ditton 25 re capping advice please

[09mike69]

thinking of re capping my 25's, they are the early type with seperate cross over at the top. my question is which caps would be preferable, im not sure how to go about it in terms of which ones to replace, ive read that the electrolytics should be replaced but not the film caps, to my next question how do i tell which are film caps. ive also read that re capping in most cases has had good results. i am just looking to re cap not upgrade. thanks in advance.
Mike.

[karma67]

Hi Mike,
Normally the electrolytics used are black and red and made by Elcap,ive just done my ditton 44's and tried them with just new electrolytics leaving the others alone,i have since changed them as well and its made an improvement. i always change like for like, i used alcaps and where polys are needed i use ansar supersound.
you dont have to stick to those brands,any good quality capacitors are fine,just keep to the values of the old ones.
if your having trouble identifying caps then post a pic for us to see.
this thread may be of help too. http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?40237-modifying-and-recapping-ditton-44-s

[09mike69]

Hi Mike,
Normally the electrolytics used are black and red and made by Elcap,ive just done my ditton 44's and tried them with just new electrolytics leaving the others alone,i have since changed them as well and its made an improvement. i always change like for like, i used alcaps and where polys are needed i use ansar supersound.
you dont have to stick to those brands,any good quality capacitors are fine,just keep to the values of the old ones.
if your having trouble identifying caps then post a pic for us to see.
this thread may be of help too. http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?40237-modifying-and-recapping-ditton-44-s

thanks for reply, i havent taken the crossovers out yet, had a look the other day and it doesnt look too hard to remove the cross overs, but replacing the caps might prove otherwise. but replace the alcap types in the dittons with like for like elcaps?.

[09mike69]

thanks for reply, i havent taken the crossovers out yet, had a look the other day and it doesnt look too hard to remove the cross overs, but replacing the caps might prove otherwise. but replace the alcap types in the dittons with like for like elcaps?.

meant replace elcaps with alcap.

[karma67]

thanks for reply, i havent taken the crossovers out yet, had a look the other day and it doesnt look too hard to remove the cross overs, but replacing the caps might prove otherwise. but replace the alcap types in the dittons with like for like elcaps?.
yes thats right.i only mention alcaps because they are marketed as being the nearest thing to the original elcaps.
have a go mate,i was nervous at first but now i do it as a matter of course with any old speakers i use. :) changing the wire inside is also well worth the effort.

[09mike69]

yes thats right.i only mention alcaps because they are marketed as being the nearest thing to the original elcaps.
have a go mate,i was nervous at first but now i do it as a matter of course with any old speakers i use. :) changing the wire inside is also well worth the effort.

thanks, i'll have a go, read lots of threads saying they had good reults with re capping. also read that alcaps were a close match and i wouldnt need to do any changes to the cross over using these. thanks for your input and i'll post results as soon as im done.
thanks again,
mike.

[diceman]

I did my ditton 25s a couple of years ago and replaced with new equiv rather than upgrade. Some were way out of spec and some had failed altogether.

It sounds like you are following a sensible path already but my 2p worth is live with the new caps for a while to get used to how the should sound before trying any upgraded polypropylene caps. They may sound rather different after new for old like-4-like replacements. You can then decide if it is worth upgrading to polypropylene caps.

As has been said there is no need to go silly with the cost of polyprop caps and I'd stick to ansar or the budget end claritycap and only for the smaller value components in tweeter and super tweeter sections.

[09mike69]

I did my ditton 25s a couple of years ago and replaced with new equiv rather than upgrade. Some were way out of spec and some had failed altogether.

It sounds like you are following a sensible path already but my 2p worth is live with the new caps for a while to get used to how the should sound before trying any upgraded polypropylene caps. They may sound rather different after new for old like-4-like replacements. You can then decide if it is worth upgrading to polypropylene caps.

As has been said there is no need to go silly with the cost of polyprop caps and I'd stick to ansar or the budget end claritycap and only for the smaller value components in tweeter and super tweeter sections.

are yours the early type 25's.