I didn't think I would be able to tell, but I really could, much much clearer on the mid range and above - I'm amazed... thanks very much for the demo 🙂
I recently had my Royd Mistrels refurbished by a company called Anapeach. They used those Solen capacitors for replacement. On first listening, though better, the speakers did sound a little hard and mechanical but over a few weeks they really opened up remarkably. Absolutely beautiful sound now. Andrew at Anapeach said the Solens are like that - take a good many hours to settle down and reveal what they're capable of.
Anapeach are a great company Andrew has reconditioned 3 sets of my speakers 2 Martin USA sets & a pair of Harbeths. They all sound brand new now. Respect Andrew!
I can only confirm this with the capacitors. I bought a pair of Tannoy Stratford a few days ago. The first thing I did was to replace the ferrofluid in the tweeters. That was a huge difference, the tweeter range was immediately less harsh/aggressive than before. Next, I replaced the capacitor in line with the tweeter (2.2 microfarads from Philips) with a new one from Mundorf (comparable quality to your Solen). The capacitor has improved the overall sound of the speaker, making it much finer and more accurate. The difference is just as significant as in your video, although the old capacitor was also a high-quality film capacitor, just over 40 years old. However, a subsequent measurement of the old capacitor revealed a greatly increased dissipation factor of almost 10%. Film capacitors are therefore also subject to a certain amount of ageing, contrary to what is often claimed. For the Stratford owners among your viewers, I can only warmly recommend these procedures.
Me too. Didn;t need to touch hte ferrofluid. Both resistors had been heat damaged! so replaced those too. I used Clarity caps ESA and Jantzen super res resistor and replaced the cables too with cotton jacket. The difference is more than night and day. Turned them into a very decent and enjoyable speaker.
@@aitchr8770 In fact, that's exactly what I did. I have only written what I think are the most important points. I replaced the connection terminal with a better one of the same dimensions (for larger cross-sections, the Monacor ST-930 fits perfectly and up to 6mm² cable can be easily attached), replaced all the crossover components and the internal wiring. I also linearised the impedance of the entire loudspeaker so that it would work with my self-built tube amplifier without any problems. The impedance peak at the crossover frequency would otherwise lead to a massive boost in the mid-range. To do this, I connected an air-core coil with 0.33mH, a 13.3µF capacitor and a 13.3 Ohm resistor in series and then connected them in parallel to the terminals. Now this speaker sounds simply marvellous on my tube amp. It's really fun to listen to music with it.
the capacitor affects only the tweeter... the capacitor is not even on the woofer circuit... the woofer will play allways the same.... but because the tweeter now is so clean and not muddy, its not interfering with what the woofer is playing. so the bass now is sounding cleaner.. lets say a tweeter is suposed to play from 1000hz up... whan the cap is bad or starts to get old, the tweeter wil start play from 900hz... 850... 800... will interfere with the woofer..
Very clear difference (i closed my eyes in case I was imagining it) and it was in the bass!! The old capacitor sounds a bit fatter in the low frequencies, but generally a lot more woolly down there and the low frequencies seems to spill into the mids a fair bit too. The solen sounded much tighter, more controlled and consequently more space and separation in the mids, but I thought it was a bit lighter in the bass too. Ive done a few speaker recaps myself and they all seemed to tighten up the bass. It seems counter intuitive as I'm not sure the caps should effect bass at all but they clearly do. Would be interested to know if someone brighter than me could explain this? Good vid thanks and I'm glad it wasn't just my imagination!
Nice to hear you share my impression of the improved bass. Before I read your comment I had thought that maybe the repaired speaker cone had affected the bass after all, but your experience disproved that! Now I am eying my own Pioneer HPM 40ies wondering what a cap replacement will do. Those are poor on the mids so far...
Kelvin, show us some of your stained glass work one day please. I know not hifi related but you mentioned once that was your trade at one time. Regarding caps, I did it once in some Mission Model 70 and there was a slight improvement in the sound for sure. I could definitely hear the difference here.
Another part another sunday...we'll parts ..Love your delving into the "bang for buck" zone agian and indeed its amazing how the cross over network and components get over looked but then agian your the man to open peoples eye's ,and ears to really beneficial improvements For a little bit of time and dinero. We'll done mate, always looking forward to your experiances in this passionate subject. Thnxs as always.
I have to say at first I thought I probably can't hear the difference on my television here but as soon as you played it wow! That capacitor seems to clean things right up. I have some JBL l88 that would really benefit from what you did.
That’s what GR research Danny does videos and upgrade on almost every speakers that come to him. Parts do make a difference in sound. Thanks for the video
Solens are a great replacement for electrolytics and polyester (MKT) film caps in vintage speakers where a lot of modern polypropylene (MKP) caps can sound too bright and upset the balance of a speaker (although can work great at times). Generally I find most electrolytics measure a bit higher than spec from new, and in practice sound like they play a bit lower than the equivalent value film capacitor, so sometimes I find if replace with exactly the same value film cap, there is a bit of a hole in the frequency response where the tweeter is no longer playing low enough to meet the woofer. As a rule of thumb I add 10% to the value, or go up to the next value if swapping an electrolytic for a film cap. There is no real substitute for before and after and A/B listening in the end. If Solens seem a bit pricey for a project, give Siemens EPCOS MKT blue block film capacitors a try for a fraction of the cost and much the same effect.
