Do pricey capacitors sound better?

Comments · 328

• ED

  @edd2771 · 3 years ago

  Interesting but his question was about caps in speaker crossovers.

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• MI

  @MichaelLivingston-me · 3 years ago

  His question wasn't about an amplifier, it was about capacitors in a speaker crossover.

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• JO

  @JoeJ-8282 · 3 years ago

  It&apos;s really all completely relative. In all of my years (decades now) of extremely careful listening and countless &quot;A/B comparisons&quot;, I have noticed a &quot;trend&quot; of the following things:<br><br>1. If a capacitor is in the direct audio signal path, (whether it be in an amplifier OR in a speaker crossover), it being in a direct signal path makes a MORE significant difference in sound quality than a capacitor that is ONLY in the power supply of a component, however, as Paul mentioned, the power supply caps can definitely affect the sound to a noticably significant degree also, just not QUITE as much as the ones that are in a direct audio signal path. (And I&apos;m just talking here about the differences between different TYPES of capacitors, (as in electrolytic, polypropylene, mylar, etc.), with all other parameters such as their uF value, etc being good and equal or the same between the different types.)<br><br>2. There is a significantly noticeable difference and improvement between the sound quality from using a cheap, &quot;basic&quot; quality electrolytic capacitor, (especially if it is old and &quot;worn out&quot; or &quot;leaky&quot; or just plain bad), and a &quot;Mylar&quot; (or polyester) type capacitor.<br><br>3. There is a slight to significant improvement in sound quality when you go from a Mylar/polyester type to a good quality polypropylene capacitor.<br><br>4. There is a VERY significant improvement in sound quality if you go directly from a cheap electrolytic to a good quality polypropylene right away. (Probably the &quot;BEST&quot; option overall)(provided the necessary uF value is attainable and practical (physical size-wise) with a polypropylene vs. the electrolytic, with polypropylene capacitors being significantly larger in size for the same uF value)<br><br>5. There is a very slight improvement in sound quality between a GOOD quality (&quot;entry level&quot;) polypropylene capacitor and a VERY expensive, &quot;boutique&quot; brand polypropylene capacitor. (A case of progressively diminishing returns on investment here)(This is VERY subjective, relative, and &quot;debatable&quot;)(depends on who you talk with about it)<br><br>Therefore, I personally think that you usually get the &quot;most&quot; VALUE FOR THE MONEY, out of just simply upgrading any capacitors that are actually in the direct signal path from cheap &quot;stock quality&quot; electrolytics up to at least a GOOD, (&quot;entry level&quot;) polypropylene capacitor, getting as high of quality one as you can afford, (*see note below/at bottom*), and then also, if you can also afford to get a VERY High Quality &quot;film/foil&quot; type of (very small uF value) &quot;bypass&quot; capacitor on both the power supply main filter electrolytic capacitors, (which are impractical to replace with polypropylene ones in their entirety due to their extremely large uF values), AND also put some of the same VERY high quality film/foil type (very small uF value again) &quot;bypass&quot; capacitors across the good quality polypropylene ones you just upgraded to in the direct signal path, then THAT method is probably the MOST cost effective way to upgrade amps and especially speaker crossovers to a VERY significant degree, WITHOUT it costing an absolute &quot;fortune&quot;!...<br><br>(Because extremely expensive &quot;boutique&quot; grade polypropylene capacitors can cost up to hundreds of even thousands of dollars EACH, whereas the more &quot;entry level&quot; (but still GOOD) quality polypropylene capacitors are closer to about $1/uF, so that&apos;s what I would suggest to someone who wants a significant improvement in sound quality of a vintage speaker or amp, but doesn&apos;t want to (or simply cannot) spend literally thousands of dollars in upgrade costs...<br><br>This is all basically just my personal opinions though, based on my own years of personal experience in upgrading and improving speakers and amplifiers on a more &quot;meager&quot; or &quot;normal person&apos;s&quot; budget, so do with this information whatever you will...<br><br>Feel free to spend as MUCH as you want on new extremely high-end polypropylene capacitors like Duelund, or Jupiter caps or something similar, but you&apos;re not going to notice quite as much significant sound quality improvement between those extremely expensive polypropylene capacitors and just simply a really good quality &quot;entry level&quot; polypropylene capacitor, as you most DEFINITELY get between the cheap &quot;stock&quot; electrolytic capacitors in most vintage gear and speakers and the &quot;entry level&quot; good quality polypropylene capacitors, so take that into consideration when spending your hard earned money, especially on older vintage gear which usually ALSO needs OTHER upgrades too, not ONLY just recapping!<br><br>(*Note mentioned above*)<br>There is a VERY useful article about (audio grade) capacitors and direct relative sound quality comparisons between almost ALL of them available, and that article is easily found if you look it up in Google...<br><br>humblehomemadehifi.com<br>&quot;capacitor test&quot;<br><br>That guy is a &quot;major nerd&quot; audiophile when it comes to capacitor comparisons, so his article, (&quot;book&quot; actually!), is a REALLY great read if you want to upgrade the caps in pretty much ANY audio gear or speakers! He is ALSO continually updating his list with new capacitors that he continually tests and compares to all of the others in his VERY extensive list, on a regular basis, so that article is definitely one of the absolute BEST references for audio capacitors that I&apos;ve EVER seen anywhere, online or otherwise!<br><br>Hopefully this information will help out at least one person out there who is looking to upgrade an older amp or speakers. Good luck and happy listening!...

