technodanvan

Hey all, I seem to remember someone here recommending some caps at a reasonable price to me a while ago. I'm in the process of tearing down my towers and moving them to a new box, as the old ones were never really built correctly and I'd like to beef them up a bit and veneer a set. I harvested the inductors from the old design (12 ga Jantzen) as I didn't want to shell out another $150+ for new ones. However, to my dismay I discovered I paired these inductors with not just Dayton caps, but the yellow-capped Daytons with 10% Tolerance!

Forgive me, I was in college at the time. I also played a lot of Diablo 2, so I'm sure that skewed my thinking to an extent.

In any case, I thought I'd post here real quick to see if anyone else had some thoughts. It seems most everyone really into speaker building has a very strong opinion about brand, and I do understand that depending on the crossover some may sound better than others. I'm not nearly that picky, but I am also not opposed to trying something new out either. That said, I'm looking for price to performance here, and would prefer to spend no more than $120-$150 on new caps.

grip_racer

Dayton or Solen polypropylene. Once you're using polypropylene caps, there's so little difference in sound between any of the same material that paying more shouldn't even be a consideration.

ZaphAudio.com says don't waste your time and money with expensive crossover caps, and that even a good bipolar electrolytic (Nichicon Muse BP) will be fine. Focusing time and money on the drivers, enclosure, and crossover design is where it's at.

Hell, do a test. Buy a Nichicon BP, a Dayton, and an expensive boutique cap. You will be surprised how much the sound stays the same.

__________________
Audio System:
Cigar Box CS4397 DAC (direct-out) ->
1. Dual-Mono Gainclone Amplifier -> Celestion F15 / Pinnacle AC400 / Advent AS2 / Bose 301 Series II (depending on the day )
2. 100w RMS Plate Amp, C/O @ 80hz -> Elemental Designs 9Kv.2 (vented, 23hz tuning)

technodanvan

Thanks for the honest answer - I'm all for people comparing a million different caps and claiming they sound different...and perhaps they do, at some level with particular drivers. At my level though, I prefer enjoying the music instead of being critical about where it's coming from.

I will look into Solen, but considering I was pretty happy with the speakers before and have never taken issue with Dayton products I will probably just stick with the 1% tolerance poly caps.