That's good advice. Some speakers just aren't suited to polypropylene caps, or require a mix of both for balance. And I also use those blue Epcos MKT caps. Tried loads of caps over the years and settled on those in my diy preamps. They can't be beat for the price.
This has been my experience as well. I'd already replaced the original elcaps with new electrolytics, but then moved to Solens. I had thought the tweeter output with the Solens cap might become raised & I had resistors at the ready but they weren't needed. Now less 'shouty' in the upper mids, smoother all round with more clarity & detail. In a pair of Kef Concord iii's from the late 70's. All the best!
Retired myself from DIY speaker building and tweaking a few years ago, but couple of quick thoughts on this presentation: 1) your preamble preloaded the audience with expectation bias; 2) it has long been my experience that while mono test is quite sufficient at demonstrating even minor timbral differences between drivers & different enclosure types with the same drivers, one the biggest improvements that higher quality XO components or enclosure enhancements (construction materials/ bracing schemes / resonance & edge diffraction control etc) can make are the areas of soundstage immersion, depth, and image specificity that are best experienced in stereo mode. Of course, that means starting with two pairs of erstwhile identical speakers and going from there - something I had done several times before determining my own preference. Some of these differences can be fairly easily identified by certain types of measurements, others less so.
Enjoyed the video. Not related to speakers but I resurrected a non-working HH Scott 299D tube integrated and replaced all the caps with Solens to get it operational. I’ve never had an amp have that much kick clarity and thump. Usually there’s clarity in the mids with the other HH Scott amps I’ve restored. Using Klipsch speakers.
These are Monitor Audio R252 speakers, which had very simple crossovers with a series cap in the tweeter (plus a parallel air-cored inductor), and a single series iron-core inductor in the bass/mid circuit. The bipolar electrolytic you've replaced is still in spec at 3.5uF (tolerance was +/- 10% on 3.3 uF), but the source of the audible difference resulting from replacing it with the film cap is most likely down to lower ESR (equivalent series resistance) - which, even when new, would have been appreciable on the original Alcap and will be much lower on the film cap. The reduced ESR will alter the balance by bringing up the tweeter level slightly - and it's that which probably explains the subjectively 'tighter' bass and mids as well - because the leading edge of all notes (even bass notes) is a high-frequency Fourier component or 'transient'. So, improving the treble also improves (subjectively) the bass!
Heard a clear difference even on a LG Soundbar … vocals sounded pretty similar but upper frequencies and as you say mid and lower base sounded cleaner and more controlled … Goid job ! 👍
You can hear the difference over the network! In room would be quite noticeable. I just recapped a pair 1966 Saba LT12’s. They were nice but the caps are almost 60 years old. So I Replaced with Mallory capacitors, wow one of the most detailed and Imaging speakers!
I did Caps and Resistors on a pair of 80's B&W CDM1's. The new parts made the unmodded speaker sound broken! Well worth the $60 Canadian i spent on the parts. At the time the speakers cost me $1400, so really a great upgrade.
I have always played around with new components in old speakers, some speaker boxes is not realy worth it tho, start with the "best" box/speaker you like👍 thanks for showing a light to upgrades like this, most kan make their speakers better this way instead of buying New ones🎉
Sometimes it works out great. Made my small Radio Shack/RCA sound more dynamitic. Love them! I heard liked the upgraded sound better. Slight edge on the edges. Nice video and subject!
Hello folks: this was just a one part mod. Just to show/listen demo. Now swap the coil for a Solen thicker gauge vs what you have now. 1.2 - 1.8 hm. Air core. It’s best to do one part swap at a time. For you can hear to learn the outcome. If you change everything at once you’ll never know what did what. Upgrade your wiring from amp to speaker remember to replace wire inside too. Then new boxes now you’re D.I.Y. Speaker builder.
there is a clear difference, bit more clarity but at the expense of bass. I think I'd stick with the original, but then I grew up hearing songs like that!
low end on the repaired one was slightly fuller - possibly due to the repair weight ? top end a duller but smoother the Solen was clearer and tighter , but a little grainy
Yeah it sounds a bit more fuller in the low mids only on the second tune. its probably the ESR is lower on the poly cap would be and a old electrolytic won't be you didn't check the ESR on the electrolytic
Through wired headphones I can totally hear a big difference. There is much greater separation between low and high frequencies on the recapped speaker to my ears.
Sounds like going from An mm to an mc cartridge, more refined treble and more homogenous between the two drivers. Just sounds more unforced with the new cap.
From my phone to my Sony Bluetooth earbuds - the original definitely sounds muffled compared to the Solen, so a significant improvement. It may be that an equivalent new capacitor to the original could give some of this improvement as it would not be aged. Having said that - at 3.5 rather than the nominal 3.3 microfarads the original is probably still in spec as +/- 20% would likely be typical of components at that price range and age.
There was difference for the better, but Solen also has two steps up to a silver metalized cap, and some of the other manufacturers copper caps are relatively affordable, and get good reviews.
What I find interesting is that one can hear the difference despite the use of a basic iPhone microphone, UA-cam streaming and non-audiophile computer speakers (iMac). In the room it must be quite startling.
The repair done on left speaker add weight to the cone which lower the speaker free air resonnance. But the high frequency of the right speaker is way better. Solen makes very good caps. The 250 Volts are good, but the 600 volts sounds better.
