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I'm getting ready to have the capacitors in my Yamaha NS-1000M's replaced and upgraded. In speaking with 2 different sellers of capacitors the suggestion has been to use good caps in the mid and tweeter path particularly, but to use one very good cap paired up with the others so that the quality of the better cap will be picked up.
The recommendation for the mid is to use a 20uf cap of good quality and a 1uf cap of excellent quality to arrive at the necessary 21uf value required. This I'm told will realize the sound quality of the higher price cap while keeping the costs down.
Thoughts?
Follow Ups:
I take one of two approaches to this question:
(1) Parallel a number of "high quality" capacitors of equal value and of the same brand and type to achieve the needed total value of capacitance, or...
(2) Parallel one capacitor of the needed value with a second superior quality capacitor that is about 1% of the value of the primary capacitor. I usually do this only with the last capacitor in a power supply filter. In the "signal path", I have found that this latter trick is a compromise at best (see also below).I totally reject the notion that you can enhance the sonics of a second-rate capacitor by paralleling it with another capacitor of better quality. Very often that makes the situation worse; you can't pick and choose what comes from such a mix. EDIT. I should add that of course by chance you could get a good result by paralleling a mixed bag of capacitors, but it would be purely by chance and the results might as easily go in the wrong direction.
Obviously, and of necessity, these are my subjective opinions derived from about 30 years of DIY and 40 years as an audiophile.
Edits: 01/27/16
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"Confusion of goals and perfection of means seems to characterise our age." Albert Einstein
There is a lot of testimonial evidence available to support the practice of paralleling caps of differing quality to exploit the higher quality cap. Commonly but incorrectly called bypassing, it is strongly supported by subjective audiophiles but just as strongly repudiated by objectivists. According to those who rely on instrumentation to measure accuracy and sound quality, any competently manufactured film cap will sound just as good or better than any of the many exotic, expensive boutique capacitors. Those who evaluate equipment primarily by ear testify that mid-level quality caps paralleled by smaller value (typically 5% to 10% of the total value required), higher quality caps will sound appreciably better.Personally, I have experienced the improvement afforded by small value, excellent quality expensive caps such as Mundorf silver/oil caps paralleled with low cost, decent quality caps such as Sonicap Gen I in a tweeter circuit. Similar results might be obtained in a midrange circuit, but not to the same degree. I am not able to detect it, but there are those who claim they can. Decent quality might be enough there. I can't remember if the original caps in the midrange are electrolytic. They probably are, and almost ANY film cap will measure and sound better than that. Sonicaps have excellent midrange and are not terribly expensive.
I believe that there is more to be gained by combining different brands of caps than by using a cheap cap and an expensive cap of the same brand. Cap sellers will tell you not to mix brands, but their mission is to sell you caps. Think about it.
The NS1000M is a decent speaker (I owned them 40 years ago when they were first released but sold them after buying B&W's). Better caps will certainly improve them, but it cannot make them any better than the individual drivers. Don't go nuts with caps, and don't expect miracles.
There are testimonials available from people who have modified their NS1000M's with new caps and other crossover mods. Search for them. I would trust the impressions of a dedicated hobbyist before those of a seller with commercial interest.
Peace,
Tom E
Edits: 01/26/16
Great speakers !
I would put all good caps !
But I understand the economic issue.
At least I knew that I would not upgrade later the normal caps again...
Thanks for the feedback!
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