of my N805 speakers, they matched exactly with the values from the manual.

Upgrading the caps and resistors in my 805N is a fantastic idea!   Relatively inexpensive and a good DIY project.  I do have some questions though...   The caps in the 805N are polypropylene.  When looking online at caps, I see there are also oil caps.  Can oil caps be used in place of the polypropylene?   Is there any advantage?   I also see caps with higher voltage ratings, say 600V, instead of 250V.  Are the higher rating caps a substitute for lower?  Any advantage?

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and ideas!

- Jed

You may also want to consider having someone upgrade the crossover parts for you (someone with experience, measurement equipment, and reputation).

Call Danny Richie @ gr-research.com. Yes, you could DIY it, and yes, you'd have to pay for shipping. However, you'll know they're done correctly, you'll have measurements to prove it, and when you go to sell them you'll be able to say, "Crossovers upgraded by Danny Richie @ GR-Research (work order and receipts included)" rather than "I hacked at the crossovers based on suggestions @ Audiogon to try to make them sound better."

The N805 were my first "high end" speaker and I have a soft-spot for them. I'd hate to see a set butchered. 

Good advice to get an upgrade done professionally. 

I would definitely upgrade the tweeter caps, and there's also a potential there to upgrade the N805 to "Signature" 805, which includes the higher spec aluminium dome tweeter.

So long as you have the right uF and don't go down in voltage ratings, replacing caps is pretty simple and safe and can be beneficial.

As I've mentioned, if you want to go with the B&W sound, stick with Mundorf and Mundorf SIO.  Look around on the Internet and you'll see that's what B&W is putting into their top speakers.

There's at least one pair of B&W speakers that were identical except for the tweeter cap. The high end used Mundorf, low end some generic.  I'm sorry I don't remember the exact models, but bookshelves.