Yep, that's the sound of an Electrolytic, they are shocking. A Solen cap against a cheap Electrolytic was always going to be very very noticeable. As a DIY'er myself, I've done Solen vs a cheaper Polypropylene and there was still a clear difference. And both of them were miles better than an Electrolytic. You might be finding the bass more impressive simply because there's a lot less 'harshness, ringing and smearing' coming out of the tweeter? IMO Electrolytic s have no place in a crossover especially in the signal path. Great Video Kelvin, as always.
Kelvin, I could hear something changed. Funny I have bought some "audio grade caps" (apparently) for my speakers I need to get on and do the change. I also bought decent quality wire wound resistors.
Yes, you have to attenuate the tweeter ( in this case ) when you install a more precise cap. - unless you do need an extra push in the high freq....., but use some HQ resistors, otherwise - not much good is done
When I close my eyes, I can instantly tell that the original crossover capacitor makes that speaker sound muffled, or muddy. Of course this could be due to the original cap being dried up and not really doing it's job anymore.
I can hear the difference with the second track. The original sound more open and clear. The upgraded loudspeaker sound a bit more horn like. It's a matter of taste
The image of the Alcaps sounded more flat in the mid and high's . Do no't forget that you are effectively re-mixing sound in a crossover. Adding top end definitely sparkles up everything below.It's the upper-harmonic content of the lower regions that is getting more accentuated. I have heard the weirdest things happen while mixing sound. Add treble to one channel , suddenly another or more channels have more brightness. Strange, but I get it now.
Kelvin did a video a whole ago on Mordaunt short MS400, I have a pair I picked up for £50 on ebay , they are great but maybe a little large for some. Quality speaker for very little money , Currently they are between £40 and £225 on ebay , they occasionally come up on FB marketplace as well.
For perhaps the first time on UA-cam I CAN hear a difference! Very noticeable (and I had my eyes closed). You didn’t mention what type of capacitor was original, or its replacement. Were they both electrolytic, or Mylar, or . . ..
The crossover component was replaced with a Solen metallized polypropylene film capacitor. The original component was an ALCAP bi-polar electrolytic capacitor.
The working life of an electrolytic capacitor is typically around 1,000 to 10,000 hours. Note this is the worst-case performance and relates to the operating AC Ripple Current and the associated shelf-heating due to the ESR (effective series resistance) of the capacitor. So, just replacing the electrolytic capacitors with equivalent components will help rejuvenate you speakers. However, for a performance upgrade you should swap the capacitor to a polypropylene type. This dielectric material has a low dissipation factor (ratio of ESR to capacitive reactance) and will reduce the undesirable phase displacements of the audio signal.
Nothing but respect for you and your information, but unless you do a test like this on a blind basis, you can’t be sure of what you’re really hearing. When I close my eyes I can’t pick out the spots where you are switching. Eyes open I do hear something- but is it real? I also suspect there may be a slight DB difference between the two speakers given the differing caps, which would need to be accounted for. Nonetheless, for £5, I’m sure no harm is being done.
you rather manipulate the songs using plugins in daw. but as a guitar player, capacitor should be with a knob to dial. in your test the new capacitor has more treble. when comparing apples to apples both must be measured to have same value of capacitance. personally at guitars i find the .047 of gibson goes excessively low dark, and the ibanez jem .022 is acceptable, but still too low for the neck pickup. if i built a guitar i would use even a smaller value, at least half 0.011 or so. i plan to swap the value capacitors of the 3 band EQ of my mixer interface for same reason of going too dark. if i replace the bass and the treble for 3 mids instead it would be more precise drawing new mids eq curve, as if i did a zoom with a magnifier with the control of a surgeon, otherwise the slightest twist of knob at regular value it does too noticiable change so different that is not worth using the eq. for speakers i would rather make mechanical eq, if i want to get rid of treble, use a rag over the driver. if i want less bass, fill the box with activated carbon or get rid of the front pannel by holding drivers by the magnets. i am currently making a speaker box with 3 squares as sides and 2 equilateral triangles as top and botton, in delrin 3 milimeters. i am considering the guitar knob option, and also switches to turn on and off individually every couple drivers. the type of capacitor doesn't matter, the value does, although i love a certain pre war capacitor. i should go to the electronics shops ( in barcelona at sepulveda) and buy every number value ever of capacitor. then and only then we could tell which value sounds better. but at the end of the day we adapt and feel no difference.i mean, using half the value of a capacitor is like you get now the precission of the complete turn the ten numbers of turn of the knob is equivalent to the 5 to 10 you used to have when using the capacitor of double value. hence it is like a zoom in the scale to dial better the eq with more accuracy from mids to highs because we get rid of the lows in the equation, because when choosing lower capacitor number it is just to tame to roll of the treble and bring back to live the mids where speaker colour makes a difference.
Tone capacitors are only engaged when using the tone potentiometer controls on your guitar ; and when you 'roll off' one of those tone controls. I eliminate them altogether in a guitar circuit most of the time. And yes, paper in oil tone capacitors (to my ear) make a difference so the type does matter. Why would gibson bumblebee caps go for so much $$ if they did not have any tonal significance. You are just parroting what you've been told, do your own side by side tonal comparisons.
@ip2networkz81 you rather use a mixer between your amp and your sound souce, so you can add effects in the send return loop in example a equalizer if you want analogue, or plugins on computer which is a must since 2010. i am inventor not a copycat.
