Heresy II Crossover Question

[Randy Taylor]

I have a pair of Heresy II's (98&99 model year) and I pulled the woofer on one of them the other day and found that the crossover had two inductors,three 1.5uf 250v(blue),one 68uf 100v (purple) and what looks to be a transformer. These speakers sound great, but with all the talk about crossover upgrades, I was wondering could I upgrade the caps and have a even greater sounding pair of speakers. I know that these speakers are not that old and all the parts are probably still in spec., I just thought I would ask about my Heresy II's because you mostly hear about K-horns crossover upgrades. I have been looking for some replacement caps and about all I can find is the Solen and the Sonicaps in the 1.5uf 200v size, it seems that the Auricaps and other caps I might think about using go from 1uf to 2uf and skip over the 1.5uf value. I read where Craig (NOS) seems to like the Sonicaps in his amps and says he thinks they sound as good as Auricaps with a lower price tag, and I was wondering if any one has tried the Sonicaps in crossovers, or if any one has some better ideas or surgestions for me. Come on guys help me out if you can I would love to have a pair of K-horns but it will be a long time before I will be able to buy any and I will probably need a bigger house to fit them in first. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

[Deang]

I believe Leo(k) tried the Sonicaps in either his RF-7's or Chorus II's and didn't think the top sounded as clean as the Hovlands. I personally don't have any experience with them in networks so don't have an opinion. The Hovland is a film and foil type as opposed to a metallized type, and they tend to sound just a bit more forward and crisp. A good choice for low level listening. If you like to lean on the attenuator a bit, take the middle road. Quality metallized polypropylene types sound cleaner than the stock caps, are more affordable, and leave some of the warmth in the signature intact. I'm sure the Sonicaps are fine, and you can find Auricaps in the 1.5uF value at www.percyaudio.com. Kimber capacitors sound great too, and I like the leads better, www.partsexpress.com. Leave the inductors alone.

[awsjr]

hey Randy...I have Heresy IIs with the same x-over....I used solen for the 68uf and auricaps for the 1.5uf....the auricaps were installed in my amp and I liked that so I used them....I'm sure Hovlands would be good too.... http://www.partsconnexion.com/catalog/CapacitorsFilm.html you can look at quite a few caps here and inductors if you want to replace them too....why not ?....actually I even got new autoformers from Bob (BEC) too.... -Al

[Randy Taylor]

Thanks so much for your replies to my question, I was wondering about using to good of a cap and losing some of the warmth of my speakers. The speakers do sound very nice the way they are and I will probably change out just one speaker at a time so I can A&B them and see if there is a improvement in sound with the new caps . I will probably use the Sonicap for the 1.5uf caps and Solen for the 68uf cap. I thought I would hear a lot more feedback about people changing out the caps in there Heresy II's, but maybe they like the sound of the speakers so much they don't want to turn the music off and change anything, well I guess if I don't like the sound of my speakers with better caps I guess I could put the old ones back in.