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Capacitor upgrade in crossover - Is it audible?

ctrl

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As the topics "capacitor upgrade" and therefore "capacitor sound" is very controversial, the test method and its results are explained in detail. This cannot be dealt with in one minute. Sorry for this and I hope your attention span is still sufficient to read through a long text - whereby the pictures clearly predominate ;)

What is considered in the review? Only the effect of replacing a capacitor in series with a chassis and only the audible part of the frequency spectrum is considered. In this setup, replacing a capacitor should theoretically have the greatest effect on the sound of the loudspeaker.

The typical case for which a "capacitor upgrade" is recommended is e.g. replacing a standard film capacitor with a high-end capacitor in the crossover of the tweeter.
A high-end capacitor can cost hundreds of times more than a standard film capacitor, so it makes sense to take a closer look.

Electrolytic capacitors are a special case, as they age faster and change their capacitance value in the process - These will be discussed in the second part here.

The full mini series:
Capacitor upgrade in crossover - Is it audible?
Capacitor upgrade - part two
Capacitor upgrade - part three
Replace resistor by low-inductance resistor - Is it audible?
Different Binding Posts - is it audible?
Audible difference in high-end capacitors? - ABX samples


0) What does a capacitor in the crossover of the driver do?

To put it simply, the capacitor lets the high frequencies pass and suppresses the low frequencies and in our case creates a high pass.

The example below shows an ideal driver (frequency response would be dead straight at 90dB sound power level, also ideal constant 8 Ohm impedance).
The brown curve shows the frequency response of the ideal driver with a 2.7µF capacitor in the crossover section of the driver, the red curve shows a capacitance of 12µF.
1585511879629.png

You don't need to know more to understand the review.


1) Test setup and method

The capacitor is connected in series with a tweeter and is measured with a microphone. Extremely simple construction, which is identical to the typical construction in a crossover.
1585512008613.png

The tweeter is measured in the near field. Every capacitor is connected in series to the tweeter.
We use the SB21RDC tweeter from SBAcoustics and a calibrated iSEMcon EMX-7150 as measuring microphone. The measurements were performed with the measurement software Arta in dual-channel mode with pink noise.
A test measurement consists of the average of three consecutive measurements to minimize influences like voice coil heating of the tweeter, environmental influences (etc.).

Why were the measurements made in this way?
The argumentation when it comes to the sonic effects of components or equipment (such as loudspeaker cables) always boils down to "previously undiscovered/unmeasurable electrical phenomena".

To my knowledge there is nobody who would seriously claim that there are undiscovered possibilities of sound transmission (from tweeter to microphone). Or that an exchange of a capacitor changes the radiation of the tweeter.
The test setup therefore corresponds one-to-one to listening via loudspeakers, except that the near-field measurement captures even the smallest details and eliminates the influence of the baffle.

So the problem is reduced to the question
"When do the measured effects become audible".

To get a rough idea of when a change in sound pressure level becomes audible, here is a quote from Floyd Toole's book "Sound Reproduction"
The simplest deviation from flat is probably a spectral tilt. There is some
evidence that we can detect slopes of about 0.1 dB/octave...

Cut the crap. When's the test gonna start?
A little more patience. First of all we have to see what happens with slight changes in capacity in relation to the measured sound pressure.


2) Capacitors - low capacitance deviations

To see what small deviations in the capacitance values of a capacitor ultimately cause acoustically and to verify that the chosen test setup is "fine" enough to detect even the smallest changes, a series of capacitors from the same manufacturer's series but with slightly different capacitance values are measured.

The capacities of the capacitors are
  • 3,258µF
  • 3,276µF
  • 3,287µF
  • 3,297µF
In relation to the highest capacitance value of 3,297µF, there are deviations of 0.3%, 0.6% and 1.2%.
These are deviations that are far below the tolerances of non-selected capacitors, which usually have tolerances of +-2%, +-5% or even +-10%.
For good production series, the tolerance can sometimes be +-1%.

Let's be generous and assume that capacitors have an average deviation of only 2-5% between each other when replacing a capacitor in a crossover with a high-end capacitor.
So if a capacitor upgrade is carried out, we can assume that the capacities will (at least) deviate on average by 2-5% from the originally installed capacitor.

