..I wonder how much different a film cap would sound there.
Significant. I’m voicing mine right now and the mid uses a 22uf cap for the hp. In switching between a solen cap and a Mundorf Ecap plain (which is supposed to be a fantastic NPE), there is no comparison. The poly is way clearer. It’s not just a difference of the extra half ohm or so of ESR. I also measured the Mundorf and it is accurate; I’ve heard horror stories of those being way out of spec.
I thought they sold those cheap Bennic polyester caps at Madisound but they don’t anymore. Looks like they clearanced out the bennics and there aren’t many left. Even the NPEs.
Thanks Dynamo. I look forward to hearing the difference between the single 125 uF 100V NPE cap from PE vs the six 20 uF poly caps in parallel. I built 6 inch tall bases to raise the tweeters to ear level and plan on mounting the xo's in those. Plenty of room for all the xo parts. I'm just disappointed the coronavirus cancel Indy. These babies would have been ready, complete with a finish on them, something I'm not known for
I still have a pair of Paul Carmody's Aether's that I cobbled together years back. I really like the sound of that design, but they sure are different from a boxed speaker when it comes to soundstage - at least in my little listening room.
Do you have those caps wired up yet Craig? Are better than the old yellow Madisound buyouts? I've had a few of those that were definitely not right.
I measured all the individual caps this morning. They ranged from 18.77 uF to 19.17 uF. So I grouped them with the highest and lowest, 2nd highest and 2nd lowest, etc so that they would average to the same. They are hot glued together in bundles and their leads tightly twisted together and soldered. Group 1 = 113.11 uF, Group 2 = 113.08 uF. Modeling in WinPCD shows no visable difference between the modeled 125 uF and 113 uF. I'll have to measure the 125 uF NPE caps when I unsolder them. I'll report beck what they measured. Listen tests will of course be highly subjective since I won't be doing anything near blind testing, and $24 worth of film caps HAS to sound better than a couple bucks worth of NPEs, right?
I am not set up to flip back and forth between the two. So I am listening to the poly's now and can only say it sounds good. Better? Worse? Different? IDK
So for the fun of it I decided to solder in a couple of aligator clips so that I can swap back and forth between the caps. Will report my opinions later.
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Fantastic!!! I will order 12 of those tomorrow. Thank you!
I thought they sold those cheap Bennic polyester caps at Madisound but they don’t anymore. Looks like they clearanced out the bennics and there aren’t many left. Even the NPEs.
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Do you have those caps wired up yet Craig? Are better than the old yellow Madisound buyouts? I've had a few of those that were definitely not right.
The ESR of the poly caps were fairly consistent across the freq range:
0.24 @120 Hz, 0.27 @1 kHz, and 0.29 @10 kHz
The ESR of the NPE's was not:
0.54 @120 Hz, 0.33 @1 kHz, and 0.13 @ 10 kHz
I am not set up to flip back and forth between the two. So I am listening to the poly's now and can only say it sounds good. Better? Worse? Different? IDK