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Soliloquy 5.3 Owner and Introduction

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chad

Soliloquy 5.3 Owner and Introduction
« on: 31 Jan 2020, 04:14 pm »
New to this site, but lengthy member of other, similar forums.  I'm a lifelong music enthusiast and part-time audiophile.

Recently took Soliloquy 5.3 speakers out of storage and moved aside the Wilson Sophia 2s.  Noticed a clear difference in tweeter response between channels.  Troubleshooting with mono recordings ruled out connections, room, electronics, etc.  Pretty sure I need to replace the speaker capacitors - they are now 20+ years old.

Opened up the speakers to find two crossovers, with all capacitors unmarked.  With Soliloquy out of business, and google searches producing little detail of the speaker innards, I was hoping to find some help here.

Replacing caps appears within my abilities, but not if I can't tell what to replace them with.

Does anyone know how this zero skill novice can determine the original cap specs?

Thanks!



 

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FullRangeMan

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Re: Soliloquy 5.3 Owner and Introduction
« Reply #1 on: 31 Jan 2020, 04:44 pm »
Welcome Chad :thumb:
The caps specs value and type are printed in the current caps.
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chad

Re: Soliloquy 5.3 Owner and Introduction
« Reply #2 on: 31 Jan 2020, 04:54 pm »
I was expecting them to be marked too, but they are not.  I did find an audiocircle post from many years ago indicating that a member had measured the original caps and was willing to share the results.  However, until I become a more integrated member, I remain unable to contact this person.   
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Wind Chaser

Re: Soliloquy 5.3 Owner and Introduction
« Reply #3 on: 31 Jan 2020, 05:04 pm »
Hey Chad,

Welcome to Audio Circle. If it were me, I’d talk to Danny at GR Research and follow his recommendations.  :D
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FullRangeMan

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Re: Soliloquy 5.3 Owner and Introduction
« Reply #4 on: 31 Jan 2020, 05:14 pm »
Well remembered, You may contact Danny at GR Research for this job.
https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=137288.0
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Dieterle Tool

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Re: Soliloquy 5.3 Owner and Introduction
« Reply #5 on: 31 Jan 2020, 05:26 pm »
Welcome Chad,

  I would keep posting by getting involved, maybe post in the forums where you can contribute. Then search the strings you need. Hopefully you can find some info on those Sililoquy's. They were outstanding speakers. GR Research is the next step if you can't get anywhere on your own.

 If you get it worked out, I am subscribing to read about the comparison with the Wilsons...

-Dieter
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Phil A

Re: Soliloquy 5.3 Owner and Introduction
« Reply #6 on: 31 Jan 2020, 05:29 pm »
Welcome!
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chad

Re: Soliloquy 5.3 Owner and Introduction
« Reply #7 on: 31 Jan 2020, 07:11 pm »
Thought I'd put up some photos to illustrate.



















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Chris Adams

Re: Soliloquy 5.3 Owner and Introduction
« Reply #8 on: 31 Jan 2020, 08:19 pm »
Welcome!

Those all look like film caps to me and while they could vary a little, are probably okay. The black numbers on the yellow ends looks like the actual measurement of each cap before they were installed. You could disconnect one end of a cap to take it out of circuit and measure the capacitance across it with a meter to see if it has fluctuated from the original. For instance, the cap that says 11.85 was probably a 12uF cap.

Good luck.
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chad

Re: Soliloquy 5.3 Owner and Introduction
« Reply #9 on: 31 Jan 2020, 08:39 pm »
Thank you, Chris Adams.  Are you saying that film caps do not typically wear out or go bad, or that they appear (by sight) to be in working order and I should be troubleshooting elsewhere?  Thanks.
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Chris Adams

Re: Soliloquy 5.3 Owner and Introduction
« Reply #10 on: 31 Jan 2020, 08:48 pm »
They don't typically go bad like electrolytic caps. Electrolytic caps have materials in them that can dry out and cause the cap specifications to change dramatically. 
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timind

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Re: Soliloquy 5.3 Owner and Introduction
« Reply #11 on: 31 Jan 2020, 09:55 pm »
I would do some basic continuity/resistance checks of the components and wiring in the tweeter circuit. Also, I would swap the tweeters to see if one of them is the problem. Good luck.
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nickd

Re: Soliloquy 5.3 Owner and Introduction
« Reply #12 on: 31 Jan 2020, 11:30 pm »
Betting you just have a bad tweeter. Those are early Poly caps. Not the best, but in line with the speaker quality.

Think they just used VIfa and ScanSpeak tweeters in the early models. Some of the early ones were designed  by Dennis Had of Cary Audio fame. PBN Audio also built some of the early models. Those look like the later product from North Carolina. Not sure if they were sourced off shore.
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chad

Re: Soliloquy 5.3 Owner and Introduction
« Reply #13 on: 1 Feb 2020, 01:01 am »
so, rather than go down the path of caps, i should consider that maybe the tweeters are going bad?  as suggested, i'll try switching the tweeters to see if the diminished output follows the tweeter, or remains with the speaker.
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chad

Re: Soliloquy 5.3 Owner and Introduction
« Reply #14 on: 2 Feb 2020, 05:14 pm »
Put the speaker back together without changing anything.  Set them up in listening room and tried several reference tracks to do some critical listening.  Still notice that one tweeter has slightly diminished output, even when playing in mono.  It does not seem as pronounced as before, so I may simply live with it and move on.  Is it possible that break in is again needed after prolonged storage?  Didn't try switching tweeters to further troubleshoot. The connections are soldered and I'm not great with an iron to return them to as found condition.  This was a fun experiment, but I'm returning the Wilson Sophias to their rightful place in the listening room.  My attention will now turn to subwoofers.
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FullRangeMan

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Re: Soliloquy 5.3 Owner and Introduction
« Reply #15 on: 2 Feb 2020, 09:19 pm »
You will have to remove them and test both for dB level.
« Last Edit: 2 Feb 2020, 11:22 pm by FullRangeMan »
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