So let's take a look at what happens when the capacitance at 3.3µF of our tweeter varies by a maximum of 1.2%.
1585512646130.png

The measurements were not smoothed. Okay, that doesn't look like too much sound pressure deviation.

To see the differences better we normalize the curves to the highest capacitance value of 3.297µF and look at the deviation on a 0.1dB scale.
1585512705234.png


With 1/3-octave smoothing you can see how sensitive the resolution of the test setup is - again 0.1dB scale (now with fixed y-axis labels). Even 0.3% capacity deviation is clearly detected. It is nice to see (within the measurement accuracy of the test setup) how at very high frequencies the capacitors let the signal pass completely.
1697718743618.png

As quoted above, at least a slope of 0.1dB per octave is probably required to have an audible effect.
The 1.3% maximum deviation provides just under 0.1dB of sound pressure change, but this will not yet provide the minimum 0.1dB slope per octave required in a complete crossover.

But 2% or more deviation could already be audible. This provides a first argument for the audible impression after a capacitor exchange, since as mentioned above, an average deviation of 2-5% must be expected - if the capacitors are not selected during the exchange to fit as closely as possible.

Thus, the foundations have been laid for the correct classification of the following measurement results.


3) ordinary film capacitors versus high-end (film) capacitor

There are several websites on the Internet that deal with the sound of capacitors, describe the sonic properties of each capacitor in detail and even distribute sound notes.

On such sound descriptions, so-called "upgrade kits" draw their raison d'être and promise that the loudspeaker will sound much better after replacing capacitors with high-end capacitors.

So let's take a look at the measurable tonal differences of a high-end capacitor compared to ancient simple film capacitors:

  • Jantzen Audio Silver Z-cap 800V (as good as new, polypropylene film, see below for detailed description) - The capacity is 4.68µF

  • Ero MKC 160V (polycarbonate capacitor film, high age) - The capacity is 4.67µF

  • MD-MKP 400V (Date of manufacture 05.97, manufacturer is unknown to me) - The capacity is 4.67µF (with parallel 0.56µF Jantzen Audio MKP to reach the target capacity)
1585513197403.png


The capacitors were selected to have (nearly) identical capacitance values. The maximum capacitance deviation from the silver z-cap capacitor is only 0.2% (since my measuring systems do not actually provide this measuring accuracy, a certain error tolerance should be added).

Silver Z-cap
1585515092595.png


Ero MKC
1585515176609.png


MD-MKP
1585515155743.png



But if there are large sound pressure changes, these can be completely attributed to the high-end quality of the silver-z-cap.

The Jantzen capacitor is not absurdly expensive, but it comes off very well in terms of tonal evaluation.

http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Cap.html
...the Janzten Silver Gold Z-cap is very detailed and sometimes too detailed for my liking, ...They do well in upgrading existing crossovers of speakers that are a bit on the laid-back side of neutral, they will pump some life and energy into such a system...
Verdict: 11-

http://www.sup-audio.com/html/high-standard.html
(quote translated)
Jantzen Silber Z-Cap: Very transparent and detailed, with emphasis on the heights with great clarity. A condenser, which conveys a high-end flair...

So the expectations are extremely high, let's see how spectacular the actual measurements turn out in the battle of the up to 23 years old capacitors against the high-end capacitor :D

1585513597827.png

:eek: What the f... are you trying to do, f... us over! :eek:
That's just the same measurement with three different colors displayed - isn't it?

It's not! We should take a closer look, so we normalize to the frequency response of the silver-cap capacitor. The diagram shows a 0.1dB scaling:
1585513927425.png


As no smoothing is used, the noise of the test setup disturbs us a bit, hence the display with 1/3-octave smoothing (with fixed y-axis labels):

1697720255482.png


There are minimal deviations between the curves, but with a maximum of 0.03dB these are so small that it is hardly worth mentioning.

Result: There is practically no measurable acoustic difference between the simple, ancient film capacitors and the current high-end capacitor. Welcome to reality!
This clearly shows that the characteristics of the high-end capacitor cited above, such as "very transparent" or "very detailed" compared to other film capacitors, are pure fantasies of ambitious authors.


