Apogee Acoustics

When replacing the caps, can they be off a few uf ? also how close does one have to be in mh for the inductors.Thanks Al

My two cents would be to make them as close as possible, but the original cap were probably only a 5-10% tolerance, so if you are within that, it probably wouldn't matter. I rebuilt my crossovers and stayed within a 5% range on all of them and they sound great. I used ESA Clarity caps, with a Mundorf Supreme .1 bypass cap. Same percentage with the inductors. I used Goertz.
It's really unbelievable how much better they can sound.

What price-range are the ESA Clarity caps in?

Most were in the $11-15 range, but the big ones were $36-38 each, from the Parts Connection web site. They are not cheap but are about half the price of the Mundorf''s, and while I can't make a sound comparison, mine sound really good. I had several people recommend the Carity PX caps, but I used this site to help me figure out which caps to use, http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Cap.html and just trusted his ears, and adjusted for my budget and personal taste.
Due to the age of original caps and the price point of the speakers, I would think that any good quaility caps will make a big improvement.

Zardoz
Were you able to figure this out from just looking at the internals of your crossover?

In particular how did you know the value of the coils?

I'm not really up on circuits and soldering but would like to give this a try.
Unfortunately in a home burgulary the idiot thieves took my crossovers probably think they were amplifiers.

Thanks
Rick

Hey rick,

I had to track down some schematics as the insides of the Xovers were a mess. Part of it's not needed if you leave out the switches, which I did. I'll see if I can post them with this response. If they don't show, email me and I can send them to you. mrvordo at jetbroadband.com
I found them somewhere on line, maybe in the old Apogee web site, or the Maggie website. I also have simplified version if you want to get rid of the switches, and have trouble figuring it out from theses.

Good listening,
Z

This got me thinking, if I replace the bypasses, perhaps the resistors and disable the switches, I might make an increase without to much work

All that would help, but the caps and inductors are probably a bigger "upgrade". I would also pot your inductors, if you are not replacing them. And don't forget the wire. That will help a lot, especially if yours has started oxidizing. I used a silver coated copper wire that was only about $1.50 per foot.

Good listening,
Z