Dear @grunter : " the most upgrading mod is sobstituting the 100uF electrolytic cap... " crossover
agree, I experienced the same in my system where the woofer speaker came with an electrolytic 100uf.
I can see and read that you took the road/path to make the crossover mods in your speaker through a blend of high end/boutique caps As a fact that is the normal path for any audiophile that wants to improve the quality performance levels of his room/audio system..
As you I started a thread looking for advises of caps from audiophile experts for I can make my " last " speakers crossover mods and I was very specific on what I asked in my thread:
looking for HARMLESS and SIGNATURELESS caps that can preserves the sensible and critical signal integrity that was picked up by the recording microphones.
I received the normal boutique advises and suddenly I decided ( thank's to my thread and during/inside the thread. ) to make a " deep " research about caps through internet, from A to Z. What a learning lessons, for say the least.
Though that research and with out any Agon audiophiles advise I decided to test WIMA caps and yes you can laugh about and decided to think " out of the box ".
Wima extremely humble and inexpensive caps were never in my mind its use, as a fact each time I seen a Wima in my system inmediatly I take off and changed it for a " better " cap.
Today and after first hand experiences with several diferent high end/boutique caps ( Duelund, Mundorf, V-caps, Jantzen, Sonicraft and the like. ) I know almost for sure that those added boutique caps colorations are only that colorations/distortions that does not exist in the recording but we like it and for me those " nice colorations " are not part of the real MUSIC, of what the recording microphones pick-up.
We audiophiles are looking for those " nice " colorations/distortions because those colorations are the ones we are accustom to, not because we are sure are rigth.
Those colorations just does not exist in a near field live MUSIC listening sessions. Any kind of MUSIC. This is my reference to achieve my room/system targets.
Tidal 200K speaker is a good example on how a speaker manufacturer use those kind of caps as a " tone " devices " as a " tone control " when the main target in a speaker crossover capacitor certainly is not to be used as a tone devices it's not any cap function/role.
Tidal use a blend of 5 diferent caps in its speaker crossover to make exactly that:
https://www.tidal-audio.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/x-over.jpghttps://www.tidal-audio.com/technology-crossover/I found out that WIMA was and is the caps industry standard, every industry kind: military, medical instruments, aerospace, aeronautic, audio. You just name it.
If you open any Soulution electronics you will see down there full of Wima caps. This is a board example of Soulution :
https://6moons.com/audioreviews/soulution3/23.jpgbut not only on that high end electronic manufacturar but here too:
https://dartzeel.com/en/nhb-108-model-two/or in this Swiss made:
http://www.theaudiobeat.com/visits/ch_precision_upgrade_addition.htmhttp://www.theaudiobeat.com/visits/pics/ch_precision_upgrade_1.jpgor this over 250K Rentless by D'angostino:
http://cdn.dandagostino.com/images/products/relentless_monoblock_3.jpgI know that you are done in your great system for now but I urge you that in the near future try change all your speaker crossover caps for the Wima MKP-10 caps that you can buy through Mouser supplier. My speaker use very similar caps values as yours: 6.8uf and 100uf.
I used 4- 22uf + a 10uf caps instead the 100uf one. Before I made the Wima changes I was using Jantzen Alumen Z and V-caps in woofers.
The overall quality level diferences ( beleive it or not. ) were and are nigth and day. I don't use any by-pass caps through the speakers crossover ( it does not need it. By pass does more harm than any improvement. ) and all caps are the same model no single blended cap filter.
As a job it's not an easy job the change of the caps for the Wima ones because the Wima are radial instead the usual axial termination conectors. Yes it could be a hard work more time consuming and care that other thing but the rewards makes that that work be worth to do it !.
Btw, in that circuit board Soulution link all those low brown resistors you can see there are Vishay-Dale and the Powertron resistors you choosed for your speakers was made by Vishay because Powertron is part of the Vishay group and Vishay for resistors is the industry ( any kind of. ) standard as Wima on the caps.
I'm using the colored Duelund resistors but I already received the Powertron too that I choosed over the boutique audiophile Pathaudio ones.
Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS.
R.
Btw, from some years now the high-pass filter in my biam system was and is doing through the Levinson monoblocks ( heavy tweaked. ) at its input cap where the overall audio signal must pass ( all frequency ranges. ) and in combination with a Z-foil TX2575 Vishay resistor makes the first order high-pass filter.So this input cap is way critical for the system overall quality performance and I was using a V-cap Teflon Cu ( 100.00 each one. ) that I decided one month ago to change for the ridiculous humble Wima FKP-1 ( 2.00 ) and guess what: the Wima outperformed the Teflon Cu with an unexpected easy. Unbelievable ! ! .