To anticipate a few possible questions and criticisms:

1) Only the frequency responses of the capacitors on the tweeter were compared, the actual differences are certainly in the time-domain!
The measurement of a single driver can be considered a minimum phase system. In this case, the phase corresponds to the minimum phase and can therefore be derived directly from the frequency response. Both together contain all the information necessary to calculate the impulse response, for example.
(Please correct me if there is something wrong with the statement)

Therefore for all doubters the measured comparison of the impulse response of Silver z-cap and the Ero-MKC
1585516904702.png



2) The difference will certainly be reflected in the decay behavior of the tweeter!
Let's have a look at the transient response of the tweeter with the Silver Z-cap, Ero MKC and the MD-MKP
CSD_Sono_Cap.gif

Within the scope of our measuring accuracy these are completely identical.


3) The difference in quality can be seen in the distortion behavior of complex signals!
For this purpose we look at the measured multi-tone distortions of the individual capacitors in the signal path of the tweeter. The multitone distortions include the harmonic distortions and the intermodulation distortions.
Cap_MD.gif


There too, no difference at all can be detected.


Update 2022-03-23: Added full mini series links
Update 2023-10-19: Fixed some y-axis labels
 
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ctrl

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Very nice write-up!
But once all myths are busted this place will be boring as everyone would agree with everything.
Guess that'll never happen ;)
But maybe it'll keep one or two people from making pointless expenditures.

The 4.7µF Jantzen Silver Z-cap used in the review is available for about 30€. A reasonable 4.7µF film capacitor costs about 3€. But you can also spend 230€ for a capacitor of the same capacity - probably there are much more "exclusive" capacitors on the market.
 

Trouble Maker

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So, are all of the crossover network upgrades bunk, or are some of them changing the crossover network characteristics to some positive effect e.g. crossover frequency or slopes?

What is the point in 'high quality' crossover parts in more expensive speakers?
 

QMuse

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So, are all of the crossover network upgrades bunk, or are some of them changing the crossover network characteristics to some positive effect e.g. crossover frequency or slopes?

What is the point in 'high quality' crossover parts in more expensive speakers?

Elcaps can dry over time and loose significant portion of capacity. Coils wooven on air are more linear than those with core.
 
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ctrl

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So, are all of the crossover network upgrades bunk, or are some of them changing the crossover network characteristics to some positive effect e.g. crossover frequency or slopes?
Not all crossover upgrades are complete nonsense - just most of them ;)
When it comes to electrolytic capacitors it may make sense to replace them - e.g. if they are located in the crossover branch of the tweeter. More about this in part two.
With certain types of coils, oversaturation can occur at high sound pressures - but that is a different matter.

If you don't have a capacitance meter (to select the capacitors) you should be aware that due to small variations in capacitance the sound of the loudspeaker will most likely change slightly. For psychological reasons, this will sound better at first, but in the long run it looks different...

What is the point in 'high quality' crossover parts in more expensive speakers?
Since film capacitors have a much better long-term stability than electrolytic capacitors and if the price is not important, all electrolytic capacitors in the crossover can be replaced by film capacitors.

Otherwise the expensive high-end capacitors simply look more spectacular.
 

ta240

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If an electrolytic is replaced by a film capacitor the ESR, effective series resistance, will likely be different which will change the sound of the speaker and could be perceived as an improvement. If the tweeter gets more signal suddenly the speaker can sound more airy and detailed; like a veil was lifted ;)

When I replaced the electrolytic capacitors in my 30 year old speakers I went with film due to all the rave reviews. It made the speakers sound harsh to me. After some more research I added a resistor in line with the capacitor to bring them back to normal. I could have saved $20 and just put an electrolytic back in there.

I like this quote from Zaphaudio.com on the SR71 page "I maintain my perspective that high cost components do not perform much better (if at all) than lower cost components. I typically use Bennic Poly caps for everything. If you are building your own crossovers, the Bennics will do fine and be a bit cheaper. "
 

QMuse

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When I replaced the electrolytic capacitors in my 30 year old speakers I went with film due to all the rave reviews. It made the speakers sound harsh to me. After some more research I added a resistor in line with the capacitor to bring them back to normal. I could have saved $20 and just put an electrolytic back in there.

Well, choosing XO components by ear is not really a usual approach to XO tuning. Or at least it shouldn't be.. :D

Btw, after 30 years elcap capacitance also probably dropped.
 
