KG4.5,3.2,2.5,kv3

[JustTaylor]

I recently collected these speakers for a home theater system. They sound very nice as I have replaced the stock diaphragms with Crites titanium upgrades for all. I would like to know how to tell if the capacitors need replacement. i don't want to waste the time and money if I could not tell in a double blind test with new caps. I contacted the tech department at Klipsch and they assured me that the stock capacitors rarely ever go "bad", even on speakers this age. They said the caps should be fine for many years to come. I have looked at the crossovers, they look new. All the speakers sound symmetrical and clear. I still feel uneasy about the whole issue because of the quotation marks around "bad". I am all for upgrading/replacing capacitors if it will make a real, noticeable difference. Someone please help. This seems to be a controversial issue. Could someone please explain to me the difference in functionality between old and new capacitors. Please explain differences in sound quality new capacitors will make. Thanks.

[jhoak]

Welcome to the madness err... I mean Klipsch forums. Yea... That's what I meant to say. []

As a general rule as capacitors age they don't go "out of spec" in terms if capacitance but become more "resistive". What that means is that while they are doing their job in terms of passing the correct frequencies by being higher resistance they're passing less of that signal. Sometimes much less. Does that make sense? The effect on the sound is reduced output to the tweeters or "dull" sounding speakers. Cymbals seem to just go away, voices get flat in particular female vocals.

The only way to confirm that the caps in your speakers are within "factory spec" would be to remove them and test them with a meter that checks capacitance AND resistance. Inductors do not drift out of spec over time and thus don't need to be replaced. Same with resistors for the most part.

For less than the cost of a decent meter you could replace ALL of the caps in your speakers. At very best all of the capacitors in your speakers are a minimum of 15 years old. They're probably OK right now but approaching "end of life" within the next couple of years

As always I suggest that you just live with and listen to them "as is" for a few months before making any changes. Only once you really familiar their "sound" will you appreciate the changes that any upgrades bring.

[JustTaylor]

Thank you for the prompt response. That sounds like sound advice. I'll give it a few months then go ahead with replacement. I am going to have to send my crossovers to someone because I am not confident that I can do the work myself. The crossover boards are really tiny in the kg4.5. I don't want to get in there and really mess things up. Do I need to add braces and dampening foam/material to these speakers as well? I've read little mods like these can really improve fidelity. Can they just be stuffed with anything? Wool? Thanks again, your response was very insightful.