Insight and opinions welcomed, combine caps or buy more?

[Turn2]

At the risk of opening up a can o' worms I'd like to ask for guidance on building a crossover. This is a budget project that shouldn't run over $350 when I'm all finished, just so you understand I'm not shooting for a high end project.

As an example, on the high pass I need an 8.2uF series cap. I have an opportunity here to reduce some of my inventory, but doing so is only saving me a few $$'s. Here are the questions:

What would be the difference between combining a GE 5.0uF 400v, a 1.0uF 250v and a 2.2uf NPE to get my 8.2uF value versus just buying a Solen 8.2uF 400v cap?

Would it be any more or less acceptable to combine polys and NPE's for a shunt cap?

TIA

[cjd]

I built up the 250uF values in my 3-ways from 10uF GE's. Quite acceptable. In fact, there are some things that are better when you combine small values - ESRR (I think) comes to mind. And I might be completely messing up my terms.

The biggest problem with electrolytic caps is their variance - they also are more likely over time to change value. Keep >50% of your cap value in poly or better, and verify the value is correct, and I doubt even the most critical listener with magically golden ears would pick out the electrolytics.

C