Magnepan 1.7 crossover capacitor improvement?

Joe, (Silver)
Terrific advice.

There's something else here that has to be understood.
As axiomatic as it seems...patience with the break in is critical.
What you hear in the first five minutes, should be your system from the other room.
DO NOT LISTEN WHEN YOU FIRST MAKE CHANGES. As hard as that is to do, it's essential. First impressions are silly, and wrong.
The caps have a long, long break in...the better they are, the longer it seems to take.
I remember a moment during the LSA's Development (statement)...'What have we done? This is sh*t).
That's because I didn't heed that basic idea. Do NOT go for first impressions.
Let it cook for hours. It most likely sounds ok for the first hour, then goes south...changes character millions of times before, after about 200 hours of playing time...beginning to sound as it can.
Joe has given you GREAT advice.

Good luck...use patience Grasshopper.

Larry

I completely agree with Larry. Some caps go through their changes for up to 400 hrs. Teflon can take up to 600hrs to settle down.

As stated earlier, change one cap at a time and let it cook as Larry has suggested. You might even consider taking out that iron core inductor and dropping in a 16 gauge 1.4mh Goertz coil. They are expensive but worth it. As Larry can attest, the use of well placed coils , caps and resistors can take u quite far with an already well done design.

Good luck and any suggestions on cloth removal for the 1.7's would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Joe

Taking the socks off a 1.7 is pretty easy

1) use a rubber mallet to tap the side insert bars from the bottom up an inch or two. gently rap the bar exposed to make it pop out of the grove, once started it pops out easily.

2) remove the foot stands

3) the hard work is removing the 2 x 25 or some odd double row of staples on the bottom... be gentle to avoid unnecessary fabric tear

4) remove the 4 screws holding the speaker termination. You should now be able to slide the grill cloth over the terminals and above the crossover location to avoid accidental damage when soldering.

Agree on cap break in time. I'll start with the 6.8uf Mundorfs first and give it about 30 days

Hey David. Thanks for the detailed response. I really appreciate that.

One thing I'd like to mention though. While I really like Mundorf caps, I have never had success with the Supremes. I have used them on tweeters and I've used them as coupling and interstate caps. They exhibit good clarity but they can sound very slightly dry. Not bright just stark. However, the Mundorf silver oil is a favorite of many an audiophile. They have tremendous clarity with superb treble clarity and body that never becomes intrusive. I've never not had success with them in any application. That's not to say I think they are the best for every application but they are never embarrassed by anything.

If your budget allows go for the silver oil. If not, try a Supreme bypassed with a 1uf silver oil. Don't bypass with to small a value as that is the trend now days but it is detectable in most instances. Not all but most. You might eventually try a 9uf Sonic Cap bypassed with a 1uf silver oil on the tweeter.

Good luck and I'll be waiting to hear what you decide and what you feel the results are.

Best of luck and thanks again for your help.

Regards,
Joe

ok, couldn't wait. I started with the 75uf Axons, they gave better mid bass clarity. Percussion like tympani and blocks have improved realism for transients and tone color. But after a few days not much else was different and I move on to the 6.8 Mundorf Supremes. Here a worthwhile change, richer tone color in the mids and smoother male vocals. Letting that bake, still some edge in the highs so will be replacing the super tweeter 10uf Axon in the next week with a Clarity cap 250V ESA model to see if that sweetens the highs.

If anyone knows of an affordable copper foil 1.4mh inductor
out there, please give a shout in this thread? Looking for something preferably at $100 or less, under 3.5 inches in diameter.Really curious to see how a quality inductor could affect bass reproduction.