[Red Dragon Audio]

Can these ELNA Cerafine Electrolytic Capacitors be used in speaker crossovers?

To get a value of 330uf I figure I should use a 220uf, 100uf and 10uf all in parallel correct?

How much better does it sound when you use one of those small .o1uf-.47uf paper-in-oil caps for bypassing the others?

Thanks

[StevenACNJ]

Can these ELNA Cerafine Electrolytic Capacitors be used in speaker crossovers?

To get a value of 330uf I figure I should use a 220uf, 100uf and 10uf all in parallel correct?

How much better does it sound when you use one of those small .o1uf-.47uf paper-in-oil caps for bypassing the others?

Thanks

I have not used the Elna Cerafine in a speaker crossover.

But id have used .1uf Mundorf Silver Supreme (from E-speakers.com) to by-pass Hovland caps in my crossover tweeter section with excellent results.

The new teflon V-Caps from VH Audio might be a goos choice too.

[Red Dragon Audio]

Thanks Steven for the input.

What kinds of changes did you hear when you put the bypass cap in your tweeter crossover?

[StevenACNJ]

Thanks Steven for the input.

What kinds of changes did you hear when you put the bypass cap in your tweeter crossover?

My speakers use the Scan Speak Revelator tweeters. These tweeters are very revealing. With the Mundorf Silver Supreme caps by passing the Hovlands the top end became very smooth and liquid sounding. Cymbals float, are very life like, and just have a very wonderful sound to them.

Here is a link to some cap testing in speaker crossovers:

http://home.hetnet.nl/~geenius/Cap.html

The teflon V-Caps from VH Audio were not out when I installed the Mundorfs. But if they were I would have experimented with them. I know that currently there is a lot of testing going on with these caps and they will start shoiwng up in a lot of high end mod work.

[Lost81]

My speakers use the Scan Speak Revelator tweeters...

Wow, those are very expensive tweeters.
The D2905/99 Revelator is the top-of-the-range tweeter from ScanSpeak.
 


-Lost81

[MikeC]

Can these ELNA Cerafine Electrolytic Capacitors be used in speaker crossovers?

Unless there is a bi-polar Cerafine I am not aware of, they are not suitable for speaker crossovers. The values will work out OK, but you need to find a bi-polar cap or parallel multiple film caps. If you are considering Mundorf Silvers as a bypass cap, then using multiple Solens paralleed as the primary filter element should not scare you.

Cheers

Mike

[jeffreybehr]

Heavy, the greater proportion of high-quality capacitance you can afford, the better your system will sound.

If I had a 330uF cap in series with the signal in one of my crossovers (and I'm glad I don't!), probably I'd build it with some affordable polypropylene-film caps for the vast majority of the capacitance and then use higher-quality caps as the sizes got smaller.  For instance, maybe I'd start with Solens in 200uF/400v ($49) and 120/400 ($33) (http://www.percyaudio.com/Catalog.pdf), and finish with North Creek's 10/225 Zen and 0.22 Harmony (http://www.northcreekmusic.com/Zen.html).

Is your 330uF cap in series with the signal?  Sure is a huge value if it is*.  If it's in parallel, I'd build the bulk of its value (maybe even 330uF) with some Black Gate nonpolar electrolytics (from Percy) and add some medium-quality (Solen, Axon, or Reliable) film caps.

The sounds of capacitors, resistors, and inductors are as varied as those of amplifiers and cable and maybe even speakers.  Unfortunately, we can't walk into an audio store and audition capacitors.

I'm upgrading 5 crossovers right now, 4 of which are in identical speakers, Kindel PLS-As.  I'm using premium-quality (and -price!) stuff in the front speakers v. otherwise indentical x-overs in surround duty, and I've chosen premium stuff for series applications v. less-expensive stuff for parallel use.

Don't forget that resistors and inductors have sound characteristcs of their own.  I ordered North Creek inductors for series use and Mills noninductive wirewound resistors (from Percy) for use everywhere.

Good luck.

BTW I have NO interest in either of these companies I've referenced; I'm just a cash-paying customer.


* For instance, if that's in series with an 8-ohm driver, the filter point is 60HZ!  (Formula is 159155/[8*330] = 60)