what brand of caps?

[Guest " "]

the best...possibly...paper and oil with a polycarbonate by-pass

[DrWho]

I agree bypassing can work in power supplies,
but like seemingly everything, there are those who are pro bypassing in
PSUs, and as just as many against....

So I think they do have their place, but as you suggested, it helps to know the hows and whats of the practice.

Ya, I guess what I was trying to focus on is that it's all application specific and is way more clear when you look at the AC impedances of the real devices (not the simplified ideal case). Btw, you'll find a ton of bypass caps in all of my designs - I'm actually obsessed enough that I'll calculate the ideal values for the bandwidths of interest too (at least in the designs when I know what frequencies I'm trying to filter, which is often DC to several GHz). And then like a good engineer I'll round to the nearest common value in the design []

So ya, we're probably on the same page. I was more commenting on the REL multi-cap stuff being a lot of expense for very little gain. For the cost of all these fancy components and whatnot, you could have a copper sleeve installed inside the motor assembly and easily cut the IMD in half. Although I can understand how designing in a new driver and all of the work that comes along with that is way beyond the simplicity of just changing a capacitor type. I definitely don't want to discourage the hobby aspects, but sometimes it helps to step back and look at the bigger picture.

Btw Colter - that sucks about finding bad drivers. I would bet a fresh set of diaphragms would get you back to normal? I think you should still do that listening comparison once you get all the cobwebs sorted out.

[DrWho]

the best...possibly...paper and oil with a polycarbonate by-pass

Based on one frequency and one voltage range?

There's a lot more to the equation, but I'll just leave it at that. The paper and oil is definitely good though.

[erik2A3]

Speakerfritz: those images are a trip down memory lane for me. They have been out there for a long while. They were interesting way back when, but even then I pondered how regardless of the measured response, one still can't graph human emotional response. In other words, there is no better or worse -- I don't care how poor the trace -- when it comes to what one person prefers. The only way to know is to experiment. I've been surprised in the past about what ultimately worked best, without regard to cost. And I'll leave it at that, as well.

[erik2A3]

Have a copper sleeve installed inside a motor assemby? there is a name for it!

[Guest " "]

I give up.

check your PM's

[colterphoto1]

Thanks, I'll stay on it. Just the thread went awry.

[erik2A3]

I apologize for my contribution to that, Michael. Back on pg. 1 I believe you had asked about the function of bypass capacitors -- so attempted to explain what I knew. In any event, good luck with what you are trying to do. Didn't mean to go off on tangents and other limbs of this tree, but that happens to me sometimes. Erik

[DrWho]

I think it's good for threads to be organic and walk all over the place since it broadens our minds on the hobby. Also, there's nothing preventing the report when the speakers get fixed. Btw, I thought we already did xover comparisons in the past with the whole colter comparator thing?

[erik2A3]

I think "organic" is an excellent way to describe it. Ideas develop and grow, hopefully something worthwhile is found helpful.

[colterphoto1]

The only true A/B network comparison we've ever really done here are the Khorns and the home LS. For the Khorns I bought a pair of BEC A/AA convertible and installed ONE. For about a year I asked people if they could tell and it was pretty much a toss up. Reason why was discovered IN THIS THREAD. The original AA's are the hermetically sealed cap type (see photo someone posted). I went ahead and installed Bob's networks but kept the old ones, in fact use one in my driver test rig in the workshop. WIth the LS home models, the originals sounded sweet, we experimented with the CT125 driver for not very long and they were not to my liking. Dean custom built me some networks for those and I'm not sure how to describe them. They have autoformers, a iron core choke, bypass caps and sound glorious. I think they are original xover points but have no idea of what he's done, only that they were built especially for me from Dean's knowledge of my listening habits and room.

[erik2A3]

Great! Some swear by bypassing, others not. Same thing goes for iron vs air core chokes, autoformers, and quite frankly, all of it. I found Bob's tweeters to be a very significant improvement over the older K77. There are always going to be different sides to a story. Autoformers tend to sound slightly veiled to me, but they have other ameliorating qualities. There is always a compromise.