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ctrl

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If an electrolytic is replaced by a film capacitor the ESR, effective series resistance, will likely be different which will change the sound of the speaker and could be perceived as an improvement. If the tweeter gets more signal suddenly the speaker can sound more airy and detailed; like a veil was lifted
In the following second part of this review, which deals with electrolytic capacitors, there is an indication of the influence of a high ESR compared to the capacitance deviations due to the capacitor tolerances - should be ready in the next hours or days ;)
 

QMuse

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In the following second part of this review, which deals with electrolytic capacitors, there is an indication of the influence of a high ESR compared to the capacitance deviations due to the capacitor tolerances - should be ready in the next hours or days ;)

it would be interesting if you can measure some old elcaps and compare results vs their nominal values. That change is probably larger than deviations in the capacity from the factory.
 
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ctrl

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it would be interesting if you can measure some old elcaps and compare results vs their nominal values. That change is probably larger than deviations in the capacity from the factory.
Here I have four old Visaton electrolytic capacitors with 100µF capacity, which I know were guaranteed to have been manufactured before 1985. I will write something about them in the second part.
 

QMuse

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Here I have four old Visaton electrolytic capacitors with 100µF capacity, which I know were guaranteed to have been manufactured before 1985. I will write something about them in the second part.

Excellent - thank you for doing these write-ups!
 
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ctrl

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For all those who have difficulties with the representation of the measured sound pressure curves normalized to the sound pressure curve of the Silver Z-Cap, here is a somewhat easier to understand representation of the measured differences of the three capacitors.

In the lower part are the sound pressure curves of the measured capacitors with a normal 10dB scale - no normalization, no smoothing.

In the blue frame we see an extremely enlarged representation in the frequency range 8-9kHz with a scale of 0.01dB.
It is easy to see that in this frequency range the sound pressures of the measured capacitors are at most 0.04dB apart - mind you, without any smoothing.
1585587412480.png
 

Lorenzo74

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As the topics "capacitor upgrade" and therefore "capacitor sound" is very controversial, the test method and its results are explained in detail. This cannot be dealt with in one minute. Sorry for this and I hope your attention span is still sufficient to read through a long text - whereby the pictures clearly predominate ;)

What is considered in the review? Only the effect of replacing a capacitor in series with a chassis and only the audible part of the frequency spectrum is considered. In this setup, replacing a capacitor should theoretically have the greatest effect on the sound of the loudspeaker.

The typical case for which a "capacitor upgrade" is recommended is e.g. replacing a standard film capacitor with a high-end capacitor in the crossover of the tweeter.
A high-end capacitor can cost hundreds of times more than a standard film capacitor, so it makes sense to take a closer look.

Electrolytic capacitors are a special case, as they age faster and change their capacitance value in the process - These will be discussed in the next part.


0) What does a capacitor in the crossover of the chassis do?

To put it simply, the capacitor lets the high frequencies pass and suppresses the low frequencies and in our case creates a high pass.

The example below shows an ideal driver (frequency response would be dead straight at 90dB sound power level, also ideal constant 8 Ohm impedance).
The brown curve shows the frequency response of the ideal chassis with a 2.7µF capacitor in the crossover section of the driver, the red curve shows a capacitance of 12µF.
View attachment 56197
You don't need to know more to understand the review.


1) Test setup and method

The capacitor is connected in series with a tweeter and is measured with a microphone. Extremely simple construction, which is identical to the typical construction in a crossover.
View attachment 56198
The tweeter is measured in the near field. Every capacitor is connected in series to the tweeter.
We use the SB21RDC tweeter from SBAcoustics and a calibrated iSEMcon EMX-7150 as measuring microphone. The measurements were performed with the measurement software Arta in dual-channel mode with pink noise.
A test measurement consists of the average of three consecutive measurements to minimize influences like voice coil heating of the tweeter, environmental influences (etc.).

Why were the measurements made in this way?
The argumentation when it comes to the sonic effects of components or equipment (such as loudspeaker cables) always boils down to "previously undiscovered/unmeasurable electrical phenomena".

To my knowledge there is nobody who would seriously claim that there are undiscovered possibilities of sound transmission (from tweeter to microphone). Or that an exchange of a capacitor changes the radiation of the tweeter.
The test setup therefore corresponds one-to-one to listening via loudspeakers, except that the near-field measurement captures even the smallest details and eliminates the influence of the baffle.

