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B&W 802 D2 Capacitors Worth Upgrading?

After just getting a pair of 802D2’s in mint condition, after having to replace a blown tweeter, and succeeding (I know not a big deal), I started wondering about replacing the crossovers.  The speakers could be up to 12 years old so the capacitors in the crossovers should have another 12 years of life before they go out of spec.  I thought of just replacing the crossovers with new ones available on B&W’s site, now, just to reset the ~25y clock on the capacitor’s lifespan.  But then I watched a few YouTube’s of guys upgrading to crazy high-end caps.  Supposedly doing this can improve the speed or reduce the latency of the crossover.

I’ve not dug into this yet, but just wondering if anyone has any experience with this?  Questions:

-Is this worth doing?

-Why type of capacitors do I need?  And which brand/models are “the best”.

-Where do I get them?

-Any special tips when soldering for HiFi?  I know how to solder but have zero experience soldering for HiFi and wondering if I should be using a certain type of solder for Audiophile applications.  What am I thinking, of course there is such a thing as Audiophile solder, and it forms micro ultra low capacitance conductors, applies power correction and noise cancelation, improves the dialectics and it costs $5,000 a spool….  Ok got carried away there.

Also thinking about upgrading the internal crap wiring to something high end.

Thoughts, from anyone with experience doing these things?
 


 

 

 

 

nyev
erik_squires
15,766 posts
 

Hey Nyev,

No. Don’t do that. Change your speakers.

B&W 802s use mid-high end Mundorf film caps in most places. They are a distinct part of the B&W’s character. Also, those film caps will last hundreds of years. It’s the electrolytic caps that may go out after 25.

If you want to experiment with capacitor rolling pleeeease don’t use new-ish, high end B&W’s to start with!! 🤣 Get a kit speaker and play with it. You’ll have a lot more fun, do a lot less damage and learn a great deal more.

There are times when I strongly recommend people change their crossovers. Some of the Infinity speakers had notoriously bad impedance curves which new crossovers fix.  Focal uses Solen/Axon and even a modest replacement to Mundorf MKPs is a huge improvement.

In several years you might have to check the electrolytic caps in your speakers.  Until then I'd leave them alone.

nyev OP
1,023 posts
 

@erik_squires lol, thanks and okay, sounds like it was a bad idea!  You mentioned I might need to check the electrolytic capacitors in several years.  Which caps are these, and how do I distinguish them from the film caps?  How do I check them?  

 

 

erik_squires
15,766 posts
 

So, the idea that caps wear out is about the electrolytics. They are wet and tend to dry out over time. Old caps, made in the 80’s and 90’s or before we know would leak/dry out in about 20 years. Newer electrolytics are actually more reliable than that.

In high end speakers these caps are rare but when used are usually for the high values (50 uF or more) and low frequencies because they are cheaper and much much smaller. Find your largest 3 caps and you’ll probably find your electrolytics.

Specifically, these will probably be bi-polar electrolytics, as those again are improved from before. Power supplies use polar electrolytics, which have terminals labelled.

nyev OP
1,023 posts
 

@erik_squires , thanks for the explanation.  The 802 D2's have two crossover boards - one for LF and one for HF/MF.  The HF/MF board has 3 caps, and the LF board has 2 caps.  All caps are VERY large.  Can't read the values for all caps, but I can see that some are 4.7uF and others are 100uF.

Here are links:

HF/MF Crossover

LF Crossover

Assuming the 100uF capacitors used by B&W are the electrolytic ones as you mentioned, is the advice to replace them with the exact same capacitors, or just caps with the equivalent values - after > 25 years?  

Thanks

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