Michael,
First off, you're welcome. I'm glad to know it was useful for someone.
Now, as to your questions, if I remember correctly, it cost just under
$60 shipped from Madisound for the capacitors for both crossovers. That
included mostly Solens polypropylenes, the Bennic electrolytics for the
midbass, and the small value Bennic & GE polyprops for the supertweeter.
Using 80¨¬F Solens polyprops for the midbass (if you can afford it,
this is a good idea, but will be a little more difficult to fit in the
crossover) would bring the shipped cost to ~$100.
Regarding the Regnar kit, I've heard from someone who purchased that kit
that it contains Bennic polypropylenes for most of the caps and Bennic
electrolytics for the midbass (the reason I chose this type in this
recapping). Bennic brand caps are less expensive than Solens (the
equivalent from Madisound would cost ~$50) and appear to be held in
slightly lower esteem. This means that my recapping should be sonically
superior to theirs for a fraction of the price. According to the Regnar
website, their kit consists of these caps, a schematic of the crossover
(such as is in our Files section here), and instructions like I posted a
link to.
As to tools required, you won't require anything special. First, you'll
need a phillips screwdriver (or flat bladed, the screws seemed to have
changed during production) to remove the back screen and remove those
screws holding the crossover board in place. Then you'll need a
soldering gun (100/140 watts) as your typical 40watt soldering iron
won't be sufficient to melt the mass of solder in the holes. Beyond
that, a pair of hemostats (aka "Kelly forceps" or "clamps" or "roach
clips") are great to remove the old cap leads and more easily manipulate
the new leads into the holes, though a long, narrow pair of needle nose
pliers can be used a bit more awkwardly. That's it aside from solder of
your choice -- I used cheap ~$4 silver-content solder from Radio Shack
that's about equal in performance to ridiculously expensive "audiophile"
brand solder. Solder wick (braided copper wire that "sucks" solder out
of the way) could be handy, but isn't necessary. If you can borrow the
soldering gun, you can keep the tools price below ~$5 and if you can't,
you can keep it under ~$30. You'd need to buy these tools with the
Regnar kit anyways.
If you've any other questions, feel free to ask and I'll try to answer.
- JP
--- In Dahlquist@..., "mlocker2" <mlocker2@...> wrote:
Hi JP,
Thanks for posting this. I went to the link & printed out the info!
Questions: Regnar sells a cap upgrade, so do you have any idea how
your improvements compare to theirs? Also, can you compare costs?
Regnars upgrades are $161 plus shipping. Finally, what kind of
equipment/tools do you need for such an undertaking?
I ask all this b/c I've been considering purchasing the upgrade kit
from Regnar, and if I can do it myself for a lot less, with at least
as
good a result, I'd rather try it on my own.
Thanks again!
Michael
--- In Dahlquist@..., "JP" hrothgar1982@ wrote:
Just in case this might help someone, I've posted a brief tutorial
over
at Sound Thinking to recapping the DQ-10 crossover. I did include a
brief mention of what the capacitor codes equate to in microfarads
and
included a couple of pictures.
You needn't be registered there to view this thread:
<>
- JP
