RS II Crossover

Larry, or anyone else, I posted a shot of one of my crossovers above (post #51).
Top center and right in that shot there are 3 circular coils, during pre-fittment today I removed the screws that hold two of those coils in place and attached a cable tie base there. Then ran the screws through the cable tie base and into the cabinet board. The screws are long enough to still secure into the cabinet board.
Are those attachment points ok electrically (on top of those coils), I would think they are but thought I should ask.
In addition, top left of that picture there is an inductor(?) or some other device that is held to the cabinet board with two screws, I am considering placing the 12uf EMIT cap on top of that using hot glue or adhesive putty.
Again, electrically, is that ok? Just wondering about stray electrical or magnetic fields. It's currently sitting right next to that component so it seems that placing it on top of it would be ok but thought I'd ask just in case.
If those three mounting points I mentioned are ok then I just have the 150 and 12.5 caps to place, thinking with the EMIT cap moved up and over that will give some free space on the crossover itself which I can use for the 150 and 12.5 caps.
 
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I don't think there should be a problem (electrically) by mounting the caps on top of the inductor. What I would avoid is putting them anywhere there might be any vibration. That's why I made the cradles, to keep the caps somewhat damped.

Larry D.
 
Larry, I am going to see if there is open space at the top of the inductor (I think that's what it is). If there is I'll place a couple cable tie anchors on top of it and run the cable ties through the open space to secure the anchors. Then use some method of cushioning for the cap.
Tubed, interesting graphic. It appears it is all about coils and not caps?
Also it looks like Infinity used the "bad" or "not so good" placement when they placed the three coils side by side by side?
 
Yeah, l may go back into my crossover and move one of the coils upright in that corner. Probably make a cradle for it and strap it down.

Larry D.
 
The first one is done. Took about 4 hours.
I put ohm meter to inputs on both speakers, figured if they read the same it's safe to proceed.
Turned on the stereo and had no sound out of that speaker.
INSTANT PANIC
Then I noticed I had NOT reconnected the speaker cables to that speaker.
Duh.

Played them for a few minutes, too soon to tell how it sounds or if improvement was made as possibly will need break in time.
Hoping to do the other speaker tomorrow.
 
Yeah, it's hard to tell a difference when you do just one. You're not sure because you may still have one of the stock speakers playing. If you play just the upgraded one, it's still not the same as having both playing, so it's still hard to tell. Then, after you get both finished you should hear some difference, but it may change quite a few times as the caps break in.

My II's have smoothed out again. I'm hearing much more subtle details that I've missed before in songs I've heard at least a couple dozen times before. My wife even says she's hearing things that she's never heard before in songs that she's familiar with. I can even turn the volume down a little and still hear everything. I'm liking it.

Larry D.
 
Sounds like yours are breaking in nicely. Does your wife have pretty good ears? If so, it's got to be handy to get a second opinion when you make changes.

Some people in the past have said they would play their speakers with one recapped and the other not, so they "could hear the difference" the recap made.
Not me.
Played them for less than 5 minutes, long enough to make sure all the drivers in the recapped speaker were working.
Starting speaker two shortly.

EDIT-- 2nd speaker done in about half the time.
Considering my limited skills I am happy they are done, they work, and they haven't blown anything up. Not a real pretty installation but it is functional.
I took pictures of the first one but the caps are small and black and some are on top of black plastic so it's like they are camouflaged. Not worth posting IMO.

I'll play them a lot the next few days just for "break in" purposes* and do some critical listening next week.

*do caps need break in time?
 
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My experience is that at around 20 hours the caps seem to stabilize (but not fully). Like I said before, with my 2.5's it took around 200 hours for the Solen midrange caps to smooth out. Before the 200 hour mark they had an 'edge' to them, so I had to keep the volume lower so I would not get fatigued while listening to them. Now they are very listenable at higher volumes.

Thanks 'tubed' for the coil chart. That is very helpful to have and know.