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• __

  @______4790 · 10 months ago

  A: Yes. But only if you know they cost more

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• RY

  @ryanjofre · 3 years ago

  ATTENTION PAUL:<br>Your fan wants to know about capacitor upgrades in speaker crossovers.<br>I really appreciate your input here and I’d love it if you would make another video about crossover capacitors.<br><br>IME an ultra low esr/high frequency filtering cap in the power supply can make an even bigger difference in/of themselves than upgrading the “audio stream” coupling caps.<br><br>Replacing a lytic in the audio stream with a film cap is always a worthwhile upgrade, if you can find a good film cap in the value you need that will fit. 😂<br>Upgrading an inferior audio stream film cap(like metalized polyester) with something like a Polypropylene film/foil cap is a VERY worthy upgrade ime!

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• JA

  @jamesgilmore-thewaterplusg5470 · 3 years ago

  Dear Paul, First I loved the content in this video. Second, I noticed the original question was about replacing caps in his speakers. I think you may have jumped to your experience in the Phase Linear 400 story. I mean you no disrespect. I very much enjoy your videos. Many Thanks, James

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• RO

  @robertduvall7392 · 3 years ago

  Bob Carver started under the Tradewell store in Edmonds, WA - where I lived. Phase Linear was up in Lynnwood. Everyone I knew worked there to get the gear. I was in High School then.

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• GO

  @gotham61 · 3 years ago

  The original question was about speaker crossover caps, not amplifiers.

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• ST

  @stever7638 · 3 years ago

  For the person who sent the email, I found a slightly richer and more organic signature with the Clarity CMR than with a standard OE electrolytic..albeit a pricey cap....many other boutique caps can be tried.<br><br>I will say this, if your internal wire for your speaker is 20+ years old, I would look into replacing that as well. The fresh wire will really let everything flow as intended since it&apos;s the last signal path before the speaker driver. Replacing the internal wire on my vintage Polks was a night and day difference...good luck!

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• TH

  @ThePauly901 · 3 years ago

  better caps in the x overs is the easiest upgrade

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• NE

  @nearchd504 · 3 years ago

  Bigger farad caps are always costly , its better to parallel smaller once to get similar filtration bcoz these 10 pcs cost less than 2 pcs big caps

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• MI

  @mikeeaglesham · 7 months ago

  My Infinity RS1b, I replicated the HPF in the bass &apos;servo&apos; to an outboard screened enclosure with top class Mundorf caps. The difference was massive in both transparency, dynamics and soundstage.<br>Those tiny HPF caps and Z switching etc in the bass &apos;servo&apos; were absolutely throttling the sound.

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