Altec Model 19 - which caps for crossovers

Not to hijack here, but along the same lines I am mulling the conundrum Johnk presents. My recently acquired Flamencos are in rough physical shape and I am thinking of refinishing the cabinets and making some mods (mostly aesthetic) along the way. It's something I am having to work up the courage to do since I want to respect their originality but I simply don't like the way they look.

Of course I am having similar thoughts about updating the crossovers. My answer so far is to save the original crossovers and build entire new ones so that I can always go back to stock.

Back to topic--Ivana, thanks for sharing about the caps. I am going to put them on my list.

Old caps are not working properly so I have to change them. I just wanted to hear your experience. Thanks to all of you

IMO, your best choice will be teflon (1st choice) or poly caps. I would try and match the values of the capacitors you want to replace as closely as possible unless you are also planning to rebuild the entire crossover (new resistors & transformers) and plan to change the frequency responses output by the new xover.

You do not need to go hog wild on the caps: virtually ANY capacitor made today, at any price point, is orders of magnitude better than the best caps from even 20 years ago.

After changing the caps, will you Model 19 sound the same? No - hopefully you will find that they sound better. They should sound faster and much more detailed, with better high/low transients and less "bloated" (by comparison).

Good luck

if you are over it with the "authenticity" issue....you may also try old Vishay MKP series.........we will never know, how the old original sounded anyway, nobody has such a memory and these older caps are long gone, nobody makes them anymore, so what other choice you have?