[timind]

I want to replace one of the capacitors in my crossover and before ordering replacements I want to check something. The cap to be replaced is an electrolytic 36uf 100v. I want to replace it with a 36uf 250v metalized polypropyline cap. Am I correct in thinking the difference in the voltage rating won't matter? Also, will going from electrolytic to polypropyline be ok sonically.
The reason I'm upping the voltage rating is because I can't find the 36uf in a 100v rating. Thanks.

[paul79]

Upping the voltage is absolutely fine. Going from an electrolytic to a film in most cases, will be a good move. However, electrolytics have much higher ESR (series resistance) and this could have been a factor that was purposely built in to the original design.

[timind]

Thanks for your reply.
Here's a pic of the crossover. The purple cap is the electrolytic of course. Given what you said, I think I'll leave it unless I find an exact replacement.

[randytsuch]

Normally, I think speaker manufacturer's use lytics for large value caps because they're cheaper than film caps, and not because of ESR, but I could be wrong.

EDIT
BTW, the big white rectangle is probably a sand power resistor, and I would expect could also be replaced to something better.

[Speedskater]

Doing a design at a reasonable cost is part of good engineering skills. Using more expensive parts than are necessary is either marketing or lack of engineering skill.

[timind]

These pics are of the Meadowlark Audio Ketrel crossover BTW.
The square resistor is a 5 ohm 10w that I wasn't thinking of changing yet. Suppose it wouldn't hurt though.
My main reason for swapping the other resistor is, I want a little more high frequency energy. I'm going to change the resistor that's in line with the tweeter. It's a 6 ohm resistor which I happened to have two of them on hand so I stuck them in parallel and the highs were much more pronounced. A little too much actually so I'm going to try a 5 ohm resistor.
This idea came to me after getting a pair of Magnepan 1.6s and using the resistors in line with the tweeter to tame them. Why not go the other way with the Kestrels to get a bit more out of them. I've owned these Kestrels for a very long time and always felt they would be near perfect if they just had a tad more top end. We'll see.
Just for the heck of it, here's a pic of the Kestrel hot rod crossover where there is no resistor in line with the tweeter. There is an extra cap in there. I owned both of these speakers at the same time and didn't hear all that much difference between them.