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Why Recap Speakers and When?

OK, I have had time to recap one of my Mission 70 MkIIs (1988 vintage). I replaced the Micro bi-polar 3.3 uF 50v caps with Solens bi-polar 3.3 uF 400v caps.

I did a sound test and I have to say that the caps were 100% OK before I started. There is absolutely no difference from new. So I would have to recommend that for the next few years at least, late vintage 70 MkIIs should not need this upgrade.

The one sound improvement there is, is to fix one small problem this model of speaker has had since new. Every pair I have owned have had this problem. There is a brief moment during very hard to play bassy passages that these speakers distort. It is approximately 10-15 jiffies (yes, jiffies are a measurement of time... 10-15 = approximately 1/6th - 3/12ths of a second... though jiffies differ in length depending on the frequency of your power supply) in duration during dramatic passages. The Solens have completely removed this tiny but significant distortion.

So if anyone else comes up with a pair, and is considering new caps, hold off for now, unless you want better than new performance.
 
Re-capping is done

Well, I finished re-capping the Wharfedale W-60E's and The Smaller Advents. I'll leave the RS-2001's as they are...for now.

I used the Dayton DMPC polypropylene caps. The W-60E's really came alive after capping. There wasn't as big an improvement in the Smaller Advents, but I just did them a few hours ago.

I considered the Solens..and maybe I should have spent the extra $19 for them, because of the improvement in the '60E's, but being retired and a bit tin eared, I thought that I wouldn't hear the difference :sigh:

Once I start using the RS-2001's more often, I'll do them. All told, I'm a happy camper :banana::yes:

Harvey/ Ga
 
I got the caps

...but are they appropriate? I have one pair each: Oil-filled 2.2 mF @ 50V and electrolytic 5 mF @ 150V(replacing 4.7 @ 50, is this appropriate?) I haven't heard of anyone using oil caps; I was told by my boss that they won't deteriorate, but how are they for sound? :scratch2:
 
YamahaFreak said:
...but are they appropriate? I have one pair each: Oil-filled 2.2 mF @ 50V and electrolytic 5 mF @ 150V(replacing 4.7 @ 50, is this appropriate?) I haven't heard of anyone using oil caps; I was told by my boss that they won't deteriorate, but how are they for sound? :scratch2:
Click to expand...

The 5uf for the 4.7uf should be OK...I had to do the same for my 8uf...got an 8.2uf. Sound is beautiful...made the W-60's sing like new :banana::banana:

Can't say whether the oil filleds would be a good replacement. I don't think that they were made for audio use. The internal resistance (reactance??) may be too different. GordonW is our resident speaker fixer/designer and may be able to shed more light on it for you.

It would be interesting to use them in one speaker and see how they sound.

Harvey/ Ga
 
hpm 100 cap suggestions

Hello everyboby What caps do you guys suggest for recapping pioneer hpm 100s? if possible would like to "warm" up the sound a bit .Thanks.Dave
 
After reading this and other threads regarding re-capping, I went ahead and recapped of the crossovers for my two sets of Speakerlab speakers: my 1978 .1s, the 1980 passive subwoofer, and a pair of S11s circa 1983. I used basic electrolytics from Parts Express in all of them, and also piggybacked some 0.01uF AudioCaps in the .1s. Wow - what a difference! I am hearing fingers plucking strings like never before, every breath that Nora Jones takes, and the vibes in Dave Gruisin's take on Thad Jones' A Child is Born just fill the room. Thanks to all of the AKers who have contributed their expertise and experience!
 
YamahaFreak said:
I might try that. :yes:
Click to expand...

Please do!! :yes:
I really didn't think that replacing the caps would do much good...and if I had at first recapped my Smaller Advents, that would have been the case...altho I _do_ hear a slight difference.

It was with the W-60E's that I heard a large improvement in sound. :banana:
Perhaps the English caps of the late 60's weren't as good as the American caps of '73 when my SA's were made.:scratch2:

Let me know how it works for you.

Harvey/ Ga
 
OK, I am about to jump into recapping my Polk Monitor 10Bs... I got the caps, and I have a couple of questions...

1. I have to "stack" (parallel) a couple of caps to meet the value required. Do I need to glue the caps together?

2. What is the reason putting glue in the first place? All the caps in the crossover are glued to the board and I figure there's got to be a reason for that.

3. If required, do I have to use a heat glue gun or will plain old silicon glue work?

Thanks in advance...
 
Jon S said:
OK, I am about to jump into recapping my Polk Monitor 10Bs... I got the caps, and I have a couple of questions...

