BEST HARMLESS/SIGNATURELESS SPEAKERS CAPACITORS.

Dear friends : """ bypass > 5uF with a 0.1 copper film..."""

that was an advise posted by erik_squires and for years I was a follower of other " expert " followers of by-pass caps in speaker crossovers to use small value top caps as by-pass ones. I used teflon ones, silver or cooper caps. Latest the teflon Cu that I use with my Alumen Z in the Tweeters/bandpass/midrange caps.

Well, I already posted that my room/system has a very good high resolution and very low distortion levels and today I unsoldered all the by-pass caps in the AlumenZ and not what a surprise but what a great discovery that after running 3 times in a row my self developed whole evaluation system process what I’m listening rigth now is something totally new for the better of what I was listened just yesterday ! !. and I say BETTER not just different.

No by-pass caps makes a paramount differences in quality overall room/system performance. I have no words to describe the levels of quality differences.

For me and in my system listening LP and digital probably my big mistake over my audio life other that listened to tubes is with out doubt the use of by-pass caps in my speakers crossover. Never again.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DUISTORTIONS,
R.

Audience was absolutely rigth on that regards.

Dear friends: I forgot something where I was too a follower of " experts ".

Now  as a fact been a follower is something that one way or the other all of us did or do it in some important audio subjects and been a follower is a really good way to LEARN when we finally LEARNED because it's the way to learn with first hand experiences.
Other way to learn is that sometimes we can try to think " out of the box " on some audio issues and take actions about.
 This way is how I learned that pure silver cable is the best power cord you can achieve for any audio electronic items and in the same way I learned that the best fuse is not any fuse at all and it's that way how I use my system audio items.

Anyway, when I started to change the passive parts in my speakers crossover I read several times that a blend of caps could give me what I'm looking for and I did it for many years with some " good " results but latter on I learned that those " blended caps " diferent signatures was for me a wrong way to go: a mistake and started to stay using same cap manufacturer signature and the results are way better that the recomended " blended caps ".

I do it through the tweeter/bandpáss/midrange crossover caps and not with the woofers because normally I can't get same manufacturer quality level caps of 100uf value.

I learned that if I need to blend " something " in the audio system then something is wrong in the system chain and I need to identify in which system's link or links and make the changes to avoid the necessity of that " blend " recomendation.

Yes, that's me but audiophiles are singular human beens with different targets and approach.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.

When I added Duelund bypass caps to my speaker's crossover I thought I got a bit better tonality, but also some "smearing" in the imaging.  In the end, I preferred without the bypass.  I did like the bypass cap on a coupling capacitor in my amplifiers though...

Dear @cal3713  : Other that the speaker designer for an amateur person as me is way dificult trying to improve the speaker quality performance level.

The speaker drivers , especially tweeter and midrange,  has its self signature where the designer adds the passive crossover parts to achieve the " tonal balance " he is looking for ( obviously that the box, wiring and other speakers design characteristics are way important too. ).
With those passive parts he can " tame "  his speaker targets and he knows a precise electrical parameters limits where each driver is more " confortable " to work. These information I just don't have it, I only have my ears and listening audio life experiences of MUSIC and audio systems.

Through the years just from the first time I " touched " my ADS crossover speakers I mantained all the passive parts at its original values.

I'm lucky enough that through so many times changing its passive parts I still have the original ADS tonal balance ( great one. ).

The changes in passive parts were and are not to " tame " or change the ADS signature but only to achieve a better way better quality response/Performance levels over the very wide frequency range where those speakers runs.

Like you I found out that those very expensive by-pass caps in the crossovers makes more harm than a true improvement.

As the speaker drivers all passive parts has its own signature and we have to live with but if my target is to preserve the ADS original tonal balance then what I need are the best harmless and signatureless/colorless passive parts and these is what I was and am doing till today.

Yes Dueleund are very good as many other expensive caps, things are that does not likes to my ADS drivers where the Alumen Z works really better not different but better.

I decided to delay a little the tweeter/band-pass/midrange caps and I will make a change with the woofer caps choosing between the CMR, Auricaps and Audyn. Of course I will need to test all those caps directly in the speakers mantaining the AlumenZ to decide which ones will stays " forever " on those woofers.

We will see what happen in the near future about.

R.

The first speakers I used to experiment with caps came with auricaps LSA statements towers with ribbon tweeters. I first tried to keep auricap family so I moved up to the Auricap XO in the tweeter the XO's are better, more refined better stage and not as tipped up. I do prefer the Jantzen Z's and CMR' that are in them now. The XO's are very nice can't go wrong with those either.