Oh, yes, of course. I'm not talking about oil capacitors, just film and electrolytics.
Modern speakers vs Vintage speakers
- Thread starter thomask
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As long as it's tight and no PCB oil is leaking out, everything is fine. I would still change them, the stuff is highly toxic. but everyone as he wants.
If you have such capacitors, no PCB, that's excellent
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I thought most audiophiles were price blind and tone deaf
We each have our own comfort level. All of the big crossover caps in my speakers are old paper in oil caps from the PCB era. None of them are leaking and I use them all standing up vertically to minimize any possibility of leakage. I would like to use non-PCB caps if they sounded as good but none of the many I have tried sound as good as the older PCB caps. Of course the different brands and model designations all sound different. You have to try a variety to pick the ones that sound best in particular spots in the crossover. I have my favorite caps for the woofer and a different set of favorite caps for the horn midrange. I would give more details but I don't want to contribute to the price escalation of these vintage caps; a few years ago you could buy them for $15 each or so but they now go for over $100.
The only other caps I use in crossovers are the high-pass caps for my horn tweeters. Those are old paper in wax caps supposedly from the 1940s. Again, I have tried many different caps for that spot and those sound the best to my ears.
My favorite are the ones with a sprinkling of Plutonium...quite dangerous to be around but damn they sure make that sound "glow"!
understandable old drivers with modern cap high resolution transparent (small loss angle) capacitors sounds terrible. Distortions increase with very old drivers (e.g. loss of magnetic force or need air gaps cleaned ). There are enough experts on the internet to have the drivers overhauled and then it works with modern capacitors.
Before making bad judgments about capacitors, think about what the cause is.
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Many modern loudspeakers designed by measurements not listening.
- less Dynamics , less life/energy
- less beautiful tone / less natural sound
- less accurate bass (ported bass)
- brighter tweeter + less accurate time domain response
Many audiophiles like these modern speakers so The industry produce what they sell better.
Look at Wilson Audio history , Wilson decreased the efficiency 7db between 2010 - 2024 , why?
Because audiophiles do not care about dynamics and they like feeling of transparency .
I would argue that most audiophiles have no idea what they are missing and have been indoctrinated in the measurements based loudspeaker design as being the "right" way to design a speaker. It's more about exposure. You don't find inexperienced audiophiles usually going to higher dynamics and/or vintage designs...it is usually those who have been around the block many times with modern low sensitivity designs and find them lacking realism.
I do not have a lot of exposure or experience with vintage versus modern speakers, but one thing I have learned is that most main stream modern speakers require a lot of power, locking you into massive tube or powerful SS amps. This then locks you into a sound. My SETs have a magic/natural sound that I never heard from other amps. So, if you build the amp/speaker pairing based on amps first, you end up with efficient speakers. If those efficient speakers are designed well, you get effortless dynamics, scale, and tone with the right amp/speaker pairing. These are the essentials for a convincing experience.
It depends on one's goals and values. The other big difference I notice is that vintage tends to be a more holistic presentation. Modern tends to be sonic attributes. Music is an holistic experience.
It depends on one's goals and values. The other big difference I notice is that vintage tends to be a more holistic presentation. Modern tends to be sonic attributes. Music is an holistic experience.
one thing come to my mind when I called David @ddk and we had a conversation about audio , David told me many audio manufactures are small family company and their research/development budget is very limited , in past some vintage loudspeakers designed by big companies like siemens but now most modern expensive high end speakers come from small companies.
I recognize the dichotomy, but let me know if there is a perfect speaker with excellent resolution, dynamics, and an extended frequency response, at a "reasonable price", and able to fit in a normal size living room... Until then I compromise by having several speakers, which I listen to at different times depending on my mood. It's like polygamy
you mean fucking around......
most audiophiles run around in cirkles like headless hens changing gear after the "random walk" principle in a desperate hope to find the golden match
most audiophiles run around in cirkles like headless hens changing gear after the "random walk" principle in a desperate hope to find the golden match
Also, it's not a question of "experience". There are plenty of reviewers out there who always listen and review the same type of systems and speakers. "Audiophile playlists" full of "soul-less" songs, where you are listening to "sounds" more than "music" also tend to steer you towards certain performance criteria. On the rare occasions where people play more interesting tracks they may still be "crap" digital versions, and either way, they cannot even recognize that the results are really poor, or they will explain that the system is so transparent that it will show all the defects of the recording. They are missing out...
Rant over!
Rant over!
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The point is that those who go over to vintage or high sensitivity speakers tend to be among the most experienced audiophiles...not that all experienced audiophiles go that direction...some never grow up
Sure. The solution is to stop paying attention to those reviewers. Go out and listen for yourself with your own music, determine what your goals are, and proceed accordingly.
Yes, once upon a time, audio design was something prestigious for an engineer or scientist to work on. THerefore, they had big budgets to solve important issues in reproduction and could hire top notch minds to do the work. There are still some rare exceptions out there today...
totally agree......stopped subscribing to TAS and Stereophile years ago, when I dicovered the mags still in their plastic on my coffee table after several weeks
next was when I lost interest in the web mags because it dawned on me that they often didn´t have a clue and were just making a living for themselves
often the reviewers had background from other businesses as reviewers and no previous knowledge of audio or sound reproduction
motive for many were just to get access to gear at reduced prices, or even free on eternal home loans
lot of that stuff was later sold in 2:nd hand market and effectively turned out to be bribes
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