Putting a capacitor between the SET amp and the satellite speakers is not a good idea, for at least two reasons.
First, for frequencies below the point where the capacitor's impedance (capacitive reactance) becomes negligible, variations in the satellite speaker's impedance vs. frequency curve would interact with the capacitive reactance to produce an irregular overall frequency response.
Second, putting the capacitor at that point would force the SET amp to have to swing voltages corresponding to the full-range signal, including the deep bass components. If the satellites have sensitivity that is not substantially greater than the sensitivity of the bass panels, that would mean that much of the power capability of the SS amp would not be usable, because if you turned the volume up so as to utilize that capability you would clip the SET amp.
You might still have that same problem, although to a lesser degree, if you put the cap between preamp and power amp. The first-order (6db/octave) rolloff that the cap would provide would still result in significant bass energy being put through the SET amp.
To be more specific than that we would have to know the sensitivities of the speakers, and the power ratings of the amps you are considering.
Additional issues that you would have to deal with are gain matching (taking into account differences in sensitivity between the bass panels and the satellites), and matching of the crossover slopes (you would probably want to set the electronic crossover slope to also be 6db/octave).
It seems to me that the most sensible approach would be an electronic crossover for both the high pass and low pass functions. Among other advantages, that would give you the flexibility to choose sharper crossover slopes, and thereby keep more of the bass content out of the SET amp.
If you still want to use a cap for the high pass function, I would suggest putting it (actually them, for two channels) into a small metal enclosure together with rca jacks for input and output connections.
Regards,
-- Al
First, for frequencies below the point where the capacitor's impedance (capacitive reactance) becomes negligible, variations in the satellite speaker's impedance vs. frequency curve would interact with the capacitive reactance to produce an irregular overall frequency response.
Second, putting the capacitor at that point would force the SET amp to have to swing voltages corresponding to the full-range signal, including the deep bass components. If the satellites have sensitivity that is not substantially greater than the sensitivity of the bass panels, that would mean that much of the power capability of the SS amp would not be usable, because if you turned the volume up so as to utilize that capability you would clip the SET amp.
You might still have that same problem, although to a lesser degree, if you put the cap between preamp and power amp. The first-order (6db/octave) rolloff that the cap would provide would still result in significant bass energy being put through the SET amp.
To be more specific than that we would have to know the sensitivities of the speakers, and the power ratings of the amps you are considering.
Additional issues that you would have to deal with are gain matching (taking into account differences in sensitivity between the bass panels and the satellites), and matching of the crossover slopes (you would probably want to set the electronic crossover slope to also be 6db/octave).
It seems to me that the most sensible approach would be an electronic crossover for both the high pass and low pass functions. Among other advantages, that would give you the flexibility to choose sharper crossover slopes, and thereby keep more of the bass content out of the SET amp.
If you still want to use a cap for the high pass function, I would suggest putting it (actually them, for two channels) into a small metal enclosure together with rca jacks for input and output connections.
Regards,
-- Al