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"Caps sound different" or how an audio myth is born

Posted by KlausR. (A) on March 6, 2007 at 01:29:36

From a recent review in positive feedback (Ecosse cables reviewed by Max Dudious) :

"Twenty-five years ago I designed a rather simple crossover network for a pair of "monitor" sized loudspeakers, the crossover being of
the simple first-order type. It had one capacitor in the circuit, I think of five or six micro-farad value. I made one with a Mylarâ„¢ cap, and the other with a Polypropyleneâ„¢ cap. I managed over some weeks to test if any of the members of my listening panel could hear any difference. I played a mono recording, and switched from left to right. Everyone immediately heard the difference. Some were amazed at the improvement just one clean capacitor could make. These days, all the better companies brag about what clean capacitors they use. But it wasn't always so."

Pair matching in speakers is not that good, figures of >0.5 dB are common.

Further, the position of a loudspeaker in a room has a major influence on the sound, one just needs to read the works of Toole/Olive and Bech.

Each parameter on its own can result in a difference between the left and right speaker of a pair when playing a mono recording. Did the reviewer take these parameters into account in order to simply eliminate them? It doesn't look like, otherwise he would have mentioned it, to him it's the caps that are responsible for the perceived difference. And yet another myth is born.

Klaus

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