@ip2networkz81 and by the way the guitar i played 30 years is a thing of the past. i embraced kontakt virtual instruments because the timbre variety is scientifically more musical. audiophiles are obsolete, you want to have a mixing mastering computer, and manipulate the source, the song itself. i have attatched a korg kaoss pad 3 to this very video i can play touching the touchpad applying effects on the fly, it is more enjoyable than passive listening.
@ip2networkz81 bumblebee capacitors were a zcam, people dissassembled and found inside a very cheap normal capacitor. yes, some are microphonic, and that's good, this hppens also to pickups. but the nuances are irrelevant compared to the two thousand softwares of rich variety of virtual instruments, and their infinite combinations. guitar sounds only like a guitar. i do love a telefunken mica pre war capacitor but because IT LOOKS BEAUTIFUL. only the value matters. if using a gigantic capacitor then the energy is stored like a battery for 10 seconds to discharge. but why not using a knob at speakers? why using a fixed value capacitor? do you actually use daw with plugins on a daily basis? i don't know your background, but you either have home music studio or you are obsolete.
@ip2networkz81 btw if you wabt pure sound of guitar, hold the pickups with shockmount instead of solid transmission, use a lehle split, a lehle dc filter , and in the electronics one pole goes to ground shielding but the other ( secret) goes to antenna and the noise is reduced. i also DISCOVERED AS INVENTOR that acoustic guitar piezo before tge jack, one pole soldered to a big nut, and it reduces the treble hissing because the donut shape is good antenna because infinite loop and also acts as ground. i invented so many things on guitar i can keep writting on and on. i did my own true temperament frets but on scalloped but without symmetry but deeper near the fret. i came up with the idea for resonators with 24 reachable frets by placing tge bridge where the hole at spanish guitars are, then smaller ( banjo) plate and the neck is longer but keeping same scale length so the fretboard part that is at the body is fretless at that point.
It's quite clear that the film capacitor ruined the otherwise perfectly balanced sound. The 2nd track played has quite audible coloration to the female voice. my opinion would be, do not replace electrolytic with film caps, nor the other way around. There are a lot more properties than mere capacitance at the play for a capacitor in a crossover network, and they matter just as much.
I do hear a difference to be fair, however, you are comparing two different speakers - no two units will sound exactly the same especially when you take into to account ageing. The unit running the 'original' capacitor also has the repaired bass driver, that would surely affect it's bass sound signature compared to the original? I would think a better way would be to do the same experiment using only one speaker wired with a switch so that you can select between the two capacitor types live.
The original sounds hollow, literally like the value of the tweeter cap has drifted and forcing the tweeter to play too low. It could also be the quality of the caps. Did you measure the original cap at all to see how much out of value it was? If it was within range then thats all on the quality 👌🏻
Recapped many speakers and amps , more than 30 , yes Solen are a great value hard to beat , ,, Do find Polycarbonate Film and oil to be next level , shop around for NOS , they can still be gotten for a reasonable price .
thats surprising, I didn't expect to heear a difference over youtube but it was clear(er) cool. I hope that isn't something horrid happening on you hand?
I didn't think I would be able to tell, but I really could, much much clearer on the mid range and above - I'm amazed... thanks very much for the demo 🙂
Clear difference for the better. Well done.
I recently had my Royd Mistrels refurbished by a company called Anapeach. They used those Solen capacitors for replacement. On first listening, though better, the speakers did sound a little hard and mechanical but over a few weeks they really opened up remarkably. Absolutely beautiful sound now.
Andrew at Anapeach said the Solens are like that - take a good many hours to settle down and reveal what they're capable of.
Anapeach are a great company Andrew has reconditioned 3 sets of my speakers 2 Martin USA sets & a pair of Harbeths. They all sound brand new now. Respect Andrew!
The new cap was quite a bit better. Clearer and more open. It was quite obvious on both songs. Interesting stuff Kelvin, I love a tweak.
Definitely an improvement. The original cap sounds veiled by comparison, greater clarity with the new cap for sure.
I can only confirm this with the capacitors.
I bought a pair of Tannoy Stratford a few days ago. The first thing I did was to replace the ferrofluid in the tweeters. That was a huge difference, the tweeter range was immediately less harsh/aggressive than before. Next, I replaced the capacitor in line with the tweeter (2.2 microfarads from Philips) with a new one from Mundorf (comparable quality to your Solen). The capacitor has improved the overall sound of the speaker, making it much finer and more accurate. The difference is just as significant as in your video, although the old capacitor was also a high-quality film capacitor, just over 40 years old.
However, a subsequent measurement of the old capacitor revealed a greatly increased dissipation factor of almost 10%. Film capacitors are therefore also subject to a certain amount of ageing, contrary to what is often claimed.
For the Stratford owners among your viewers, I can only warmly recommend these procedures.
Me too. Didn;t need to touch hte ferrofluid. Both resistors had been heat damaged! so replaced those too. I used Clarity caps ESA and Jantzen super res resistor and replaced the cables too with cotton jacket. The difference is more than night and day. Turned them into a very decent and enjoyable speaker.
@@aitchr8770
In fact, that's exactly what I did. I have only written what I think are the most important points.
I replaced the connection terminal with a better one of the same dimensions (for larger cross-sections, the Monacor ST-930 fits perfectly and up to 6mm² cable can be easily attached), replaced all the crossover components and the internal wiring. I also linearised the impedance of the entire loudspeaker so that it would work with my self-built tube amplifier without any problems.
