Researching capacitors.

Pepi28

Does anyone have an opinion on ClarityCaps. I am still trying to figure out what to get that is going to make my LSi's sound the best they can. I'm leaning towards Sonicap and Solen or Sonicap and Dayton but I just came across Clarity Caps and just wanted some of your opinions if anyone has used or heard of them before.
Thanks for any help you can give
PEPI

Face

Which Claritycaps are you interested in?

I'm a huge fan of the MR's, but due to physical size and cost, I'm not sure if they'd be the best decision for LSi's.

Here is a pic of Daytons and Sonic Caps compared to OEM parts from a LSi9.

ben62670

The little Soni is a 1uf?

Face

Yeppers.

F1nut

Take your pick.

http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Cap.html

Pepi28

Face wrote: »

Which Claritycaps are you interested in?

I'm leaning towards the SA's, everything above that gets very expensive. Especially since I haven't done anything like this in a very long time. The only thing is they dont have caps in the 130microfarad range and I'm not sure on mixing Solens in with them even though they have the rated caps I need.

Face

I would use Dayton in place of Solen. Use a 90 and a 40, 100 and 30, two 50's and a 30, etc...you'll be fine.

http://www.parts-express.com/dayton-metallized-capacitors.cfm

heiney9

A friend has recently used Clarity Caps in rebuilding a 2nd pair of Dahlquist DQ-10's; he likes them better than the Solens in the signal path. They have a good rep and I'm buying some to replace the Solens on the high pass circuit of my Monitor 5B's.

I say go for it.

H9

ben62670

I will never use Solen's in the High pass again.

Pepi28

I am really pulling my hair out as to what I should do now. Is it a bad idea to mix 3 different makers of capacitors or is 2 enough? I was thinking on going with Clarity Caps for the tweeter and upper mid, Sonicap for the lower mid, and Dayton for the woofer and upper mid 130 uf caps. Does this sound ok or will there be a problem with it? I'm trying to keep the costs around $300-$400 so my wife dont kill me. I was even thinking Solens for the 130 uf caps but most of you fine people seem to dislike them.

ben62670

I would not use Solen's in the LSI15's. That cap is inline with the circuit that feeds the mid woofer.

NJPOLKER

1) Not everyone dislikes the Solens.
2) Spend the money now and don't look back.
3) Don't let her find out how much you have spent.
4) I have been through this before and will again.

Face

Use the highest quality caps on the tweeter, i.e. Sonic Cap on the tweeter, Dayton on the mids, etc...

The only place I would consider Solen is for the bottom woofer.

ben62670

NJPOLKER wrote: »

1) Not everyone dislikes the Solens.

I think that there has been a change. When I first came on in 06 they were "the best value cap", but I think since then quality must have dropped. I do not like the Solen's. Well I would use them as a shunt cap if I needed a value(uf) that they only had in the price range.
Ben

Pepi28

would a 40uf cap be too much to replace a 38uf cap that the schematic calls for?

ben62670

I would being a shunt cap, but others may disagree. Most of those old caps are 20%. Where are you ordering from? What speakers are you doing?
Ben

Pepi28

I'm modding my LSi15's. I was about to place an order for clarity caps, daytons and sonicap. I'm ordering the clarity's from e-speakers.com, the daytons from parts-express, and the sonicaps from sonicraft

DarqueKnight

Pepi28 wrote: »

Does anyone have an opinion on ClarityCaps.

I like them. I have three pairs of SDA CRS+'s (1989 model). One pair was recapped from stock with Solens, then the Solens were replaced with AudioCaps. The second pair went from stock to ICW Clarity Caps SA Series. The third pair went from stock to AudioCaps to SoniCaps. In order of detail retrieval and tonal balance they are:

1. Sonicaps.
2. AudioCaps.
3. Clarity Cap SA Series.

Solens would be 4th in the list above.

However, if I would rate their detail retrieval and presentation (in the CRS+'s) on a scale of 1-10, where 10 was indistinguishable from a real live instrument playing, their ratings would be:

1. Sonicaps: 6.5.
2. AudioCaps: 6.
3. Clarity Cap SA Series: 5.75.

Solens would be a 5. in the list above.

On a lot of music, the three CRS+'s are indistinguishable from each other.

I recently replaced the AudioCaps in my SRS 1.2TL's with Sonicaps. The owner of Sonicraft Inc., which makes Sonicaps, tried to discourage me from doing the replacement because he said the modest difference might not be discernible and he certainly didn't think it was worth the money. He recommended just bypassing some of the high frequency AudioCaps with Gen II Sonicaps. I politely declined that advice and ordered the Gen I Sonicaps to replace the AudioCaps. I was very pleased with the results, as were others who had did similar replacements of AudioCaps with Sonicaps.

At this level, you are well into the "season to taste" zone and you really won't know what works best for you until you do your own "taste test". This is time consuming and expensive, but you won't know what flavor of ice cream you like best until you try a few (or a lot of) flavors.:) You could also try to extrapolate from the experiences of others who have similar equipment and listening preferences, but again, they are the ones tasting the ice cream and not you.

