Replacing Capacitors in Loudspeaker Crossovers

[Pure_Brew]

I've never done this before. I have some basic knowledge about crossovers, caps and some basic soldering skill. I entirely recapped a 1950's oscilloscope successfully, did some crossover work. But I've never recapped an old speaker. I generally have an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality about these things. But, since I feel I should replace the speaker wire turning green in these Snell EII's, the thought has come to mind...

Any suggestions, or experiences, pitfalls etc. you can share would be greatly appreciated. Other component suggestions ( inductors/resistors ) welcome.

Thank You,
Joe

 

[speakerman1]

Is the X-over point to point? Solens are pretty well priced. You can get better; but you start getting into more money. You know how I feel on inductors. Do you have hemostats? That is what I use to hold things together while I solder.

Larry

 

[Rex Everything]

Solens are fair priced and Axon's are even priced better. (read up on them)

I've used Solens, Axon's and SoniCaps in my speakers and have been pleased with them all.

SoniCaps are by far the most expensive of the three. Axons come from Parts Express iirc along with Solen also. ANother good place for Solen if you don't see the values you are looking for is Madisound.

I'm still in the process of reworking a set of JBL L110 crossovers into 4313B x-overs. This will be done with all Axon caps including bypass caps.

After this I still have at least two other pairs to recap if not a few more.

 

[Pure_Brew]

I have 1 set of hemostats and a set of "helping hands" I picked up at the shack. Pretty sure it's point to point. I have some desoldering wick, etc. I'm thinking about changing the wire out tonight. Time is passing though... I'll snap a pic or two if I open this up. Man these sound so good right now I'd hate to mess it up lol.

I bought solen a long time ago when I built my first crossover. Seemed like a decent value.

 

[speakerman1]

I get a discount at PE. Let me know what you want. I can have them dropped ship to you. I'm Anal about certain things. I use silver solder also. I changed my wires to silver plated also. I think I still have some 12 ga. some where. OOPs I sent it to Lee. I think.

If you think the sound good now wait till you change the caps. I have so much stuff in my garage. I think I have extra Solens some where too.

Larry

 

[Pure_Brew]

Thanks man.

What do you think about an entire rebuild? Then I could just set this crossover aside and leave it original.
If it gets too pricey, I'll kick myself later as I'm gawking at putting an AN/Kit in these.

Rex, those sonicaps look nice. I read up on those awhile ago. I think it was in some cap shoot-out.

 

[speakerman1]

Thanks man.

What do you think about an entire rebuild? Then I could just set this crossover aside and leave it original.
If it gets too pricey, I'll kick myself later as I'm gawking at putting an AN/Kit in these.

Rex, those sonicaps look nice. I read up on those awhile ago. I think it was in some cap shoot-out.

Do they have resistors in the x-over? In my rebuilds I try very hard to keep it as simple as possible. 2nd order if I can. You can always figure out the inductors and caps if you have the x-over points. Both tweeters x-over at the same point right? It is only a 2 way x-over so there isn't going to be a lot of parts. I always used RTV to glue the parts down on a piece of MDF and put it on the bottom of the speaker. That is just me though. Your mileage may vary. LOL

Larry

 

[Rex Everything]

Rex, those sonicaps look nice. I read up on those awhile ago. I think it was in some cap shoot-out.

They sure seem to be. I found out about them when recapping my Klipsch Chorus II's. Crites uses them in his cross-overs and kits. I got one of the kits for the Chorus'.

Liking them I decided to use them for a complete recap of my JBL 240Ti's and have been very pleased since.

 

[Pure_Brew]

Larry, there are, I think, like 4 resistors. One for a Zobel I think.

 

[Pure_Brew]

Thinking back on caps, it was the ClarityCaps at madisound I was looking at sometime ago as an upscale option. Solen is something I have used and seemed a reputable low price option.

The more expensive inductors, which offer better performance, usually feature lower DCR. I don't know how much the resistance change will change crosspoints in original designs, but my guess would be that it would to some degree.

For example, if I ordered replacement drivers from snell (sorry for repeat), they are going to include new inductors to match the master, which would also mean that the inductors themselves will likely be just slightly different for each driver (maybe). Maybe I should ask the engineer at snell about the inductor swap out?

On resistors, I think if in a design criteria, you don't want to use them, then drivers would need to either be selected to match sensitivity, which itself will alter the crossover needing further balance. Or have drivers specifically built/altered to meet that criteria. I don't think there is anything wrong with that goal, however, I can't imagine taking a design, where resistors are used for driver matching and remove them. Best I could imagine in an already established design, would maybe use higher quality components, like mills for example? I mean, if a tweeter has much higher sensitivity then the woofer, how can you knock it down otherwise?

 

[Rex Everything]

I've been using the Mills resistors for replacements in critical areas

 

[laatsch55]

Have you read anything about Reidon's??

 

[Rex Everything]

Have you read anything about Reidon's??

No. I'll have to check them out. Are they budget friendly?

 

[laatsch55]

Is anything nowadays??

 

[Pure_Brew]

In these crossovers, there is at least one variable resistor, ceramic slider type. I guess that it was necessary to hit their 0.5db target.

Personally, I have no means to achieve a reference target. At best I can try to replace original values. Being that there was some moisture inside this speaker, these resistors have some light oxidation on the housing/slider. I think it would be best to not bother with a variable at this point?

Besides, later models used a potentiometer to adjust the tweeter level to taste. So as soon as the consumer touched that, the whole 0.5db criteria would be out the window. If there was ever a thing to add noise to the signal, it would be those things...

 

[laatsch55]

Yes, i would agree with that. I am going to test the noise level on some pots tonight. I think I have the analyzer figured out enough to do that. While testing Don's amp last night under load and turning the pots at the same time there was enough change that it's worth checking out.

 

[Pure_Brew]

It would be nice to have some sort of test equipment, even if basic, to do some comparitive tests. I used speakerworkshop once, which was always in beta but cool and useful. Had to build a jig but the testing of capacitors, inductors and resistors was pretty accurate once calibrated. Of course you could test frequency response and impedance etc. Never got a microphone for it and abandoned everything like wow, 10 years ago? Looks like PE has some decent things, not sure about investment.

 

[laatsch55]

I thought long and hard about the analyzer before I bought it, and the tipping point came on an AK post about the White Oak board. I was relating some power data after a test and a fella challenged my power readings. He said under what conditions, bandwidth, filters , equip[ment.....so I decided I would like to say with certainty exactly what I was measuring and how and with what.
From what I've read the Audio Precision line is highly thought of, I felt lucky to get it for what I paid. they listed for over 20K new.

 

[Pure_Brew]

Real testing adds legitimacy.