Help, tweakers! Speaker caps damaged

[sacriste]

Dear tweakers

,
I need to change the caps on my speakers. The midrange/tweeters are cracking with low frequencies (my speakers are ten years old). These are 1,8 microfarad electrolytic caps, I only found 2,2 microfarad locally. How it will afect the sound? Also, I'd like to try a crossover network but I don´t know how to translate the cap value to a crossover point (e.g. 2000 or 3000 HZ). Any help would be great!

 

[Neruda]

This should help: http://xsspl.tripod.com/Audio/1HiChart.htm

it gives you the crossover frequency of the most popular cap sizes, and down at the bottom there's a calculator to find the crossover frequency of any capacitor size. according to it, 1.8 will give you a crossover point of about 11,000Hz, while 2.2 will give you a crossover point of about 9,000Hz. you will definitely need the 1.8uF capacitor, or something close. the best I can find is a 1.5uF cap.

 

[Budgie]

If you hook caps up in parralel the values will add together. So you could use say a 1.5 and a .3 to get the right value. Just use any combination that adds up to the right value. The voltage rating will not matter as long as the lowest rated cap is of sufficent value. Usually for a crossover, a 50 volt or higher will be fine. Stay away from electrolytics for the caps you are replacing.

 

[Budgie]

Uh, just noticed you said a 1 and an 8 mfd, not a 1.8, the same info still applies anyway.

If you have trouble finding parts, let me know and I will help out if I can.