film capacitor help please.

[goraman]

I upgraded the caps in my crossovers from very cheap surplus caps to Obbligato gold caps known to favor upper midrange and the top end for the tweeters.

I chose to use a Clarity cap ESR for a smaller cap that runs in parallel to the larger obbligato and some how reduces the larger caps value.

The Korean/surplus film caps where awful and lacked detail in the upper range of the tweeter.
Now I seem to have loads of details coming through and I love the tone of what I have and acoustic guitars just seem to come alive but I have a couple of recordings that have gone sybilint since the upgrade.

Can a cap have so much affect?
Am I being to picky about this?
I am thinking of changing the obbligatos to Clarity Cap MR,they are 10 uf.

Would this settle down the upper mids and leave the upper details in tact?

Or is a little upper mid range bump a bad thing?
98% of my albums sound fantastic, very smooth presentation so it's not annoying but Jenifer Warrens Famous Blue Rain Coat dose present some sibilance at times.

Should I accept a little sibilance with just a couple of albums for such great blues and jazz presentation?
I mean the texture of brushes on a snare will give you goose bumps.

[sq225917]

That's the problem with just swapping caps based on their capacitance you can get wildly different sounds. People assume its that's each film cap sounds different but really you've just matched capacitance and not bothered to match ESR as well- so in effect only done half the job.

Effectively it's just like adding or removing a little bit of resistance from the circuit, if you know the ESR for the cap as well as capacitance you can usually predict pretty damn well how one cap will sound vs. another. It's one reason why styrenes and teflons have the rep they do- very low ESR.

...and don't worry about FBR it really is recorded like that with lots of ssssss and ttttttt sibilants

[prestonchipfryer]

If 98 per cent of your records sound good why worry unduly about the two per cent which have some sibilance. My experience with Janis Ian (Stars) and Joan Armatrading (self-titled) sibilance has only been ameliorated (though not completely) since the introduction of the SME V into my system. On CD the problem of sibilance on these albums is not an issue for me. So it could be that there is mistracking on your set-up.

John

[goraman]

That's the problem with just swapping caps based on their capacitance you can get wildly different sounds. People assume its that's each film cap sounds different but really you've just matched capacitance and not bothered to match ESR as well- so in effect only done half the job.

Effectively it's just like adding or removing a little bit of resistance from the circuit, if you know the ESR for the cap as well as capacitance you can usually predict pretty damn well how one cap will sound vs. another. It's one reason why styrenes and teflons have the rep they do- very low ESR.

...and don't worry about FBR it really is recorded like that with lots of ssssss and ttttttt sibilants

I felt FBR was recorded right at the edge of being sibililant I used to have it on LP and it was better than CD.

Since then I have gone to all loss less files into a DAC and believe it or not I'm not it's pretty close to a very good turntable and phono stage with out all the hassle of record cleaning,storage and maintenance.

The super tweeters are so good with these caps it really sounds analog,loads of shimmer very much like a Grado gold.

[goraman]

I have listened to several dozen albums since my last post,switching back to FBR to com pair notes.

I believe Famous Blue Rain Coat to be recorded right at the edge of being sibilant with in the recording. If your speakers don't have a slight dip from 3 to 7 khz. or ruler flat your in the sh*t.
Also much like Donovan,NO ONE EVER HAS TO ASK WHAT DID DONOVAN SAY? She has perfectly articulated speech as well as being pitch perfect.
Her tight annunciation leads to a small amount sibilance from my super tweeters or wizzer cone. I can't really tell which one yet, but I have come to the conclusion that the artifact caused by this recording dose not occur with any other recording so I am leaving things as they are.

I am told this recording has always caused sibilance issues since it's first release , Since it is not a sharp or hard sounding problem in only one recording why bother.
It is just slightly less noticeable through my headphones but can be heard on other systems also.

[goraman]

Well.
I am going to remove the 10 uf obblingattos and replace them with Clarity cap ESA caps just to see what happens.

I guess the O caps have a lot of upper mid range and lower treble peak.

[Reid Malenfant]

I chose to use a Clarity cap ESR for a smaller cap that runs in parallel to the larger obbligato and some how reduces the larger caps value.

Capacitors in parallel increase the capacitance

Are you sure you haven't overcooked it & now have too much capacitance which will lower the crossover frequency of the tweeter but keep the bass/mid unaltered & result in a bit of a peak around the xover.

What value capacitor was originally fitted & what do you have there now to replace it?

[goraman]

Capacitors in parallel increase the capacitance

Are you sure you haven't overcooked it & now have too much capacitance which will lower the crossover frequency of the tweeter but keep the bass/mid unaltered & result in a bit of a peak around the xover.

What value capacitor was originally fitted & what do you have there now to replace it?

I did not change values nor placement in the circuit.
I simply changed manufactures.
The obblangottos did spec at10.36 and 10.39 uf and the factory was at 9.96 and 9.98 uf.
I will request the Clarity caps be at 10.00 uf exactly as I can hear SSSS coming from the wizzer a little but the tweeters a lot.

Mark I promised Eric I would not post pictures of his X over on line,but would love for you to look at a picture and tell me what you think.

[Reid Malenfant]

I did not change values nor placement in the circuit.
I simply changed manufactures.
The obblangottos did spec at10.36 and 10.39 uf and the factory was at 9.96 and 9.98 uf.
I will request the Clarity caps be at 10.00 uf exactly as I can hear SSSS coming from the wizzer a little but the tweeters a lot.

Mark I promised Eric I would not post pictures of his X over on line,but would love for you to look at a picture and tell me what you think.

Ok so the new ones measure slightly higher That will lower the xover frequency slightly, but maybe not noticeably. The thing is though what value did you parallel them with? What value is the smaller capacitor you mentioned...

I'll PM you my email AD & you can squirt a few pictures to me. I'll in no way post them on line as I respect yours & Erics (who I don't know) wishes

[goraman]

4.0 or 3.98 uf pictures sent,thank you Mark.
I thought I would be ok as the O caps where with in 5%.