Mylar caps in RTA 11T

Jockos

I'm thinking of tweaking again so I have a question. What is the function of the 34uf capacitor in the 11T. Does it "block" higher frequency's to the MW6510's?

Jockos

Question: To increase capacitor values do you wire them in parallel or series? And how does that affect the voltage value?

Jockos

Systems

Wire them in parallel to increase value,voltage is unchanged.

heiney9

GV#27 wrote: »

Wire them in parallel to increase value,voltage is unchanged.

NM..........can't read correctly this early in the A.M.

H9

Systems

heiney9 wrote: »

It's my understanding that in order to increase the value (sum the value of multiple resistors) they need to be wired in series.

See here about mid page.

http://www.physchem.co.za/Current%20Electricity/Resistors.htm

H9

No,He was asking about capacitors.:) to increase the value they should be paralleled.C=C1+C2

heiney9

GV#27 wrote: »

No,He was asking about capacitors.:) to increase the value they should be paralleled.C=C1+C2

Ahhhh....totally missed that word in his question . Then GV27 is absolutely correct, I'll go back and edit my earler post. The sleep is still in my eyes, sorry about that.

H9

Jockos

Thanks

Jockos

I was thinking about changing the 34uf capacitor out for another brand. How much would this affect sound quality?

heiney9

Jockos wrote: »

I was thinking about changing the 34uf capacitor out for another brand. How much would this affect sound quality?

If that's the one in the signal path for the tweeter then yes it should make a difference.

EDIT: provided the caps you replace it with is of higher quality and not merely a latteral move.

Jockos

I have 2 Solen 33uf caps if anyone can use them. 1 has electrical tape wrapped around for protection. There is some leftover glue on them. Just asking $5 for shipping. I'm going to go with Dayton all around. Since they don't have a 33uf will order the 30+4uf and parallel them. Right now I have 2 100v electrolytic in there and I like the sound much better. The highs caps are all daytons. The Solens just didn't work out for me.

Jockos

Systems

Jockos wrote: »

Right now I have 2 100v electrolytic in there and I like the sound much better.
Jockos

May I ask what you didn't like about sound when you put the Solen's in?Im' not familiar with your speaker but because it is rather large I assume it is in series with a midrange driver?

Jockos

Yes that is correct, originally I had upgraded my entire crossover with Solens and Mills resistors. When I put the Solens in, the sound seemed gritty and edgy also it sounded tubey. The soundstage was wider but too much emphasis on the midrange. After some research I replaced the 2 tweeter caps with daytons. There was definitely an improvement in the sound. I had read that in low pass sections the capacitors should not affect the sound. I decided to keep the low pass Solens in. However it still sounded too warm. The piano notes sounded dull. After I put the dayton electroylitics in the sound is more like the original voiceing albeit cleaner. By the way I did give the Solens time too break-in, about 75 hours. Just not for me.

Jockos

danger boy

i hope to expirement with a Solens, Mills, Kimber Kaps mix for a rebuild to my monitor 7B's here in a couple weeks. I did the monitor 7A's with Mills and Solens.. now it's time to mix it up a bit.

Systems

ahh so it is a shunt cap in the low pass filter.I find it interesting that it had such an audible effect .Maybe it is something to do with polyprop having less ESR than the electrolytic?

heiney9

I guess in this case you have to be careful what you wish for. Recapping my 5b's with Solens and Mills really improved the sound, but I will admit they can be very finnicky about the source and the quality of a recording. Not everything I used to listen to on my office rig sounds as it did. They are much less forgiving of poor recordings especially the occasional MP3's I listen to.

Jockos, we all have to live with whatever we think is the right sound but you are one of the very few who is taking a step backwards and using electrolytics instead of polyprops. You tried it and din't like, I respect that.......but I guess I just can't get my head around it. Those Dayton caps really aren't as nice as the Solens but hey whatever works for you......that's all that matters.

I am going to be doing some experimenting with my 5b's as there is way too much upper midrange (too forward, not bright or harsh) just seems to overpower the rest of the music. I'm going to bypass the tweeter signal path Solen cap with a Sonic Cap Platinum and change the single Mills resistor from 2.0 ohm to 4.7 ohm to see if I can get the voicing a little more laid back and uniform.

These are ultra clear and the soundstage and definition of instrument is eerrie sometimes, but they are voiced a bit "hot" thru the typical female vocal range of freq. We will see what happens.

Rock on

H9

Jockos

heiney,

Your description of the upper midrange too forward is an excellent description. I have read some threads of people using clarity caps with good results, and they are also inexpensive. Good luck.

GV,

I'm surprised too, not being an electrical engineer I really don't understand the science involved and how the components interact with each other. I notice that polk uses electroyltics in there low pass section in all there crossovers, even the LSI's. I'm also wondering about the voltage difference. Most polks use caps rated at only 50v in there low pass sections with the exception of the LSI's which are 100v. Well I guess trial and error is part of the fun. I might keep the electroylitics in for awhile and if not then order the daytons for the low pass.

Jockos

heiney9

Funny thing is my SDA 1C's use the same type of drivers and essentially the same principle and many of the same components in the x-over and they are as laid and smooth as anything (except the LSi's) that I have laid ears on. The LSi's are only ever so slightly more detailed and laid back, but one has to be really familiar with both and the music playing to really notice; that's how close it is. I was hoping for the same with the 5b's.......not there yet.

Polks tweeters tend to produce more upper midrange than a typical speaker because the 6.5" drivers have to also create some bass so they seem to x the tweeters pretty low and I always thought that was why there is much upper midrange prominence, but not so with the 1C's (just the opposite actually). Makes me wonder.

Keep experimenting and keep us posted to what you find.

H9

P.s both the 1C's and 5b's have RD0's too.

Jockos

I'm looking for the round gaskets for the terminal cups, I'll try to post in troubleshooting.

ka7niq

george daniel wrote: »

I replaced the resistors with mills, and the caps were solen,,,partsconnexion ,,, they have the resistors that you want/need.

Solens are just 'average' sounding caps.
Not always better then all Mylars.
Madisound has the British Clarity Caps
for a really good price.
In two seperate reviews the Clarity Caps smoked the Solens.
In fact, to really beat the Clarity Caps you almost needto go to a Mundorf Supreme or a Hovoland.

Mills resistors sound great too.
For a cheap cap, I like the Bennic's Poly over the Solens.
But the Clarity Caps on Polk tweeters are pure magic!

I also replaced the tweeter caps in my B&W 801's with the Clarity Caps.
By FAR the best sounding cap I have used in the 801's.

The Clarity Caps are not that much more then the Solens, like a buck or two for a 6.8 mfd cap.

Call Madisound, they have them w/o stupid shipping charges too!

heiney9

I'm extremely happy with the Sonic caps in my SDA 1C's. I refreshed a pair of Polk Monitor 5b's recently and just am not 100% happy. They are better than they were but they are just still a bit to forward. I used Solens and Mills. I might just give the Clarity cap a try for the tweeters. @ $7 a pop it's worth experimenting.

First I'm going to bypass the Solen on the tweeter with a Sonic cap platinum series cap to see if that changes anything. If that doesn't work I might try a Clarity cap. They seem to get pretty good reviews from hardcore tweakers.

H9