The impedance peak at the crossover frequency would otherwise lead to a massive boost in the mid-range.
To do this, I connected an air-core coil with 0.33mH, a 13.3µF capacitor and a 13.3 Ohm resistor in series and then connected them in parallel to the terminals.
Now this speaker sounds simply marvellous on my tube amp. It's really fun to listen to music with it.
the capacitor affects only the tweeter... the capacitor is not even on the woofer circuit... the woofer will play allways the same....
but because the tweeter now is so clean and not muddy, its not interfering with what the woofer is playing. so the bass now is sounding cleaner..
lets say a tweeter is suposed to play from 1000hz up... whan the cap is bad or starts to get old, the tweeter wil start play from 900hz... 850... 800... will interfere with the woofer..
I did hear the difference......10% cleared. Fair Test well done
Very clear difference (i closed my eyes in case I was imagining it) and it was in the bass!! The old capacitor sounds a bit fatter in the low frequencies, but generally a lot more woolly down there and the low frequencies seems to spill into the mids a fair bit too. The solen sounded much tighter, more controlled and consequently more space and separation in the mids, but I thought it was a bit lighter in the bass too. Ive done a few speaker recaps myself and they all seemed to tighten up the bass. It seems counter intuitive as I'm not sure the caps should effect bass at all but they clearly do. Would be interested to know if someone brighter than me could explain this? Good vid thanks and I'm glad it wasn't just my imagination!
Nice to hear you share my impression of the improved bass. Before I read your comment I had thought that maybe the repaired speaker cone had affected the bass after all, but your experience disproved that! Now I am eying my own Pioneer HPM 40ies wondering what a cap replacement will do. Those are poor on the mids so far...
Kelvin, show us some of your stained glass work one day please. I know not hifi related but you mentioned once that was your trade at one time.
Regarding caps, I did it once in some Mission Model 70 and there was a slight improvement in the sound for sure.
I could definitely hear the difference here.
That comparison worked really well. Always nice to hear something rather than looking at a graph.
Stark and clear difference for the better.
Another part another sunday...we'll parts ..Love your delving into the "bang for buck" zone agian and indeed its amazing how the cross over network and components get over looked but then agian your the man to open peoples eye's ,and ears to really beneficial improvements
For a little bit of time and dinero.
We'll done mate, always looking forward to your experiances in this passionate subject.
Thnxs as always.
I have to say at first I thought I probably can't hear the difference on my television here but as soon as you played it wow! That capacitor seems to clean things right up. I have some JBL l88 that would really benefit from what you did.
Amazing that you can so clearly hear the difference after down sampling, iphone mic, and on my iPhone speakers. Crazy!
That’s what GR research Danny does videos and upgrade on almost every speakers that come to him. Parts do make a difference in sound. Thanks for the video
Solens are a great replacement for electrolytics and polyester (MKT) film caps in vintage speakers where a lot of modern polypropylene (MKP) caps can sound too bright and upset the balance of a speaker (although can work great at times). Generally I find most electrolytics measure a bit higher than spec from new, and in practice sound like they play a bit lower than the equivalent value film capacitor, so sometimes I find if replace with exactly the same value film cap, there is a bit of a hole in the frequency response where the tweeter is no longer playing low enough to meet the woofer. As a rule of thumb I add 10% to the value, or go up to the next value if swapping an electrolytic for a film cap. There is no real substitute for before and after and A/B listening in the end. If Solens seem a bit pricey for a project, give Siemens EPCOS MKT blue block film capacitors a try for a fraction of the cost and much the same effect.
That's good advice. Some speakers just aren't suited to polypropylene caps, or require a mix of both for balance. And I also use those blue Epcos MKT caps. Tried loads of caps over the years and settled on those in my diy preamps. They can't be beat for the price.
This has been my experience as well. I'd already replaced the original elcaps with new electrolytics, but then moved to Solens. I had thought the tweeter output with the Solens cap might become raised & I had resistors at the ready but they weren't needed. Now less 'shouty' in the upper mids, smoother all round with more clarity & detail. In a pair of Kef Concord iii's from the late 70's. All the best!
At last a man with Concord lll 's well played sir.
Thanks for the test Kelvin. I can hear a clear difference in the second song (less edginess/sibilance/stridency with the Solen cap) .
It's nice to see, you doing upgrades, better parts = better sound, even on cheaper gear, another great video👍
Great video of a very audible improvement in clarity. Thank you, Kelvin.
Retired myself from DIY speaker building and tweaking a few years ago, but couple of quick thoughts on this presentation:
1) your preamble preloaded the audience with expectation bias;
2) it has long been my experience that while mono test is quite sufficient at demonstrating even minor timbral differences between drivers & different enclosure types with the same drivers, one the biggest improvements that higher quality XO components or enclosure enhancements (construction materials/ bracing schemes / resonance & edge diffraction control etc) can make are the areas of soundstage immersion, depth, and image specificity that are best experienced in stereo mode. Of course, that means starting with two pairs of erstwhile identical speakers and going from there - something I had done several times before determining my own preference. Some of these differences can be fairly easily identified by certain types of measurements, others less so.
Enjoyed the video. Not related to speakers but I resurrected a non-working HH Scott 299D tube integrated and replaced all the caps with Solens to get it operational. I’ve never had an amp have that much kick clarity and thump. Usually there’s clarity in the mids with the other HH Scott amps I’ve restored. Using Klipsch speakers.