NJPOLKER wrote: »

1) Not everyone dislikes the Solens.

True. Solens are used in the crossovers of some very highly regarded speakers retailing in the tens of thousands of dollars (e.g. Dunlavy, Duntech, Dynaudio). I think they are a good "all around" cap, but there are better out there...for a price. The rationale for these companies stopping at the Solen level is that most people just flat out can't tell a difference between high quality film caps. Furthermore, they believe that the drivers, cabinet design, and crossover design have a much, much greater effect on the sound. I agree.

Often, the differences in high quality film caps is more like variations of the same flavor of ice cream from different vendors rather than the differences between different flavors.;)

In summary:

I like the Solens in my SDA SRS's.
I like the Sonicaps in my SDA SRS 1.2TL's.
I like the Clarity Caps in my #1 pair of SDA CRS+'s.
I like the AudioCaps in my #2 pair of SDA CRS+'s.
I like the Sonicaps in my #3 pair of SDA CRS+'s.
I like the Sonicaps in the hf section of my LSi9's.
I like the Solens in the lf section of my LSi9's.
I like the Sonicaps in the hf section of my LSi15's
I like the Solens in the lf section of my LSi15's.

They all make Such Good Sound...to me.

Pepi28

I guess my next question should be: Will either of the caps I mentioned make a noticeable difference in sound compared to the stock caps or should I forget doing it alltogether?

ben62670

All of the caps would make a real sound improvement. It's kinda like Ice Cream. Which brand, flavor do you prefer, and what are you having it with.
Ben

heiney9

Yes, great difference in sound. I can't imagine after paying shipping from 3 places you couldn't spend almost as much just getting the same parts from 1 or 2 places.

F1nut

Will either of the caps I mentioned make a noticeable difference in sound compared to the stock caps

Yes.

Pepi28

heiney9 wrote: »

Yes, great difference in sound. I can't imagine after paying shipping from 3 places you couldn't spend almost as much just getting the same parts from 1 or 2 places.

Luckily the shipping is free from both. I decided to just go with clarity caps and daytons.

Pepi28

Well I ordered the caps and resistors to do the mod on my LSi15's. I should have everything done by next weekend. I'm really psyched and cant wait to hear the difference. I just want to thank everyone for their expert opinions and for giving me some good advice on what to get and not to get. I will let everyone know how it goes once I get it done.

Pepi28

I would have gone that route but money is very tight all of a sudden for me right now. I think I will be plenty happy with the Clarity caps and Daytons for now. Maybe next year or the following I'll do it all over again with the Mundorf or the Duelund caps.

Pepi28

Country Club. I saw your web page. Awesome work you did on your TL's. I cant believe how nice they came out.

jimiles

Just to add yet another option to the mix; I used Jantzen Z-Superior bypassed with Obbligato copper-cased caps on my RTA 15TLs and enjoyed the results immensely.

Tony Gee informed me that Jantzen graciously allowed him to test some pre-production samples of their upcoming Z-Silver/Gold cap. No word on pricing or availablity, yet.

I was uber excited about the ClarityCap MR range last year, and then I saw the US pricing at Madisound. That damped my excitement in a hurry!

Face

jimiles wrote: »

I was uber excited about the ClarityCap MR range last year, and then I saw the US pricing at Madisound. That damped my excitement in a hurry!

I used the MR's in one of my pairs of Tannoys. They sound fantastic, very dynamic, lower floor noise, etc... I only used them in the high pass section though, because as you saw, the larger values get kind of pricey.

jimiles

Your speaker has quite a few different components, all of which are equally valid upgrade targets. Instead of blowing your entire budget on crossover components, consider leaving some room in the budget to...

1) damp the cabinets
2) upgrade the internal wiring
3) replace the binding posts
4) isolate the cabinets on vibrapods <--- STAGGERINGLY AWESOME UPGRADE

More importantly...call me an Acoustics **** if you want...but go fix your room acoustics first. It's at least 100x bigger improvement than upgrading the crossovers. When your RT60 time is off by nearly a second and you've got 10dB swings in room response, fretting over the differences between the little cappies is missing the forest for the trees!

Face

They're in custom cabs with plenty of bracing(shelves, dowels). All posts and wiring was replaced also. I went with spikes though, I'm not sure Vibrapods would like a 125+lbs speaker on top of them.

Acoustics are already taken care of in that room(first reflection, bass corner traps, curtains, etc...), the room my SDA's are in needs help though, that's next.

jimiles

Face wrote: »

They're in custom cabs with plenty of bracing(shelves, dowels). All posts and wiring was replaced also. I went with spikes though, I'm not sure Vibrapods would like a 125+lbs speaker on top of them.

Acoustics are already taken care of in that room(first reflection, bass corner traps, curtains, etc...), the room my SDA's are in needs help though, that's next.

Sweet action! Sounds like things are well under control

On the Vibrapod front; you'd need five of the largest model. The guys who popularized this mod were running Vonschwiekert VR4s, which are by no means lightweight. YMMV; if you are on a cement slab, it's probably a whole lot less critical than it was for me in my old farmhouse.