Capacitor brands for Crossover recaps

jhouse55

jhouse55

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
Hi Guys,
Looking for capacitor brand experience. I have always read that the Nichicons are a good brand to go with, however I’m finding at both Digikey and Mouser, a few caps that I need are not available. So is it okay to go with the Vishay /Sprague brand to get the exact capacitance value or should I get a better brand and get two 1.5 and connect in parallel? My first set on the list is the baby Advents II which has a 3 uF 50 volt + - 20%




Thanks in advance
 
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Parts Express and PCX is where I buy 95% of the caps I use.
https://www.parts-express.com/cat/crossover-capacitors/292

https://www.partsconnexion.com/capacitors.html

I mostly use Metal Poly caps from;
Audyn
Dayton
Jantzen
Solen
Clarity Cap
If someone wants to get fancy by request or if I just want to experiment I’ll use;
Mundorf
Audiocap
Obbligato
There are many many more options.
You can use a .01 bypass cap on the tweeter for more sparkle, I use Vishays for that.
As far as the difference in sound for each capacitor brands, etc, thats kind of a rabbit hole and can be very subjective. There are also ESR differences of the original design using different caps, some say it’s bad. Others say ESR is an example of everything bad about a capacitor so use the best you can afford, I’m way to much of a novice to even go there.
If I am installing new caps in two pairs of Advents for stacking I may even buy 12 8uf MKP’s off of EBay to keep the price down, they have always tested very well and sounded, to me, much better than the 30+ year old Electrolytics from the factory.
Here is a comparison article on capacitors.
http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Cap.html
I’m in no way promoting or dismissing any of the information listed, I am in no way liable for anything I just posted, haha.
 
Justgotohm gave very good recommendations. The only other capacitor source I'd suggest is Madisound. A good variety there too.

Madisound

Match the capacitance as closely as possible. Also, you can use the same or a higher voltage. But, the higher the voltage, generally, the larger the capacitor. A larger cap can make for a tight fit. As to tolerance, the tighter the better. Modern capacitors can easily better the 20% range of your stock caps.
 
Although Nichicon makes some electrolytic speaker crossover caps, best to leave the electronics parts supply houses for getting electronics parts. Sure they have some parts that will work, but the specialty shops have the stuff you generally want for speaker work.
 
I have used Soniccraft and Madison for parts, been happy with them as the others. I really wish all of the suppliers were as easy to navigate as PE, that goes for drivers too. PE has a brilliant online business model, I’m not loyal to any supplier it’s just so easy to find what your looking for. I do my best to support our local advertisers here on AK.
 
Did you guys ever replace the small resistors as well when doing the crossovers, or just the caps? I’m under the impression those resistors hold their value over time better than caps would.
 
What justgotohm and f1nut said for brands have been good in my experience. Also you can concentrate your money on the high (tweeter caps) and midrange circuit. get less expensive for the woofer circuit.
 
Since it looks like the Baby ii speakers have a simple crossover circuit, a single capacitor is all that's needed. An Audyn, a Dayton 5% or 1%, or a Jantzen poly cap should be fine. Even a Parts Express NPE should be an improvement. Though, poly is better.

For more complex speaker recaps, especially with 3-way or 4-way speakers, I always recommend poly caps for the series capacitors and NPE's on the parallel caps. That puts the best caps on the high pass side of the crossover, which would affect sound quality the most. NPE's the the bass low pass is less audible, and saves a little money too.
 
StimpyWan, so just measure those ceramic looking resistor blocks and leave them if they check out fine? I was going down a path to replace them too.


StimpyWan said:
Since it looks like the Baby ii speakers have a simple crossover circuit, a single capacitor is all that's needed. An Audyn, a Dayton 5% or 1%, or a Jantzen poly cap should be fine. Even a Parts Express NPE should be an improvement. Though, poly is better.

For more complex speaker recaps, especially with 3-way or 4-way speakers, I always recommend poly caps for the series capacitors and NPE's on the parallel caps. That puts the best caps on the high pass side of the crossover, which would affect sound quality the most. NPE's the the bass low pass is less audible, and saves a little money too.
Click to expand...
 
jhouse55 said:
StimpyWan, so just measure those ceramic looking resistor blocks and leave them if they check out fine? I was going down a path to replace them too.
Click to expand...

Personally, I see no point in measuring old, used parts. If components have drifted out of spec, why measure and match it? So, I tend to replace both capacitors and resistors. I match their labeled value to any crossover schematics that I can find. If they match, I replace them with my capacitors of choice, and I use Mills for the resistors.
 
I consider the value of the speakers when restoring. Advent Baby II speakers are not that valuable. I have a pair of Advent Baby III speakers that I have invested more than they are worth. They are not bad speakers, just not worth keeping. In my market, either pair may bring $40, $50 if lucky, for restored speakers.

For my Advents, I used the inexpensive 3.3 uF Dayton films. The sound improved when replacing the electrolytics, even though the crossover freq was lowered slightly. Replacing the resistors is not even a consideration for such speakers. Adding up the cost of the speakers, new caps, and new foams, I will not break even when I sell them. The SQ is fair, but I have other speakers of about the same size that puts the Advents to shame. So using more expensive caps makes no sense. If they were fantastic speakers I would consider better caps. But, these Advents, . . .

If you want to use the better caps, do so on the better speakers.
 
I’m finding parts express is the only one that has the mills non inductive brand? I went with the Dayton audio grade resistors for baby IIs because they are cheap and I’m finding I can get exact ohm rating on one or the other (mills or Dayton’s). I agree @RTally about the investment and no return theory.

I’m finding a few of the resistors in a other vintage speakers I have are not available. Does it matter much on the resistors if I get a 5.6 ohm if the original 5.4 is not available? I know on the cap side it’s preferred to stay the same uF value, but didn’t know about the resister side. We are talking .2 difference so hope it’s not a big deal.
 
jhouse55 said:
I’m finding parts express is the only one that has the mills non inductive brand? I went with the Dayton audio grade resistors for baby IIs because they are cheap and I’m finding I can get exact ohm rating on one or the other (mills or Dayton’s). I agree @RTally about the investment and no return theory.

I’m finding a few of the resistors in a other vintage speakers I have are not available. Does it matter much on the resistors if I get a 5.6 ohm if the original 5.4 is not available? I know on the cap side it’s preferred to stay the same uF value, but didn’t know about the resister side. We are talking .2 difference so hope it’s not a big deal.
Click to expand...
You're good on both. +/- 10%-20% is normally fine. Go by the tolerance given on the original parts.
 
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