These are Monitor Audio R252 speakers, which had very simple crossovers with a series cap in the tweeter (plus a parallel air-cored inductor), and a single series iron-core inductor in the bass/mid circuit. The bipolar electrolytic you've replaced is still in spec at 3.5uF (tolerance was +/- 10% on 3.3 uF), but the source of the audible difference resulting from replacing it with the film cap is most likely down to lower ESR (equivalent series resistance) - which, even when new, would have been appreciable on the original Alcap and will be much lower on the film cap. The reduced ESR will alter the balance by bringing up the tweeter level slightly - and it's that which probably explains the subjectively 'tighter' bass and mids as well - because the leading edge of all notes (even bass notes) is a high-frequency Fourier component or 'transient'. So, improving the treble also improves (subjectively) the bass!
Heard a clear difference even on a LG Soundbar … vocals sounded pretty similar but upper frequencies and as you say mid and lower base sounded cleaner and more controlled … Goid job ! 👍
You can hear the difference over the network! In room would be quite noticeable. I just recapped a pair 1966 Saba LT12’s. They were nice but the caps are almost 60 years old. So I Replaced with Mallory capacitors, wow one of the most detailed and Imaging speakers!
You can definitely here the difference on the telly. Brighter, sharper, more interesting.
I did Caps and Resistors on a pair of 80's B&W CDM1's. The new parts made the unmodded speaker sound broken! Well worth the $60 Canadian i spent on the parts. At the time the speakers cost me $1400, so really a great upgrade.
The Solen came over loud & clear on my Huawei P30. Night & Day!
I have always played around with new components in old speakers, some speaker boxes is not realy worth it tho, start with the "best" box/speaker you like👍 thanks for showing a light to upgrades like this, most kan make their speakers better this way instead of buying New ones🎉
Sometimes it works out great. Made my small Radio Shack/RCA sound more dynamitic. Love them! I heard liked the upgraded sound better. Slight edge on the edges. Nice video and subject!
Your t-shirt makes the real difference! Portugal 🌱
Solens more dynamic with better clarity. Money well spent.
I definitely hear a difference. The highs are clearer. I hear a difference in the clarity on the low end.
Solen sounds clear and clean, although tinny to me. Very much heavy top end.
Exactly as you said in your summary. 100%
The new cap makes a sound consistent and not divided into few frequency ranges. It’s like a multi-bit vs d/s dac sound (sort of).
Amazing difference kelvin
I have to agree with you, the modified unit is not so over blown. Cheers.
Hello folks: this was just a one part mod. Just to show/listen demo.
Now swap the coil for a Solen thicker gauge vs what you have now. 1.2 - 1.8 hm. Air core.
It’s best to do one part swap at a time. For you can hear to learn the outcome. If you change everything at once you’ll never know what did what.
Upgrade your wiring from amp to speaker remember to replace wire inside too.
Then new boxes now you’re D.I.Y. Speaker builder.
you can tell the difference a bit more clarity and tighter bass response thank you for that kelvin 😁
there is a clear difference, bit more clarity but at the expense of bass. I think I'd stick with the original, but then I grew up hearing songs like that!
Better to use the same type of caps the speakers were originally voiced with IMHO. Better to try original Alcap, New Alcap, Film cap?
I played back on LS3/5 and I agree, the Solen does have a sharper or more focused hi-end. The music is absolutely rubbish though.
low end on the repaired one was slightly fuller - possibly due to the repair weight ?
top end a duller but smoother
the Solen was clearer and tighter , but a little grainy
The new cap definitely made it more open and cleaner.
Great test, can hear the difference, need to replace the 30 year old electrolytic capacitors in a pair of JPW Sonatas I have.
Yeah it sounds a bit more fuller in the low mids only on the second tune. its probably the ESR is lower on the poly cap would be and a old electrolytic won't be you didn't check the ESR on the electrolytic
Much more detail with the new cap 👍
Through wired headphones I can totally hear a big difference. There is much greater separation between low and high frequencies on the recapped speaker to my ears.
Sounds like going from
An mm to an mc cartridge, more refined treble and more homogenous between the two drivers. Just sounds more unforced with the new cap.
The bass is definitely tighter on the re-capped speaker. Midrange also is better.
Solen, base less muddy treble less tizz. Good upgrade..
Quite subtle but I could hear a difference, mid range seems more articulate( hope that doesn't sound to posh).
From my phone to my Sony Bluetooth earbuds - the original definitely sounds muffled compared to the Solen, so a significant improvement.
It may be that an equivalent new capacitor to the original could give some of this improvement as it would not be aged. Having said that - at 3.5 rather than the nominal 3.3 microfarads the original is probably still in spec as +/- 20% would likely be typical of components at that price range and age.
There was difference for the better, but Solen also has two steps up to a silver metalized cap, and some of the other manufacturers copper caps are relatively affordable, and get good reviews.
What I find interesting is that one can hear the difference despite the use of a basic iPhone microphone, UA-cam streaming and non-audiophile computer speakers (iMac). In the room it must be quite startling.
Nice shirt, Kelvin!
Greetings from Lisbon.
The repair done on left speaker add weight to the cone which lower the speaker free air resonnance. But the high frequency of the right speaker is way better. Solen makes very good caps. The 250 Volts are good, but the 600 volts sounds better.
Yep, that's the sound of an Electrolytic, they are shocking.
