What type of capacitors does B&W use?

[DM3000 Owner]

I am gettign ready to freshen up the caps in my DM3000's. I read on the internet that B&W uses Bennic caps in the Nautilus series speakers. Solens, fairly high quality caps that are inexpensive, are a step up from these. I can also go for Sonicaps (much higher quality) for about 4 times the cost. I just want to get a baseline.

Can anyone confirm the type of caps that B&W uses?

[Kal Rubinson]

Putting in different, even if electrically superior, capacitors will change the voicing of the crossover/speaker, so it should be done with caution and careful auditioning.

Kal

[Iggurk]

Putting in different, even if electrically superior, capacitors will change the voicing of the crossover/speaker, so it should be done with caution and careful auditioning.

Kal

Good comment, that's absolutely right, listening is very important.

For me first thing to do is to draw the filter schema, this way we could locate the components to change to improve something (what we all hope when we mod).

Capacitors have a large impact on sound, a well as coils, resistors are much less noticeable.

I personally nearly always use Mundorf components for coils (CFC mainly) and caps (silver oil or silver/gold) amazing sound.

You can also try Audin, they sounds great too, and are cheaper.
You can also try bypass caps at first, Vishay or V-Cap teflon capacitors (on tweeter they sounds great).

For the resistors I use Mills, they are available in a lot of different values, very good product.

Changing internal cables, get rid of the filter circuit, modding the damping (e.g. bitumen board) could also improve.

Taking pictures and drawing schema could help not to forget how was built the speaker, in case you forget something once everything is on the kitchen table....

You can have a look to my B&W 70x mod thread here (in French):

http://www.homecinema-fr.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=29794475

Regards
Yves

[Audiophiliac]

I may be mistaken, but I think I remember our B&W rep. mentioning the use of WIMA caps. Not sure if this was only for N series, or across the board, or what.

[DM3000 Owner]

Good comment, that's absolutely right, listening is very important.

For me first thing to do is to draw the filter schema, this way we could locate the components to change to improve something (what we all hope when we mod).

Capacitors have a large impact on sound, a well as coils, resistors are much less noticeable.

I personally nearly always use Mundorf components for coils (CFC mainly) and caps (silver oil or silver/gold) amazing sound.

You can also try Audin, they sounds great too, and are cheaper.
You can also try bypass caps at first, Vishay or V-Cap teflon capacitors (on tweeter they sounds great).

For the resistors I use Mills, they are available in a lot of different values, very good product.

Changing internal cables, get rid of the filter circuit, modding the damping (e.g. bitumen board) could also improve.

Taking pictures and drawing schema could help not to forget how was built the speaker, in case you forget something once everything is on the kitchen table....

You can have a look to my B&W 70x mod thread here (in French):

http://www.homecinema-fr.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=29794475

Regards
Yves

I have the schematic from B&W. It is very complicated because of the "time delay" technology and the overload protection. It uses a relay, transistor and a few high value (47 uF and 100 uF) electrolytic caps that are not in the audio chain.

That being said, the B&W engineers told me that they could be improved by replacing the 20 year old caps with new better quality caps.

I have used solen quite a bit in the past. Very good for the money. Sometimes bright with the wrong source, but that will not be a problem here.

I also really like Solen Litz air core inductors.

I think that I will go with Solen caps here and see where I wind up. I could easily spend more than the cost of the speakers rebuilding the crossovers. 20 year old caps must be ready to be replaced. They age just when sitting on a shelf.

Because of the relatively high uF values, Auricaps, Hovlands, AudioCap Thetas, and other designer caps can get really expensive quite quickly. I used a digital crossover and triamped a pair of large horn speakers in the past because the passive crossover components were over $1,000.

I heard good things about Sonicaps but have never used them. In any event, they are 4 times as much as the Solens.