one large cap, or a few added up?

I have heard proponents of both theories. There are some who swear by "cascading" caps such as 10uf/7uF/4uF/2uF/1uF to make 24uF. There is another camp that says that the caps should all be of the same size when paralleling them in order to avoid time-smearing the sound, such as 6 X 4 uF to get 24uF.

In my Infinity RSIIb crossovers I'm using the latter approach.

An excellent source for high quality caps, and Michael will also match your caps to within 1%: (http://www.percyaudio.com/Catalog.pdf) I've used DynamiCaps in Maggies with great results. auriCAPs are also an excellent cap: (http://www.partsconnexion.com/t/catalog/CapacitorsFilm.html) Whatever caps you use, be certain to observe proper lead(outer foil)orientation: (http://www.audience-av.com/capacitors/a_applications.php) Another service that Percy offers is marking the outer foil leads on the caps he sells. Keep in mind that when you first replace the caps, and fire the system back up; it probably won't sound great. It takes a while, with operational voltages, for the dielectric in a high quality cap to "form".

Is there any way to break-in new caps without having to have them installed in my speakers. It seems that they will need 100 to 500 hours before they are "right". That's a lot of time! Could I just wire them up in parallel and plug them in the AC outlet for a few weeks?

You might want to be a bit more civilized. Try this:(http://phonoclone.com/diy_rack.html) Read the last line, as you will be dealing with non-polarized caps(forgive his spelling).

Thanks for all the responses. I think I will be going with 5 Clarity SA 24uf caps in parallel for a combined total of 120uf. I will hold off on a bypass cap because there seeme to be two camps on this. I will try it without bypass for a while, then get some, and see which way I prefer.

Thanks to all... John