Capacitor upgrade in crossover - Is it audible?

[GurvanBHC]

And what do you think about upgrade the Resistor of a tweeter with lets say a "mundorf"? Is it the same as your experiment with capacitor? No change will happen? Thank you in advance

 

[fpitas]

And what do you think about upgrade the Resistor of a tweeter with lets say a "mundorf"? Is it the same as your experiment with capacitor? No change will happen? Thank you in advance

From an engineering standpoint you won't do better than a metal film resistor. Those are available on Amazon for less than a dollar each.

 

[SIY]

And what do you think about upgrade the Resistor of a tweeter with lets say a "mundorf"? Is it the same as your experiment with capacitor? No change will happen? Thank you in advance

What makes that an "upgrade"?

 

[fpitas]

What makes that an "upgrade"?

Mundorf says so. Duh!

 

[GurvanBHC]

What makes that an "upgrade"?

From a hifi youtuber stand point lol

 

[GurvanBHC]

From an engineering standpoint you won't do better than a metal film resistor. Those are available on Amazon for less than a dollar each.

All right thank you for your response

 

[fpitas]

My biggest gripe with boutique parts is they have no datasheets. Just a shiny part, a high price and a tremendous marketing push.

 

[fpitas]

From a hifi youtuber stand point lol

Generally, that means avoid it like the evil one.

 

[GurvanBHC]

My biggest gripe with boutique parts is they have no datasheets. Just a shiny part, a high price and a tremendous marketing push.

If I hadn't watched Amir's videos, I would fall into this tendency of wanting to have things that have no scientific meaning.

 

[fpitas]

If I hadn't watched Amir's videos, I would fall into this tendency of wanting to have things that have no scientific meaning.

He'll be glad to hear that.

 

[OldHvyMec]

What about non magnet resistors? I've seen Pass, Mcintosh, Herron, Nord, Decware use them. It seems to me they use them in
places they can find the value and if it's a high priority circuit. HP circuit in the path or shunting to the negative
circuit or away from the positive.

Please excuse my lack of technical terminology. I noticed that Pass had several in the F5 or 6 active XOs I have. I have had a few Pass
designs and one thing I can say with certainty; if a 1 dollar part will work and hold up. HE WILL USE IT. That is telling me something
about that type of resistor. I'm just not sure why he prefers it over others.

Nord on their revision D board has the same deal.

Later Mac pre amp are full if them.

I have soldered a few too. What a pain. It was a spec change for an OXO Pass unit. Tiny friggin wire.

Regards

 

[fpitas]

What about non magnet resistors? I've seen Pass, Mcintosh, Herron, Nord, Decware use them. It seems to me they use them in
places they can find the value and if it's a high priority circuit. HP circuit in the path or shunting to the negative
circuit or away from the positive.

Please excuse my lack of technical terminology. I noticed that Pass had several in the F5 or 6 active XOs I have. I have had a few Pass
designs and one thing I can say with certainty; if a 1 dollar part will work and hold up. HE WILL USE IT. That is telling me something
about that type of resistor. I'm just not sure why he prefers it over others.

Nord on their revision D board has the same deal.

Later Mac pre amp are full if them.

I have soldered a few too. What a pain. It was a spec change for an OXO Pass unit. Tiny friggin wire.

Regards

Last I saw, Pass uses wirewound resistors liberally. Not sure what you're asking here.

 

[cavedriver]

Since the criteria of 0.1 dB was almost reached with variation in the capacitor ratings, it would seem to me that the real benefit to quality parts is getting units that consistently meet their spec. Ultra-cheap mini capacitors like the ones I recently bought for a non-audio project regularly vary from their spec by more than 5%, which according to these measurements, should produce detectable variations. To me this says what we should be asking speaker manufacturers is, "how many controls do they use to ensure consistent parts matching and performance to speaker specifications?" Again, I am reminded of how Snell used to have each speaker's crossover and drivers manually matched to a reference model by adjusting capacitance or changing the number of windings on inductors. Perhaps we need a similar study of the real range of variation in driver performance for a number of manufacturers (when talking about suppliers like SEAS, Scanspeak, SB, etc.) to understand that maybe better capacitors don't matter, but accurate matching of capacitors and other components with drivers is measurably important. From factory tour videos on youtube it's clear that many (most?) higher-end speaker builders measure and match at least their drivers and usually, the finished speakers, but who doesn't?

 

[fpitas]

Since the criteria of 0.1 dB was almost reached with variation in the capacitor ratings, it would seem to me that the real benefit to quality parts is getting units that consistently meet their spec. Ultra-cheap mini capacitors like the ones I recently bought for a non-audio project regularly vary from their spec by more than 5%, which according to these measurements, should produce detectable variations. To me this says what we should be asking speaker manufacturers is, "how many controls do they use to ensure consistent parts matching and performance to speaker specifications?" Again, I am reminded of how Snell used to have each speaker's crossover and drivers manually matched to a reference model by adjusting capacitance or changing the number of windings on inductors. Perhaps we need a similar study of the real range of variation in driver performance for a number of manufacturers (when talking about suppliers like SEAS, Scanspeak, SB, etc.) to understand that maybe better capacitors don't matter, but accurate matching of capacitors and other components with drivers is measurably important. From factory tour videos on youtube it's clear that many (most?) higher-end speaker builders measure and match at least their drivers and usually, the finished speakers, but who doesn't?

That's a worthy goal. But I doubt most manufacturers are willing to participate.

 

[OldHvyMec]

Last I saw, Pass uses wirewound resistors liberally. Not sure what you're asking here.

They are wound with copper not a non-ferrous material. Most are iron/steel
This pic is not clear enough but I remember a few on the OXOs.
Nord uses them on the buffer and a Mac C2500 is full of the little critters.
For the lack of my techno jargon I think they're NOT affected (effected)
by parts that create a field.

I'll dig up a book and figure it out. Thanks. I'm just being lazy.

 

[fpitas]

They are wound with copper not a non-ferrous material. Most are iron/steel
This pic is not clear enough but I remember a few on the OXOs.
Nord uses them on the buffer and a Mac C2500 is full of the little critters.
For the lack of my techno jargon I think they're NOT affected (effected)
by parts that create a field.

I'll dig up a book and figure it out. Thanks. I'm just being lazy.

OK. I recall him saying he used garden variety wirewounds. Maybe the non-inductive sort if he was feeling crazy that day.

 

[SIY]

I'm just not sure why he prefers it over others.

It's part of the story.

 

[Speedskater]

When a loudspeaker is voiced, the designer might take into account the imperfections of the parts used. So replacing with perfect parts might change the loudspeaker's voicing.

 

[deano454]

I have just placed a bypass cap on a bipolar audio grade 128uf electrolytic on an old pair of Wharfedale Valdus 400 in the midrange units just a Jantzen 1.00 uf we shall see if it makes a difference

 

[Wolf]

At that ratio, likely no difference will be heard. I would wager 25% being film over the remainder would be enough to reduce the ESR for improvement or minimally change output level.