1. I have to "stack" (parallel) a couple of caps to meet the value required. Do I need to glue the caps together?

2. What is the reason putting glue in the first place? All the caps in the crossover are glued to the board and I figure there's got to be a reason for that.

3. If required, do I have to use a heat glue gun or will plain old silicon glue work?

Thanks in advance...
Click to expand...
Hmm... this screen name is familiar. :scratch2: :D

You should glue caps to each other and/or to the board to prevent them from vibrating. You should see how much glue Tannoy used on some of their crossovers, you would think they owned a glue factory.

I use a cheapo glue gun, works great.
 
Those poor Polk crossovers. They take so much sonic abuse from the acoustic energy inside those enclosures used to drive the passive radiators, with a small amount of internal damping. I just finished a pair of 5Bs' crossovers with ClarityCap's, and with the size of the 34uf combo, I affixed them with plenty of hot glue, a very stable and tight mounting, and tight zip ties.
 
OK, I just completed recapping my Monitor 10Bs... First off, the imaging appears to be better focussed. Secondly, where did the bass go? There is absolutely no bass after the recap. Is this normal until I break the caps in? I have played about 20 hours on them so far and there does not seem to be any improvement.
 
Celt said:
Sounds like you may have the woofers or speaker system wired out of phase to one another.
Click to expand...

not possible... I did not remove the connections to the speakers from the crossover during the upgrade. The Polk's do not really have any woofers anyway. it uses a passive radiator.

also, weird anomaly... when I listen to James Taylor's "Gaia", 4:15 into the song there is a serious drum roll. the Polk's goes really down low on this track, rattling the room. on the contrary, listening to the soundtrack of "Titanic", track three, "Southampton" is loaded with a bass drum tempo that really belts out the bass, but on the Polk's, hardly anything comes out. Listening to the same tracks on a pair of Polk LSi15s, the bass is low on "Gaia" but kicks ass on "Southampton", opposite of the Polk 10s... Don't understand why.
 
Jon S said:
not possible... I did not remove the connections to the speakers from the crossover during the upgrade. The Polk's do not really have any woofers anyway. it uses a passive radiator.

also, weird anomaly... when I listen to James Taylor's "Gaia", 4:15 into the song there is a serious drum roll. the Polk's goes really down low on this track, rattling the room. on the contrary, listening to the soundtrack of "Titanic", track three, "Southampton" is loaded with a bass drum tempo that really belts out the bass, but on the Polk's, hardly anything comes out. Listening to the same tracks on a pair of Polk LSi15s, the bass is low on "Gaia" but kicks ass on "Southampton", opposite of the Polk 10s... Don't understand why.
Click to expand...

Maybe you installed some of the caps backwards? I'm not sure if that would affect the sound, or if the caps are even polarized models, but worth a check. :thmbsp: Also, you gotta have a woofer to make a passive move. The main driver in the 10's are the woofers in the 4's. ;)
 
Hi John S ... you have a serious problem and IMO it has nothing to do with so called 'break/burn-in'. If I were you, I'd make a drawing that shows everything you should have done. Then make a drawing that shows everything you did. Leave two days inbetween each task. Do not refer to the former while doing the latter. Somehow you have altered the circuit. Sometimes the brain does some curious things, and we keep seeing things the same way when we should be spotting the error. I have found this to be true in auto and bike mechanics as well.

Get your multi meter out and start tracing. I'd sure like to hear from you when you finally find out what has gone wrong. ... Lorne
 
Well I finished my recap Today the speakers sound great I can hear things coming fron my recever that I was never able TO Hear before,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ITs time for a new resever!!!!! this is no longer Acceptable!
 
I did some recapping this weekend.

Knocked out a pair of Sansui SP-50's, a single Technics SB-G500, and a single AR-2ax. (Remaining Technics and AR are for later this week)....

I've gotta say it really opened up the sound. Basically did a direct replacement of the old NPE's w/ Solens for the AR and Technics (though I had to jumper a perf board to hold the new caps for the Technics).

The Sansui's were a recent thrift rescue - cheated on those and used some Radio Shack NPE's w/ .1uF Dayton's as bypass. Seems to work pretty well.
 
YamahaFreak said:
Maybe you installed some of the caps backwards? I'm not sure if that would affect the sound, or if the caps are even polarized models, but worth a check. :thmbsp: Also, you gotta have a woofer to make a passive move. The main driver in the 10's are the woofers in the 4's. ;)
Click to expand...

the Jantzen crosscaps I bought were non-polarized...
 
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