A Solen cap against a cheap Electrolytic was always going to be very very noticeable. As a DIY'er myself, I've done Solen vs a cheaper Polypropylene and there was still a clear difference. And both of them were miles better than an Electrolytic.
You might be finding the bass more impressive simply because there's a lot less 'harshness, ringing and smearing' coming out of the tweeter?
IMO Electrolytic s have no place in a crossover especially in the signal path.
Great Video Kelvin, as always.
Would the sound change, if the speakers were properly sunk into the cabinet and the excess edges disappeared?
Like your t-shirt! Viva Portugal!
Kelvin, I could hear something changed. Funny I have bought some "audio grade caps" (apparently) for my speakers I need to get on and do the change. I also bought decent quality wire wound resistors.
yes - i could hear a difference !!
through my laptop speakers the difference wasn't stark -- the new cap maybe a bit more air
huge difference in the two . far better with the new capacitor
Yes, you have to attenuate the tweeter ( in this case ) when you install a more precise cap. - unless you do need an extra push in the high freq....., but use some HQ resistors, otherwise - not much good is done
BRILLIANT 🌞 KELVIN 💚💚💚
Little more clarity and better transients but not crazy but definitely better
Is the cap in question the tweeter's series cap or what?
fyi, turn off "stable volume" in the youtube settings. it's a volume nomalizer that's not good when doing critical listening.
Big difference, better clarity worth changing them old caps.
When I close my eyes, I can instantly tell that the original crossover capacitor makes that speaker sound muffled, or muddy. Of course this could be due to the original cap being dried up and not really doing it's job anymore.
I can hear the difference with the second track. The original sound more open and clear. The upgraded loudspeaker sound a bit more horn like. It's a matter of taste
Big difference indeed!
The highs and mids sound brighter with Solen, but negatively it sounds like it has less bass than the original.
I have always liked the mundorf evo with oil or mundorf supreme!
The bass is much more intense on the original caps. But overall the new caps sing!
The image of the Alcaps sounded more flat in the mid and high's . Do no't forget that you are effectively re-mixing sound in a crossover. Adding top end definitely sparkles up everything below.It's the upper-harmonic content of the lower regions that is getting more accentuated.
I have heard the weirdest things happen while mixing sound. Add treble to one channel , suddenly another or more channels have more brightness. Strange, but I get it now.
Pretty subtle but the Solen sounds more defined, the stock seems muffled by comparison, the bass as a consequence sounds flabbier.
Kelvin, whats a good inexpensive set of speakers for a sansui au505? Currently using spendor s5e.
Kelvin did a video a whole ago on Mordaunt short MS400, I have a pair I picked up for £50 on ebay , they are great but maybe a little large for some.
Quality speaker for very little money , Currently they are between £40 and £225 on ebay , they occasionally come up on FB marketplace as well.
IN my opinon the best test for vocal ranges is folk music such as older Joni Mitchell,Nick Drake , Richard an Linda Thompson, I.S.B.
For perhaps the first time on UA-cam I CAN hear a difference! Very noticeable (and I had my eyes closed).
You didn’t mention what type of capacitor was original, or its replacement. Were they both electrolytic, or Mylar, or . . ..
The crossover component was replaced with a Solen metallized polypropylene film capacitor. The original component was an ALCAP bi-polar electrolytic capacitor.
@@SteveD-m6zThank you for the clarification; I have some vintage Warfedales I’m thinking of replacing the capacitors from 1965, might be time, right?
The working life of an electrolytic capacitor is typically around 1,000 to 10,000 hours. Note this is the worst-case performance and relates to the operating AC Ripple Current and the associated shelf-heating due to the ESR (effective series resistance) of the capacitor. So, just replacing the electrolytic capacitors with equivalent components will help rejuvenate you speakers. However, for a performance upgrade you should swap the capacitor to a polypropylene type. This dielectric material has a low dissipation factor (ratio of ESR to capacitive reactance) and will reduce the undesirable phase displacements of the audio signal.
Nothing but respect for you and your information, but unless you do a test like this on a blind basis, you can’t be sure of what you’re really hearing. When I close my eyes I can’t pick out the spots where you are switching. Eyes open I do hear something- but is it real? I also suspect there may be a slight DB difference between the two speakers given the differing caps, which would need to be accounted for. Nonetheless, for £5, I’m sure no harm is being done.
Paper and oil more expensive, many different.Dont forget new kondensator must plays in about 50 hour, but diffeerent.Solen good also.
pretty obvious even on my cheap koss kph40s. bass was a little more pronounced on the original saps but more detailed and refined on the solen.
I had good results with Mundorf capacitors in Mission 764i speakers.
you rather manipulate the songs using plugins in daw. but as a guitar player, capacitor should be with a knob to dial. in your test the new capacitor has more treble. when comparing apples to apples both must be measured to have same value of capacitance. personally at guitars i find the .047 of gibson goes excessively low dark, and the ibanez jem .022 is acceptable, but still too low for the neck pickup. if i built a guitar i would use even a smaller value, at least half 0.011 or so.
i plan to swap the value capacitors of the 3 band EQ of my mixer interface for same reason of going too dark. if i replace the bass and the treble for 3 mids instead it would be more precise drawing new mids eq curve, as if i did a zoom with a magnifier with the control of a surgeon, otherwise the slightest twist of knob at regular value it does too noticiable change so different that is not worth using the eq.
