[BikeFi10]

Ive read to ad nauseam about capacitors lately. Humble Homemade, forums, Utube etc. Narrowed the choice to Jantzen Supreme Z to replace a 10uf Axon on Magnepan 1.7i XO. Im considering using a .1uf Miflex KPCU-03 bypass for that "extra refinment" . Danny at GR Research claims it can "wow".
I lean toward the warmer side,  yet if I can squeak in a bit more detail all the better.

Has anyone tried bypass caps in tweeter xo and what was the outcome?  Is it worth an extra $65.00 for (2) in my case?

Also replacing the one 75uf electrolitic with Clairity CSA in a bank of 115.8uf caps in the same xo and eliminating ferro magnetic parts.

Thanks


 

[Tyson]

Janzen Superior Z is a very nice sounding cap.  Bypassing it with the Miflex makes it even better.

[Early B.]

My experience with bypass caps is the improvement is very subtle, but while you're under the hood, you may as well do it. Most audiophiles would gladly pay a meager $65 for a slightly better (or better than slightly better) sound.

[BikeFi10]

Good to know Tyson.
Good point Early B. Even a small improvement is an improvement. Alot of my tweaks have been baby steps. $65 extra in the big picture is peanuts. If I went  crazy with uber expensive caps Id expect a big return.
Thanks for comments!

[Hobbsmeerkat]

I've played with some bypass caps and I really like the Miflex caps, they add a little extra warmth/richness to the overall sound of the tweeter, but they will need ~400hrs before they settle.

Adding a high-quality polycap as a bypass typically only improves clarity, but there are some really tiny differences between brands/varieties, but it's maybe 1-2% here or there.
film & foil caps, like a Miflex, Duelund, or Jupiter tend to impart some of their tonal characteristics. Copper adds a little warmth/richness, silver adds clarity, but may come off as clinical/grainy. Tin tends to be more neutral, and aluminum is somewhere between tin and silver, depending on the application.

Oil-damped caps often need 400-500Hrs to fully burn in and may be a little "hard" or "flat" sounding at first depending on the cap/brand, but will relax and open up over time, some caps are also rather "dramatic" during burn-in, and can sound great one day and really rough/edgy the next, and the day after, the soundstage may seem flat as cardboard or deep as the ocean.

Also, the larger the bypass cap, the more influence it will have over the main cap.
For a tweeter circuit I generally recommend sticking to 0.1uF, but you can go slightly larger to 0.15uF or 0.22uF if you feel you're wanting more tonal influence, or down to 0.047uF or even 0.01uF if you want less.

[BikeFi10]

 Hobbs, Im honored to get a reply from a guy in the know like you Great info!
Hmm, maybe Ill go with a 0.15uf . I read 1% of the cap being bypassed was the rule of thumb. That sure seems close enough.
Yeah, my Odyssey amp took many hours to " burn in". Just ran a source through it 24/7 for a couple weeks so Ill probably do that for the new caps.
One question if you would, I dont fully understand the schematic for the 1.7i (please see attachement). Is the 10uf only affecting the Tweeter and not the Super Tweeter as per drawing and which driver does the 115.8uf bank affect?
Thanks!

Code: [Select]

[BikeFi10]

Well, the schmatic doesnt seem to be uploading.

[Hobbsmeerkat]

The 1% rule is mainly for the mid/bass circuit as you want to keep any phase shifting that would occur beyond the audible range of the driver.

With tweeters they're often not crossing over to another driver so you can get away with bypassing larger caps so long as the phase shifting occurs at or above the 20 Khz range. Hence keeping it below 0.22uF,  which keeps the phase shift above the audible range.

Magnepans speakers typically use series crossover networks which are rather unintuitive, and  essentially all of the components are often all tied together so if one part changes, the response of everything else also often changes accordingly. I've still not got a full grasp on series networks to understand how/why they work yet, but I vaguely understand some of the basics, but not enough to really explain it beyond all 3 drivers being tied together, and each component of the crossover being used for multiple purposes at the same time.

For instance the 115uF cap helps protects both tweeters, but is also part of a 2nd order filter for the bass circuit, so it technically affects all 3 drivers in some way or another.

[BikeFi10]

Maybe that explains posts about odd sounds or 2 different sounds at once if too big of a bypass cap used. I hope the Jantzen Superior Z and Miflex bypass pair well. The Jantzen is suppose to have a short burn in time.

So Magnepan has some trickery going on in their series xo? Im hopeing for improved clairity and a bit more  nonclinical detail in mids and highs. Be interesting if the Jantzen and or Clairitys help the low end too.
Im using a Rythmik sub cutover at 80hz, but a bit more bass from the panels would be welcome.
 
Thanks again!