Crossover parts..

[JCD]

Just out of curiosity, what are the opinions of those around here on the various brands of say, capacitors? With a huge price range, some are pretty inexpensive and then some are very expensive.

For example, the following is a list of cap's that are close to a target of 6.2uF:

For caps that are close to my 6.2uF target, here are the options available at PartsExpress:

1. Audio Cap 6.0uF $32.48
2. Auricap 6.0uF $27.21
3. Kimber Cap 6.0uF $17.81
4. Solen 6.2uF $4.31
5. Dayton 1% 6.2uf $4.49
6. Dayton 6.2uF $2.41
7. Jantzen-Standard 5.6uF $3.60
8. Jantzen Z-Superior 5.6uF $24.37
9. Jantzen Z-Silver 5.6uF $42.91
10. Jantzen Crosscap 4.7uF $2.75

If one were going to be building a $300 system, which brand would you use? What if the system was more, say $2000?

Also, for the sake of arguement, please ignore active systems.

I'm just curious what people do. Depending on how this one goes, I'll get in to inductors next..

JCD

[Anthony]

Well, for what it's worth, the Dayton's I've tested came in well within spec, and that's for the regular, not the 1%. In most cases the value was spot on to two decimal places. I was surprised.

With capacitors, I would argue that better manuf. tolerances and materials means a better overall sound and more importantly, the value will stay the same over time (a big reason to avoid electrolytics).

That all being said, I can't see how the Jantzen Z-Silver is worth over 10x comparable alternatives. It definitely won't sound 10x better. At that point, your money would be better spent on better drivers that needed fewer crossover components!

[Brian Bunge]

I've used both the Dayton and Jantzen standard caps in the past. Both are great for the money. I've never really had a need for the really high dollar caps. Especially since my listening preferences tend towards hard rock and metal as well as action movies.

[avaserfi]

I think Anthony covered this topic very well. If the units test closely to their intended values and are built in such a way to last then they will perform well and sound no different from each other. If the Dayton parts test as well as Anthony says then there is no reason to purchase any other brand at any higher cost.

[JCD]

(Bump)

so this thought has come into my brain (a scary, dark and murky place) again.

it seems to me that inductors should be fairly straightforward -- aircore at the lowest gauge available for the ones that are in series with the drivers and something at a slightly higher gauge for the inductors that will be in parallell. Maybe a ferrous core if the value needed is REALLY high.

Resistors -- I think I've heard one should go with non-inductive. After that, I don't have much.

Capacitor's -- this is where I think most of the "controversy" and price variation comes from. I've not heard a side by side comparison of a relatively cheap cap (say a Bennie) vs one slightly more exotic (lets say the Jantzen silver). Assuming the measured value is spot on, what would you guys expect the difference would be sonically? I know that, to some degree, the higher price is a result of a more accurate cap (i.e., smaller tolerance) and maybe a longer shelf life, but there are some folks I trust that will spend some serious dough on the more expensive caps, in particular the caps that are in series with the drivers.

Random thoughts from the fringe again..

JCD

[Anthony]

you hit it all pretty close to the mark.

With the larger inductors, you can go air core, but the resistances get prohibitively high and you end up dissipating a lot of heat (which means loss of efficiency of the system). Iron, ferrous powder, steel laminate and torroidal core inductors all lower the resistance and cost versus air core. I've heard all on woofer sections and can't tell the difference. I could in the midrange, though. Iron core ended up sounding grainy, but that was for 500 Hz to 3 kHz -- below that I wouldn't worry. Now I have three 3 mH inductors for comparison: a steel laminate, ferrite powder, and air core. One of these days I'll get around the measuring all three to see if there's anything measurably audible (more than my anecdotal "graininess").

Resistors: there are some high end resistors and there you get a bit more power handling and tighter tolerances. If you don't mind measuring all you get and custom matching -- then don't worry about the tolerances. if you need EXACTLY a certain value across the board, then the more expensive ones may fit the bill (but I wouldn't go there first). That being said, the MILS resistors I tried sounded great and were spot on -- more so than the meter I was testing them with

Shelf life and tolerance are the biggest factors in capacitors. I'm sure at a certain point (like much in the audio industry), you just end up paying for hype.

Has anyone else done some testing or comparisons since we last updated this thread? All I got is the inductors I tried.

[cixelsid]

Anthony wrote:

Iron, ferrous powder, steel laminate and torroidal core inductors all lower the resistance and cost versus air core.

They also saturate and ring at much lower power levels compared to air core

[drf]

Inductors are difficult to catogorise in this sense becasue they are the worst of all the passive components, By this I mean there is always a trade off between bad characteristics in order to get the best outcome. And just to confuse the issue even more, high impedance is not necessarily a bad thing in some applications.

As far as capacitors go, I would suggest you get one of each and build several crossovers. then get your mates to swap them over when your not aware. I would be interested to know if you notice the difference or not.

[eyekode]

I have never had the chance to listen to different caps in isolation, where they were the only difference in the system. But I have heard speakers I like that have (gasp) electrolytic's in them. Sooo... I don't think it is worth spending more then a couple bucks for a cap in a 300$ system. Or look at it this way: build the crossovers with inexpensive caps (but measure them to be sure they are the right value). Then break-in and listen to the speaker for a while. If at a later time you are feeling frisky, swap out the caps in the tweeter. If you like the result, swap out the caps in the mid or the smaller caps in the mid/woofer.

From your list of caps I would go with the 1% Dayton or the Solen. I would not even consider the others because they are not 6.2u!!!