Solen vs Hovland caps

Hovlands are by far the best caps I've used. It beats out the Solens and the Multicaps. Only problem is that they costs an arm and a leg. These caps have the smoothest highs and mids I've encountered so far.

If you think your speaker is worth the change, then do it.

Hope my input helps.

Hovlands, man. The only way to fly.

The Solens are metalized poly - meaning the poly film is spatter coated whereas the Hovlands use a seperate layer of film and foil for a cleaner noise-free sound. My opinion is try the Hovlands. If you find them to "bright" or forward sounding, try a Jensen copper foil in oil - the best cap I've ever used.

Hi I have a very similar Scanspeak speaker I built.I'm assuming you have a 12db octave crossover with a cap and coil in each leg and perhaps a resistor on the tweeter.I've built crossovers using several types of components and I would agree that the Hovlands are the best.But aside from being very expensive they are huge in size also so you would need to plan space on a board for them.One good alternative I've tried is to use smaller value hovlands as bypass on a lesser quality cap ,say the Solens.Another excellent quality cap thats generally smaller and more affordable are the Wonder caps also if your going the extra mile for best sonics don't forget to use the best air core inductors such as the Solo foil type or the Solen heptalitz.Just one more observation the Solen caps are basicly just ok.not in the same league as the afforementioned but it's amazing how many top speaker manuf. use these and claim to have 'the best 'parts .I've looked inside many so called great speakers and I can't believe the junk parts used on a great deal of them.

Mar00 i agree that these big speaker companies say they use the best parts,(BULL8888).
But i disagree with you on havlands caps. Crescendos our far better,and they our also huge.Ohmite resistors our also top stuff.Price of a 5.0uf cap is 20.00.
WITH the scan speak revelater tweeter go with bypassing,along with all your caps for mid. range purity
good luck

While I do not have any experience with Hovland, I do have a lot with Solen. And, the aforementioned description of each is accurate. Solen is a film and foil cap, which uses a 5 mil polypropylene film, coated with metal(aluminum, I believe). SCR is built by the same company(at the same factory) in France, using a 7 mil polypropylene film. SCR caps sound better and are more rugged. Price is along the lines of Solen. Hovland are film and foil(rather than a thin film metallorganic sputtered to leave a metal film). Film and foil caps are audibly superior. They are also MUCH more expensive, MUCH larger, and only available in MUCH lower values. I prefer to use film and foil when I can(and my project is cost no object). However, when you need a cap larger than 10 or 15 microfarads, it will be difficult to use film and foil capacitors. You would need metallized film, or even electrolytics(hopefully not). You can always bypass the cheaper caps with a small value film and foil, with very good result. Sound closer to the film and foil, price closer to the cheaper cap. As I previously stated, I didn't get a chance to dabble in Hovlands(I hear good things about them from some people), but have had good success with MIT and Rel caps. I have also read intriguing things about a cheaper(and better sounding) cap from Wonder that is aimed at MIT/Rel/Hovland, perhaps someone can comment on these... Just as there are better capacitors than Solen, there are also better inductors(North Creek, Alpha Core Goertz). I do wholeheartedly agree on the Ohmite resistors, and recommend them ALWAYS.

Thanks for the info but i bought these as kits and did not assemble the crossovers as i am a novice at this but not afraid to solder/assemble. The crossovers are 2.7khz 3rd order butterworth,solen caps,16ga air inductors and link resistors.The boxes are 3/4 mdf and are 8w,16h,9d the tweeters are something i requested as normally the tweeters are 9300's.I bought five of these but i only want better parts for the two for now for 2 channel listening.Could these xovers be redone or should i have someone just make me new ones based on the above?If i have someone make me xovers with the best parts will they fit inside the cabinet,or should i count on a seperate box crossover? And last but not least does anyone hear want to build these for me,or recommend someone? thanks

Ears, In repsonse to your question about re-doing your crossovers, please consider trying a quaisi-second order design. These crossovers are probably the best kept secret in the audio design world. Only a handfull of manufacturers use it, and it is one of the most sonically benign designs out there. I cannot say enough good things about this crossover topology. One day everyone in the speaker design world will wake up and use this incredible crossover. Please, Please everyone out there: WAKE UP! PLEEEEEEZ!

Ehider, your advice came a little late as i had them built over from sratch.The new xovers are all hovland caps and alphacore inductors and the improvement in the mids and highs is phenominal.Much better detail,soundstaging resolution and even bass than what the solens had.This cost 300.00 including labor as i had mark at menuscis make these.The improvement is like upgrading your cdp from a 1000.00 player to an 8500.00 player.This upgrade is by far the best i have ever made at any cost,no ic's pc's or isolation devices could compare to this improvement,not even if you added all of these at once.Now i am going to be modding my sacd/cd player with blackgates ect and as soon as i get the service manual in the mail,i will be ordering some goodies to replace the crap parts that come in most gear.