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Choosing new hf caps for tannoy 3134 drivers

Andy simmons

Andy simmons

Member
hi, I've got hold of some 3134 tannoy drivers (from tannoy cpa-12 pa speakers) and put the drivers in home built cabs and use them as hifi speakers at home.
I've read that it would help to upgrade the hf caps to audiophile caps.
I've never done it before but I'm an ok rookie at soldering so my question is...what would be a good cap to upgrade the crossovers with?
I've read somewhere at "clarity" are a good choice but which ones shall I go for? (I can't find the page that I read it from) And it might be a silly question but does it matter which way round it is soldered in?
Thanks
 
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hi, ive been researching caps for x-overs recently & there are countless brands out there, some way overpriced IMO & many in the middle range that are supposed to be very good & some say just as good as some "boutique" caps. you definitely want to use a poly cap compared to the standard cheap electrolytic caps. the most common & best priced poly caps are dayton brand or solen available at parts express & other places. the daytons get very good ratings for the most part & are probably 10x better than the original caps in most speakers. you want to get the same rating as whats being replaced to keep the original sound.

what i have decided on are probably going to be the dayton 1% rated caps or another company called ERSE has a "pulse x" line that is very good priced & supposed to be on par with some of the upper end mid level caps that cost 2-3 times as much. but there are caps that cost $50-$100 each & more... dont think you will need anything like that, depending on the value the smaller caps like 1.0uf-6.0uf should be a few dollars each. & im pretty sure most all caps have a + & - terminal, so look at how the originals are in there or get a schematic as it does matter which way they are installed.
 
As DefTechy stated, there are definitely a lot of replacement brands of capacitors out there, in all price ranges. Here are some of the main go-to sites, for parts.

https://www.parts-express.com/cat/crossover-capacitors/292

https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/capacitors/

http://www.soniccraft.com/index.php

http://www.erseaudio.com/Products/Capacitors

Parts Express has their in-house Dayton brand, plus Audyn, and Janzten, all of which get good reviews. Madisound has some really reasonably priced caps from Bennic, Carli, and a 10uf Madisound poly cap, that seems to be well liked, for only 0.60 cents each! Sonic Craft is the high-end cap store. But, you can get their Sonicap Gen 1, or the Mundorf MCap EVO Oil caps for 'reasonable' prices, starting at around $5 bucks and up. Finally, Erse Audio is a cap manufacturer, that sells their own brand. All seem to be well liked in the DIY community. But, ordering from Erse can be strange. Many parts seem to be out of stock, in their store, but if you call, they're available for order. Plus, I've heard stories of Erse being slow to respond to questions, being slow to ship orders, not receiving all parts ordered, or receiving substitutions for parts with no prior warning. Though, these issues seem to be infrequent, and since the parts are of very good and reasonably priced, most buyers feel that ordering from Erse is worth the potential hassle.

Hope this helps. And I'm in the same boat too. Trying to finalize a recap of my AR90s, and can't decide on which caps to use? But, anything should be better than the 35 year old NPE caps that are in the speaker now. :p
 
Thanks for all the site links.
Does anyone know the whole spec of cap I'd be looking for at all so I've got something to search with?
Sorry, I'm not being lazy and asking someone else to do the research for me. It's just I can't read schematics and I've tried looking it all up but not really found/picked out a spec of cap to search for.
I don't mind if it even comes to £30/£40 per cap, as long as I'm getting near enough the best then that's good enough.
Here's a pic of the cabs I've made if it's of interest...
 

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From an electronics perspective, there is no need to spend anywhere near that. If you have that kind of budget, bi-amp them and get a MiniDSP, and you won't need any passives at all.

Just my 2p :-)
 
I contacted a supplier and ended up getting 2
(SUP8-180) - 6.8uF 600V Mundorf MCap Supreme Capacitor's
The original cap is 4u but I read that some1 put a 6.8 in its place to make up for a dip in the top mid or lower treble (that I can relate to) so hopefully this should fill that gap plus give give an even better sound quality
I've attached pictures of the crossover below...
 

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They look like they already have decent film caps in there.

Polarity does not matter on crossover caps; they are not polarized and polarized caps cannot be used in a passive crossover.
 
I changed one of them today to compare to the original and I think it has made a difference. Didn't listen long so will to a proper listening check tomorrow
 
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