[JDTinNC]

I'm recapping a pair of 50 year-old Acoustic Research AR3a speakers. The crossover consists of Sprague Compulytics (50uF for midrange, and 150 uF for the woofer) Then there's an old rectangular wax 6uF for the tweeter circuits. Last year, for an AR9 recap, to keep costs down (nine caps in that crossover) I used, from Parts Express, Dayton Audio Polypropylene caps with bypass caps (Dayton Audio film and foil polypropylenes). I'm not particularly unhappy with the results, but there's always that audiophile "what if" disease.
Does anyone have experience using a possibly better-sounding bypass caps that matches well with the Dayton Audio caps? Who makes Dayton Audio Caps anyway?
Any other suggestions are very welcome.

[mkane]

 I won't matter

[EricB]

I’m curious about your AR9 project. Did you ever have to replace the surrounds on these well regarded speakers? How do you currently power them? I’ve heard they do well with a little more juice. And finally, did you have a noticeable positive  improvement with the capacitor replacement?
Eric

[Danny Richie]

The Dayton poly caps are a decent budget level cap, but there are a LOT of better sounding caps out there.

[Tyson]

I won't matter

Don’t be so hard on yourself!

[VinceT]

There are better budget caps out there: https://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Cap.html

I wouldn't go crazy with vintage speakers. But also keep in mind you need to give them time to break in as well to get the full effect. Chances are what you have in there is fine.

[JDTinNC]

I’m curious about your AR9 project. Did you ever have to replace the surrounds on these well regarded speakers? How do you currently power them? I’ve heard they do well with a little more juice. And finally, did you have a noticeable positive  improvement with the capacitor replacement?
Eric

About 20 years ago I replaced the surrounds on the woofers (two 12" in each speaker) and lower mid ranges.
I currently bi-amp them using upgraded Hafler DH220s that are conservatively rated ~120W into 8 ohm, the AR9s are 4 ohm.
For a while, I used a Crown amp rated at 600W into 4 ohms, and they really responded extremely well.
I did notice a positive improvement, especially in the upper ranges.

[JDTinNC]

The Dayton poly caps are a decent budget level cap, but there are a LOT of better sounding caps out there.

Yes, for sure.
The cost was the #1 factor, with each speaker crossover having a dozen caps, then adding bypass caps on top of that.
My thoughts are to use better-sounding caps (like Miflex KPCU-01) as bypass caps in the upper ranges, preferably doing this in a smart manner, instead of shot-gunning it.

[Dick Hertz]

As far as I know, Dayton caps are the same as Bennic. Performance-wise they're OK, but nothing great. I've has much better results with the red Audyn Q4 caps. They're just a few pennies more than the Daytons.

[SoCalWJS]

Had a buddy with the AR 3a's back in the early 80's. Sounded good. Of course, he was a vintage collector/restorer, so listening with McIntosh & Marantz tubes probably didn't hurt....