pioneer cs-A31 capacitor

[Dave De]

the caps in this speaker 2 of them, one says 14 the other 1.6 from what i have read, get non-polarized replacements, is this correct? what if i cant find the exact 14 & 1.6, is it better to go up or down, thanks

 

[TLS Guy]

the caps in this speaker 2 of them, one says 14 the other 1.6 from what i have read, get non-polarized replacements, is this correct? what if i cant find the exact 14 & 1.6, is it better to go up or down, thanks

Cant tell you with out the circuit and details of the speaker. Why are you changing them anyway?

 

[highfigh]

Cant tell you with out the circuit and details of the speaker. Why are you changing them anyway?

Because they're old and so many people think changing the crossover caps will breathe new life into the speakers.

Here's a video showing these crossovers being recapped-

 

[Swerd]

Because they're old and so many people think changing the crossover caps will breathe new life into the speakers.

This is commonly accepted among people at some other audio websites – fortunately, not here at AH. It has become a mantra, replacing caps in all old speakers breathes new life into them. In fact, this is an audio myth. Like so many audio myths, it starts as a mixture of some truth and some falsehood. Widespread repetition over the internet, especially by people who do not understand electronics or speaker design, allows it to morph into something akin to snakeoil.

Some, but not all, older caps can lose performance due to age or poor manufacturing. It is important to understand what types of caps do suffer from this problem. The answer is not simple.

The problem is that the OP innocently but willingly accepts the mantra as an inexpensive way to improve the performance of speakers that probably weren't ever very good. The speakers sound poor because of poorly performing drivers plus a poorly designed crossover. Changing their caps is about as useful as replacing the laces on shoes that never fit your feet and hoping that will improve things.

This subject would be easy for me to turn into a rant. Hmm…

 

[TLS Guy]

This is commonly accepted among people at some other audio websites – fortunately, not here at AH. It has become a mantra, replacing caps in all old speaker breathes new life into them. In fact, this is an audio myth. Like so many audio myths, it starts as a mixture of some truth and some falsehood. Widespread repetition over the internet, especially by people who do not understand electronics, allows it to morph into something akin to snakeoil.

Some, but not all, older caps can loose performance due to age or poor manufacturing. It is important to understand what types of caps do suffer from this problem. The answer is not simple.

The problem is that the OP innocently but willingly accepts the mantra as an inexpensive way to improve the performance of speakers that probably weren't ever very good. The speakers sound poor because of poorly performing drivers plus a poorly designed crossover. Changing their caps is about as useful as replacing the shoelaces on shoes that never fit your feet and hoping that will improve things.

This subject would be easy for me to turn into a rant. Hmm…

Absolutely correct on all counts. Those are not electrolytic caps and will not deteriorate.

This old Far Eastern speakers were uniformly awful. They were junk when new and are junk now.

 

[highfigh]

This is commonly accepted among people at some other audio websites – fortunately, not here at AH. It has become a mantra, replacing caps in all old speakers breathes new life into them. In fact, this is an audio myth. Like so many audio myths, it starts as a mixture of some truth and some falsehood. Widespread repetition over the internet, especially by people who do not understand electronics, allows it to morph into something akin to snakeoil.

Some, but not all, older caps can loose performance due to age or poor manufacturing. It is important to understand what types of caps do suffer from this problem. The answer is not simple.

The problem is that the OP innocently but willingly accepts the mantra as an inexpensive way to improve the performance of speakers that probably weren't ever very good. The speakers sound poor because of poorly performing drivers plus a poorly designed crossover. Changing their caps is about as useful as replacing the shoelaces on shoes that never fit your feet and hoping that will improve things.

This subject would be easy for me to turn into a rant. Hmm…

I was booted from a FB page because I argued that if there's nothing 'wrong' with the speakers, the caps are probably fine but that guy didn't want to read that. He, rightfully, posted that something much better could improve the performance and the speakers in question are from the time in Polk's history when they were well-liked. I asked "If they're such good speakers, why would they use crappy crossover components. I couldn't access that page, for some reason.