So the problem is reduced to the question
"When do the measured effects become audible".

To get a rough idea of when a change in sound pressure level becomes audible, here is a quote from Floyd Toole's book "Sound Reproduction"


Cut the crap. When's the test gonna start?
A little more patience. First of all we have to see what happens with slight changes in capacity in relation to the measured sound pressure.


2) Capacitors - low capacitance deviations

To see what small deviations in the capacitance values of a capacitor ultimately cause acoustically and to verify that the chosen test setup is "fine" enough to detect even the smallest changes, a series of capacitors from the same manufacturer's series but with slightly different capacitance values are measured.

The capacities of the capacitors are
  • 3,258µF
  • 3,276µF
  • 3,287µF
  • 3,297µF
In relation to the highest capacitance value of 3,297µF, there are deviations of 0.3%, 0.6% and 1.2%.
These are deviations that are far below the tolerances of non-selected capacitors, which usually have tolerances of +-2%, +-5% or even +-10%.
For good production series, the tolerance can sometimes be +-1%.

Let's be generous and assume that capacitors have an average deviation of only 2-5% between each other when replacing a capacitor in a crossover with a high-end capacitor.
So if a capacitor upgrade is carried out, we can assume that the capacities will (at least) deviate on average by 2-5% from the originally installed capacitor.

So let's take a look at what happens when the capacitance at 3.3µF of our tweeter varies by a maximum of 1.2%.
View attachment 56199
The measurements were not smoothed. Okay, that doesn't look like too much sound pressure deviation.

To see the differences better we normalize the curves to the highest capacitance value of 3.297µF and look at the deviation on a 0.1dB scale.
View attachment 56200

With 1/3-octave smoothing you can see how sensitive the resolution of the test setup is - again 0.1dB scale. Even 0.3% capacity deviation is clearly detected. It is nice to see (within the measurement accuracy of the test setup) how at very high frequencies the capacitors let the signal pass completely.
View attachment 56201
As quoted above, at least a slope of 0.1dB per octave is probably required to have an audible effect.
The 1.3% maximum deviation provides just under 0.1dB of sound pressure change, but this will not yet provide the minimum 0.1dB slope per octave required in a complete crossover.

But 2% or more deviation could already be audible. This provides a first argument for the audible impression after a capacitor exchange, since as mentioned above, an average deviation of 2-5% must be expected - if the capacitors are not selected during the exchange to fit as closely as possible.

Thus, the foundations have been laid for the correct classification of the following measurement results.


3) ordinary film capacitors versus high-end (film) capacitor

There are several websites on the Internet that deal with the sound of capacitors, describe the sonic properties of each capacitor in detail and even distribute sound notes.

On such sound descriptions, so-called "upgrade kits" draw their raison d'être and promise that the loudspeaker will sound much better after replacing capacitors with high-end capacitors.

So let's take a look at the measurable tonal differences of a high-end capacitor compared to ancient simple film capacitors:

  • Jantzen Audio Silver Z-cap 800V (as good as new, polypropylene film, see below for detailed description) - The capacity is 4.68µF

  • Ero MKC 160V (polycarbonate capacitor film, high age) - The capacity is 4.67µF

  • MD-MKP 400V (Date of manufacture 05.97, manufacturer is unknown to me) - The capacity is 4.67µF (with parallel 0.56µF Jantzen Audio MKP to reach the target capacity)
View attachment 56204

The capacitors were selected to have (nearly) identical capacitance values. The maximum capacitance deviation from the silver z-cap capacitor is only 0.2% (since my measuring systems do not actually provide this measuring accuracy, a certain error tolerance should be added).

Silver Z-cap
View attachment 56219

Ero MKC
View attachment 56222

MD-MKP
View attachment 56221


But if there are large sound pressure changes, these can be completely attributed to the high-end quality of the silver-z-cap.

The Jantzen capacitor is not absurdly expensive, but it comes off very well in terms of tonal evaluation.

http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Cap.html


http://www.sup-audio.com/html/high-standard.html
(quote translated)


So the expectations are extremely high, let's see how spectacular the actual measurements turn out in the battle of the up to 23 years old capacitors against the high-end capacitor :D

View attachment 56207
:eek: What the f... are you trying to do, f... us over! :eek:
That's just the same measurement with three different colors displayed - isn't it?