for speakers i would rather make mechanical eq, if i want to get rid of treble, use a rag over the driver. if i want less bass, fill the box with activated carbon or get rid of the front pannel by holding drivers by the magnets.
i am currently making a speaker box with 3 squares as sides and 2 equilateral triangles as top and botton, in delrin 3 milimeters. i am considering the guitar knob option, and also switches to turn on and off individually every couple drivers.
the type of capacitor doesn't matter, the value does, although i love a certain pre war capacitor.
i should go to the electronics shops ( in barcelona at sepulveda) and buy every number value ever of capacitor. then and only then we could tell which value sounds better.
but at the end of the day we adapt and feel no difference.i mean, using half the value of a capacitor is like you get now the precission of the complete turn the ten numbers of turn of the knob is equivalent to the 5 to 10 you used to have when using the capacitor of double value. hence it is like a zoom in the scale to dial better the eq with more accuracy from mids to highs because we get rid of the lows in the equation, because when choosing lower capacitor number it is just to tame to roll of the treble and bring back to live the mids where speaker colour makes a difference.
Tone capacitors are only engaged when using the tone potentiometer controls on your guitar ; and when you 'roll off' one of those tone controls. I eliminate them altogether in a guitar circuit most of the time. And yes, paper in oil tone capacitors (to my ear) make a difference so the type does matter. Why would gibson bumblebee caps go for so much $$ if they did not have any tonal significance. You are just parroting what you've been told, do your own side by side tonal comparisons.
@ip2networkz81 you rather use a mixer between your amp and your sound souce, so you can add effects in the send return loop in example a equalizer if you want analogue, or plugins on computer which is a must since 2010. i am inventor not a copycat.
@ip2networkz81 and by the way the guitar i played 30 years is a thing of the past. i embraced kontakt virtual instruments because the timbre variety is scientifically more musical.
audiophiles are obsolete, you want to have a mixing mastering computer, and manipulate the source, the song itself. i have attatched a korg kaoss pad 3 to this very video i can play touching the touchpad applying effects on the fly, it is more enjoyable than passive listening.
@ip2networkz81 bumblebee capacitors were a zcam, people dissassembled and found inside a very cheap normal capacitor.
yes, some are microphonic, and that's good, this hppens also to pickups.
but the nuances are irrelevant compared to the two thousand softwares of rich variety of virtual instruments, and their infinite combinations. guitar sounds only like a guitar.
i do love a telefunken mica pre war capacitor but because IT LOOKS BEAUTIFUL. only the value matters.
if using a gigantic capacitor then the energy is stored like a battery for 10 seconds to discharge.
but why not using a knob at speakers? why using a fixed value capacitor?
do you actually use daw with plugins on a daily basis? i don't know your background, but you either have home music studio or you are obsolete.
@ip2networkz81 btw if you wabt pure sound of guitar, hold the pickups with shockmount instead of solid transmission, use a lehle split, a lehle dc filter , and in the electronics one pole goes to ground shielding but the other ( secret) goes to antenna and the noise is reduced. i also DISCOVERED AS INVENTOR that acoustic guitar piezo before tge jack, one pole soldered to a big nut, and it reduces the treble hissing because the donut shape is good antenna because infinite loop and also acts as ground.
i invented so many things on guitar i can keep writting on and on. i did my own true temperament frets but on scalloped but without symmetry but deeper near the fret. i came up with the idea for resonators with 24 reachable frets by placing tge bridge where the hole at spanish guitars are, then smaller ( banjo) plate and the neck is longer but keeping same scale length so the fretboard part that is at the body is fretless at that point.
It's quite clear that the film capacitor ruined the otherwise perfectly balanced sound. The 2nd track played has quite audible coloration to the female voice. my opinion would be, do not replace electrolytic with film caps, nor the other way around. There are a lot more properties than mere capacitance at the play for a capacitor in a crossover network, and they matter just as much.
I do hear a difference to be fair, however, you are comparing two different speakers - no two units will sound exactly the same especially when you take into to account ageing. The unit running the 'original' capacitor also has the repaired bass driver, that would surely affect it's bass sound signature compared to the original? I would think a better way would be to do the same experiment using only one speaker wired with a switch so that you can select between the two capacitor types live.
He did change the drivers over a few times and did say they sounded the same
The Tweeter penetrates the sound better.
The original sounds hollow, literally like the value of the tweeter cap has drifted and forcing the tweeter to play too low. It could also be the quality of the caps. Did you measure the original cap at all to see how much out of value it was? If it was within range then thats all on the quality 👌🏻
Recapped many speakers and amps , more than 30 , yes Solen are a great value hard to beat , ,, Do find Polycarbonate Film and oil to be next level , shop around for NOS , they can still be gotten for a reasonable price .
Vishay ERO Metallized Polycarbonate Film MKC1862
160V 10% MBGO-2 PiO , getting them by the case makes them very afordable
Realy more high and mid on the Solen. Eazy to ear the difference here.
Difference more noticable on the second track. - Mundorf Capacitors -
thats surprising, I didn't expect to heear a difference over youtube but it was clear(er) cool. I hope that isn't something horrid happening on you hand?
They sound exactly the same on my phone.
The Solen sounds better . More definition and clarity.
The Alcap is cloudy and mushy.
For me the one with new capacitor is too bright so I like the sound of left speaker more
8:10 8:10 Also do an "audio capacitor shootout" search.
Good Luck