6J5 Posted February 15, 2004 Share Posted February 15, 2004 Any one know what the AA xo old capacitor dielectric is: paper, oil ? New Heritage stock caps are cheap plastic which I have replaced with PIO types in a La Scala AL3 xo. Has any one upgraded to AK3 from the AA used in older Khorns ? George Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynnm Posted February 15, 2004 Share Posted February 15, 2004 The caps in the AA are oil filled. FWIW I got a nice improvement by reverting my AA's to the type A.The mod is completely reversible and the cost is C$0.00. ( Gotta love that price ! ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benesesso Posted February 15, 2004 Share Posted February 15, 2004 I also converted my Khorn AA's to A's, but then converted them back and added the 1.0 uFd bypass cap. that has been described here somewhere. It sounds real good now with SET amps. Eventually I'll try some other crossover things-there is one described in detail here too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnA Posted February 15, 2004 Share Posted February 15, 2004 The late '70s to mid '80s networks are aluminum foil and paper in oil; motor start capacitors. I'm sure the older ones were, as well. I thought the Ak-3 were paper and foil in oil, as well. I haven't seen one in a long time. The caps you called cheap plastic are probably polypropylene film and foil and were not cheap at all. We all have our opinions of the best sounding caps. Changing my Type AA tweeter caps to Hovland poly film and foils was a very nice improvement over the motor start caps. Of course, my La Scalas were mismatched and my hand was forced. Changing the squawker cap to Hovlands was inaudible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6J5 Posted February 16, 2004 Author Share Posted February 16, 2004 Guys, thanks for your inputs .. I replaced all the plastic caps in my 01 LaScalas with pricy Jensen copper foil PIOs. Stock items looked pretty un-Klipsch worthy..also took out a varsitor (!) in tweeter path (I use moderate triode powers so..)Khorns use fuses instead - I would probably remove those too. All your comments on the progenitor AA xo are very informative. Interesting that threads in this BB some years ago praised the AL-3 as a good upgrade as well Al Klappenbanger?? derivatives. In the AA the woofer net is a simple L low pass which was ugraded to an LC in the AL3/AK3 - can you enlight me on any subsequent views on this mod as well as on the added series LC trap across the tweeter in the new design? George Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylanl Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 Lynnm, Where did you get the information on switching the AA to an A? Do you have a picture or drawing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6J5 Posted February 16, 2004 Author Share Posted February 16, 2004 Dylanl e-mail me I will send you A & AA schematics .. George Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benesesso Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 What is it about caps. that can make some sound better than others? Assuming 2 diff. type caps. of the same value, why would they sound different? I hate this electrical stuff! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6J5 Posted February 16, 2004 Author Share Posted February 16, 2004 Some would say its just subjective prejudice. But caps do add color : dielectric absorption has been one explanation, dielectric non-linearity an other etc. but neither one can explain all effects its similar to claims that different wires sound different - and they do.. two good amps can sound verty different, two good CD players sound different, carbon vs. metal film resitors sound different it goes on and on. Clearly science has not yet found the yardstick to measure these effects that the human ear can. PIO caps and the better metal foil/polyprop caps seem to rule. George Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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