It's not! We should take a closer look, so we normalize to the frequency response of the silver-cap capacitor. The diagram shows a 0.1dB scaling:
View attachment 56210

As no smoothing is used, the noise of the test setup disturbs us a bit, hence the display with 1/3-octave smoothing:

View attachment 56225

There are minimal deviations between the curves, but with a maximum of 0.03dB these are so small that it is hardly worth mentioning.

Result: There is practically no measurable acoustic difference between the simple, ancient film capacitors and the current high-end capacitor. Welcome to reality!
This clearly shows that the characteristics of the high-end capacitor cited above, such as "very transparent" or "very detailed" compared to other film capacitors, are pure fantasies of ambitious authors.


To anticipate a few possible questions and criticisms:

1) Only the frequency responses of the capacitors on the tweeter were compared, the actual differences are certainly in the time-domain!
The measurement of a single chassis can be considered a minimum phase system. In this case, the phase corresponds to the minimum phase and can therefore be derived directly from the frequency response. Both together contain all the information necessary to calculate the impulse response, for example.
(Please correct me if there is something wrong with the statement)

Therefore for all doubters the measured comparison of the impulse response of Silver z-cap and the Ero-MKC
View attachment 56233


2) The difference will certainly be reflected in the decay behavior of the tweeter!
Let's have a look at the transient response of the tweeter with the Silver Z-cap and the MD-MKP
View attachment 56240
Within the scope of our measuring accuracy these are completely identical.


3) The difference in quality can be seen in the distortion behavior of complex signals!
For this purpose we look at the measured multi-tone distortions of the individual capacitors in the signal path of the tweeter. The multitone distortions include the harmonic distortions and the intermodulation distortions.
View attachment 56241

There too, no difference at all can be detected.

Many thanks, it's important to come down to reality at least in forum like this named AUDIO-SCIENCE when assessing the value in the sound reproduction chain. We are always near the point of diminishing return in this business.

My opinion (Andrew Jones stated it many times) is Drivers, Crossover design (dispersion included), cabinet, cables ...Spikes, gear racks,.. :)
There is a study on air core vs iron core coils that came to similar conclusions you reported even if I personally believe at high voltage/current distortion will be higher than negligible values.
FYI I did the same exercize with different Speaker cables from cheap thin Red/Black cable vs thick high end ones by pointing minidsp UMIK1 at tweeter of my B&W speaker and I found very small measurable differences (<1db at certain freq range due to speaker impedance), if of interest I will share REW files.
Of course the test of capacitors/coils/cables should be done without speakers but leveraging Oscilloscope and or Audioprecision tools.
maybe we are loosing something in replicating the measuring process of our ear+brain (fascinating exceptional device).
May I recommend you this lecture, no need to introduce speaker i guess.
Q.: which is the weak point of the audio reproduction today? and tomorrow?
last Q.: why respectable manufacturers (i.e.the german one) has such incredible portfolio of high end Capacitors and coils if they do not chaneg the sound as much?
ALEA IACTA EST my Friends
Thanks for your feedback
 

solderdude

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last Q.: why respectable manufacturers (i.e.the German one) has such incredible portfolio of high end Capacitors and coils if they do not change the sound as much?

Could be because (potential) buyers kind of expect/demand this.
Could be the manufacturer believes in the powers of these parts.
Could be they do not want to be caught with their pants down if they were using cheap parts.
Could be sighted listening tests were performed as well.
If something sells better why not use it (certainly if you can mark the price up)
Looks well in advertisements ?
 

QMuse

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Could be because (potential) buyers kind of expect/demand this.
Could be the manufacturer believes in the powers of these parts.
Could be they do not want to be caught with their pants down if they were using cheap parts.
Could be sighted listening tests were performed as well.
If something sells better why not use it (certainly if you can mark the price up)
Looks well in advertisements ?

Could also be that those same caps are used in some other electronics where precision matters far more than in XO circuits.
 

Prana Ferox

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Replacing 20 year old caps is fairly silly. There is an enormous difference in the construction, chemistry and lifespan of a cap made in the 90s vice something of 60s/70s vintage.
 
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