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My music room and hi-fi system
BSD2000:
Awesome work! 8)
I was looking around on the net and was surprised how affordable the Russian PIO's are, especially values ideal for use as bypass caps. Would PIO caps work in speaker crossovers with similar benefits? I'm in the middle of a DIY speaker build and I'd like to experiment with other cap types. :)
lshin80:
The Russian PIOs and Teflons are so affordable because they were mass produced until the 90's, so there is still a lot of them around. Mine are out of a stock from the mid 80's. Their quality is at the top: the Teflons I got are rated at 200 Volts but they work flawlessly at 390 Volts!
If a capacitor works great in an active circuit, it's not guaranteed it will be great in a crossover, and vice versa. I heard many to be good in one application, and bad in the other one.
However I do remember reading about someone using Russian Teflons in a crossover with great results.
Anyway, I wouldn't recommend them for bypass, for two reasons.
1. If you're bypassing a bad sounding cap, benefits will be minimal. No good cap can improve a bad one. Better to use a single good one.
2. If you're bypassing a good cap, results could be either great or bad. That is: the way two good sounding yet different caps interact is totally unpredictable. You need to experiment to see what works.
For big values, like 4,7 uF and so on, I'd recommend the Intertechnik Audyn Cap Plus. They're the least expensive caps among the really good caps, and with good I mean magical. They're equally good sounding as the Mundorf Mcap Supreme, but they cost half the money.
Prices:
http://www.parts-express.com/cat/metalized-polypropylene-capacitors/294?m=501
Also check out this capacitors review, it's made with crossovers in mind, and it prompted me to get the Intertechniks:
http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Cap.html
And this one, with the various caps tested in different applications:
http://www.laventure.net/tourist/caps.htm
BSD2000:
Lately, most of my projects have been DIY speakers and crossovers. For most of my crossovers designs in the past, I used basic air-core inductors from Solen, Erse, Jantzen and Madisound steel laminates. I also experimented with copper foil inductors from Alpha Core and Goertz. For resistors, I prefer either Mills or Eagle; although I've also used Dayton ceramics from time to time. For capacitors, I mainly use Solen, Bennic or Dayton polypropylene caps, but I have experimented with Carli (mylar's), Hovland, Aerovox, Jantzen, GE and Cornell-Dubilier WMF series film/foil poly caps.
Fo my latest project - a small 4" two-way bookshelf speaker - I picked up some Clarity PX series caps, although I may buy a few Audyn caps and give them a try instead. 8)
lshin80:
The Audyn Cap Plus are well worth the money. To me, they are the caps with the best price/quality ratio around. Mandatory: 250 hours of burn-in, since out of the box they sound horrible...but once they are well-adjusted... O:-)
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