live sound test .New Solen (£5 each) V original Alcap capacitor ?

Here i do live sound test using solen polypropelene capacitor cost £5 ($6) .
compared to original alcap 3.3 uf presently reading 3,5 uf
To test the sound difference

[s_r_v]

I didn't think I would be able to tell, but I really could, much much clearer on the mid range and above - I'm amazed... thanks very much for the demo 🙂

[jyrik]

Clear difference for the better. Well done.

[paulwhite]

The new cap was quite a bit better. Clearer and more open. It was quite obvious on both songs. Interesting stuff Kelvin, I love a tweak.

[jamesterful]

Definitely an improvement. The original cap sounds veiled by comparison, greater clarity with the new cap for sure.

[martinscase]

I recently had my Royd Mistrels refurbished by a company called Anapeach. They used those Solen capacitors for replacement. On first listening, though better, the speakers did sound a little hard and mechanical but over a few weeks they really opened up remarkably. Absolutely beautiful sound now.
Andrew at Anapeach said the Solens are like that - take a good many hours to settle down and reveal what they're capable of.

[IanSimm]

I did hear the cleared. Fair Test well done

[kaysonntag]

I can only confirm this with the capacitors.
I bought a pair of Tannoy Stratford a few days ago. The first thing I did was to replace the ferrofluid in the tweeters. That was a huge difference, the tweeter range was immediately less harsh/aggressive than before. Next, I replaced the capacitor in line with the tweeter (2.2 microfarads from Philips) with a new one from Mundorf (comparable quality to your Solen). The capacitor has improved the overall sound of the speaker, making it much finer and more accurate. The difference is just as significant as in your video, although the old capacitor was also a high-quality film capacitor, just over 40 years old.
However, a subsequent measurement of the old capacitor revealed a greatly increased dissipation factor of almost 10%. Film capacitors are therefore also subject to a certain amount of ageing, contrary to what is often claimed.
For the Stratford owners among your viewers, I can only warmly recommend these procedures.

[joestarkie]

Stark and clear difference for the better.

[bobclarke]

That comparison worked really well. Always nice to hear something rather than looking at a graph.

[Iamloveingawareness]

Top end extended and opened up, with much more liveliness – there is a huge difference. Nice work, like breathing new life in to an old man Love solon c's👍

[iancatchpole]

Another part another sunday...we'll parts ..Love your delving into the "bang for buck" zone agian and indeed its amazing how the cross over network and components get over looked but then agian your the man to open peoples eye's, and ears to really beneficial improvements
For a little bit of time and dinero.
We'll done mate, always looking forward to your experiances in this passionate subject.
Thnxs as always.

[fonkenful]

Retired myself from DIY speaker building and tweaking a few years ago, but couple of quick thoughts on this presentation:
1) your preamble preloaded the audience with expectation bias;
2) it has long been my experience that while mono test is quite sufficient at demonstrating even minor timbral differences between drivers & different enclosure types with the same drivers, one the biggest improvements that higher quality XO components or enclosure enhancements (construction materials/ bracing schemes / resonance & edge diffraction control etc) can make are the areas of soundstage immersion, depth, and image specificity that are best experienced in stereo mode. Of course, that means starting with two pairs of erstwhile identical speakers and going from there - something I had done several times before determining my own preference. Some of these differences can be fairly easily identified by certain types of measurements, others less so.

[tweakerman]

It's nice to see, you doing upgrades, better parts = better sound, even on cheaper gear, another great video👍

[hueyw]

Very clear difference (i closed my eyes in case I was imagining it) and it was in the bass!! The old capacitor sounds a bit fatter in the low frequencies, but generally a lot more woolly down there and the low frequencies seems to spill into the mids a fair bit too. The solen sounded much tighter, more controlled and consequently more space and separation in the mids, but I thought it was a bit lighter in the bass too. Ive done a few speaker recaps myself and they all seemed to tighten up the bass. It seems counter intuitive as I'm not sure the caps should effect bass at all but they clearly do. Would be interested to know if someone brighter than me could explain this? Good vid thanks and I'm glad it wasn't just my imagination!

[johnkendrick]

I have to say at first I thought I probably can't hear the difference on my television here but as soon as you played it wow! That capacitor seems to clean things right up. I have some JBL l88 that would really benefit from what you did.

[AlexMitchell-ig]

Kelvin, show us some of your stained glass work one day please. I know not hifi related but you mentioned once that was your trade at one time.

Regarding caps, I did it once in some Mission Model 70 and there was a slight improvement in the sound for sure.

I could definitely hear the difference here.

[DavidBales-rs]

Amazing that you can so clearly hear the difference after down sampling, iphone mic, and on my iPhone speakers. Crazy!

[bluesman]

Great video of a very audible improvement in clarity. Thank you, Kelvin.

[CC-bggf]

Thanks for the test Kelvin. I can hear a clear difference in the second song (less edginess/sibilance/stridency with the Solen cap) .

[pol-gjqm]

This has been my experience as well. I'd already replaced the original elcaps with new electrolytics, but then moved to Solens. I had thought the tweeter output with the Solens cap might become raised & I had resistors at the ready but they weren't needed. Now less 'shouty' in the upper mids, smoother all round with more clarity & detail. In a pair of Kef Concord iii's from the late 70's. All the best!