Can I replace a 24uF capacitor with 22uF?

You can make electrolytics work but they have to be biased correctly! I don't know why, but for some reason most speaker manufacturers don't do this. The problem is that electrolytics can't be reverse-biased. This is supposed to be why you use non-polars. But non-polar caps are merely two electrolytics assembled back-to-back. The problem is not solved- now you have distortion of the waveform in both directions!

The solution is simple. Get two caps of the right value (in this case 47uf). Put them back to back but keep the connection where they meet available. Attach a 100Kohm resistor to that connection, and connect a couple of 9V batteries in series to that resistor and the minus connection of the speaker. If the back to back connection is the negative side of each cap, attach the negative side of your battery power supply to that as well.

What you will find is that the distortion associated with electrolytics is gone! You will also find that they can keep up with expensive film caps for an embarrassingly low price :)

The batteries will last for their shelf life. You could of course replace them with a small power supply. As long as the caps are biased at a voltage greater than that of the incoming signal, its all good.

I've decided to go with 22uF Mundorf M-Cap Supreme + 2.2uF ClarityCap MR. Also replacing 100uF/100V Elytone non-polar electrolytics with 100uF/250V Mundorf MKP + 0.01uF Vishay MKP-1837 -- that should work, right? Thanks!

Atma, your post is most interesting to me. First I have heard of this idea. Thanks.

Eugene, if that large 100 uf cap is for the bass and I am sure it is, then do this. Use 4-6 smaller value Mundorf mkp's in parallel to reach your 100 uf value. This will indeed provide better bass.

Also, use Clarity SA caps instead ........ I just did this replacing the same large value Mundorf with great results.

ClarityCap can wind 630V or 250V ESA to any custom value <200uf or do new compact 400V MR range to 35uf.

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