Larry D.
 
Finally, it's starting to smooth out and stay there. Haven't moved the inductors yet. Too many other projects/irons in the fire.

Larry D.
 
Man. I wish I had the skills and tools to do this myself on my RSII's. I will be farming that project out at some point. Thanks for the thread!
 
Join the club. Glad to hear they are sounding better. Compared to your 2.5s now, what do you think?
G~

Just had the speakers get to this point and haven't brought the 2.5s back into the system. Waiting to get my Cherry Ultra amp back from being upgraded also. It may be a couple weeks before I put the 2.5s back in. I will let you know what I think when I get to it. The RS IIs are much more realistic,detailed, and accurate with the cap upgrade. It was a little spendy and a PITA, but seems worth it all now.
 
Just had the speakers get to this point and haven't brought the 2.5s back into the system. Waiting to get my Cherry Ultra amp back from being upgraded also. It may be a couple weeks before I put the 2.5s back in. I will let you know what I think when I get to it. The RS IIs are much more realistic,detailed, and accurate with the cap upgrade. It was a little spendy and a PITA, but seems worth it all now.

That's very good to hear! You had me worried for a while. I didn't want to hear that the EVO Oils weren't working. Like you, for me, my cap upgrades were a lot of money. I definitely didn't want to be disappointed. With my 2nd set of speakers, the recap hasn't worked out so far. I'm not liking the sound. I'm at the point that I wish that I would have bought Mundorf's for that recap too.
 
May I ask what the cap costs where for the various recaps done ny folks. Ball park figures are fine. Thanks.
 
Mr. Cheapskate here.
My recap was dirt cheap (NPE midrange caps and .01 film bypass caps, + 2 poly EMIT caps, solder, cable ties, cable tie anchors., total was $37 plus shipping) as I was only looking to get "some improvement" by taming some midrange mush/harshness and hopefully equal or better (since modern caps are supposedly better than those OEM NPE caps originally used, the EMIT OEM was a poly cap) the crossovers as they were originally produced.
I've played them most days, several hours per day but have only had one semi serious listening session so far.
Seems to have made an improvement, though I have been patiently biding my time until I can really give them a good listen or three.

I did order poly EMIT caps (need to parallel 2 caps to get the proper value) for my Infinitesimals yesterday, should be a piece of cake after doing the RS II's.
 
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I used mostly Mundorf EVO Oils for my recap. That was for the more critical series capacitors. My Mundorf's were purchased from Jeff at Sonic Craft. Here's the EVO Oil pricing there. Jeff's Mundorf prices are typically lower than Madisound and Parts Connexion. Though, I have used all 3 of these sources for parts, and all are excellent.
 
I spent around $350 and a lot of time. I also put a lot of time into researching the best bang for the buck. If I would have gone a step or two up in better quality caps, then my costs would have doubled or tripled. I could hear the improvement in the quality of sound right away. In complex music passages I could hear the different instruments playing individually where as previous to the re-cap the passages had the instruments garbled together. Not really garbled, but just not separated well. Kinda meshed together and hard to distinguish. In the end I'm happy with my results.

Larry D.
 
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I've done some serious listening in the last week and it's been a month since the RS II recap.
Much improvement in vocal groupings. Individual voices are identifiable now where before there was congestion and mush.
A little more clarity with instruments as well, especially in the midrange.
Did recap the Infinitesimals (used with an MCS 3125 receiver as a second system) as well, still not real happy with them, going to try a couple things.
Highs are weak still. Used my best pair of spare EMITs (which ohmed well) when I rebuilt them so EMITs are assumed good and EMIT caps are new.
Might just be the FM stations (they are hooked to a receiver playing FM, no external sources connected) I get, or the receiver, think I'll first add a cd player and see if the highs improve. If not I'll try a different receiver.
RS II's and RSM's (which are from around the same time, 1981-1983)did benefit from recapping, especially in the midrange.
 
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