Speaker Asylum

First, it's 'biasing', not 'bias-ing', just as it's talking and not talk-ing. Next, the capacitance...

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This Post Has Been Edited by the Author

In Reply to: RE: crossover capacitors. DC bias posted by Lew on July 05, 2011 at 08:42:50

...of 2 identical caps in series is one-half the value of ONE of those caps. So two 5uF caps in series become a 2.5uF cap. When placing caps in series, many of us think about using caps of the value we want to end up with, so we think about doubling the count on EACH end of the series connection. Therefor FOUR 5uF caps (in parallel/series) become one 5uF cap.

DC-biasing of capacitors is indeed useful for improving the sonic quality of those caps, but, as explained above, one now needs FOUR times the capacitance. Now one has to ask if four-times 5uF of polyester caps, DC-biased, will sound better than 5uF of polypropylene capacitance. Richard Vandersteen answered that 'yes' for the crossovers of his 5s, 5As, and Quattros, but I beieve I'd never be tempted to start with such sonically-suspect, low-priced caps.

If you need lots of capacitance in a crossover, I suggest you start with the 47uF AC-series BlackGates that Michael Percy still has. BGs' sonic quality is truly 5-star (= excellent).
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Tin-eared audiofool, former fotografer, and terrible competitive-pistol shootist.
"Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted." Albert Einstein.

http://percyaudio.com/ (Open in New Window)

Follow Ups:

RE: First, it's 'biasing', not 'bias-ing', just as it's talking and not talk-ing. Next, the capacitance... - Æ 17:16:26 07/06/11 (0)