re cap=crap

Some speakers are known to be rather particular when it comes to recapping. I don't know much about Bozak but vintage Wharfedales as I recall have a lot of their sound tied up in oil caps.

A sensitive driver or one that has response peaks may change its output quite a bit by changing to a different type of cap, one with a very different ESR or impedance curve.

OTOH most (I generalize here) relatively modern speakers will not react violently to replacing old NPEs with new NPEs and films with films, and maybe even a few smaller NPEs with films. In my experience.
 
Just finished the other speaker. Haven't really listened to it much yet. But, initial thoughts suggest not much change.
It was a good exercise. And my first attempt at this. The more you study speakers the more you have to learn!
 
Some speakers are known to be rather particular when it comes to recapping. I don't know much about Bozak but vintage Wharfedales as I recall have a lot of their sound tied up in oil caps.

A sensitive driver or one that has response peaks may change its output quite a bit by changing to a different type of cap, one with a very different ESR or impedance curve.

OTOH most (I generalize here) relatively modern speakers will not react violently to replacing old NPEs with new NPEs and films with films, and maybe even a few smaller NPEs with films. In my experience.

I think you nailed that one about the oilers. The best advice is not to mess with them on better examples unless they are leaking a mess or you can confirm a malfunction, or you know exactly what you are doing or don't care.

Sometimes with an oiler, that's where the soul of that particular speaker lives. The weird response of one may have been selected for specific reasons peculiar to the design.

While there's a very solid engineering foundation nowadays, speaker design is still a little bit of an art, IMO. Some of them have a lot of listening and engineering hours behind them, and tossing a fancy cap into it may not necessarily make it 'better'.

I remember reading a few years back about people playing with mega-thousand dollar Duelunds in some of these crossovers. At some point, even I have to cringe.
 
I come from the old school, if it ain't broke, don't fix it! People can't wait 'till new caps "break in", well, your old AR caps were "broken in". In many cases (IMO) new caps are worse then the old ones. As Frank Sol suggested, put the old ones back in and enjoy!

Agreed
... If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
 
I like the way my ESR meter sounds when I turn it on to measure caps before replacing them. I have found some ELNAs and Nichicons from the early 70's actually measure better df, Q and esr than brand spanking new Panasonic FC, Nichicon HE and other caps. BUT.....sometimes those same old caps test horribly and those are the ones I replace. If the board is a pain to get to then I will do them all while its exposed. If the original caps are out of spec then so is the music you are hearing, if old caps are in spec then just enjoy the music.
Its amazing how much money some spend on capacitors yet are unwilling to invest a little money in a good df or esr meter
 
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