My friend want add M-Cap in his Helix Dark Blue 6 crossover...
He say add this thing can make the sound more "real" more pure.
Is that right?

i think he means bypass the cap. Yes by adding another small valued cap (0.1uF) parallel to another cap it should improve the sound. Bypass cap helps filter the electrical noise out of your circuits. They do this by removing the alternating currents caused by ripple voltage. Some call it the filter cap.

However, normally bypass cap is used on electronics circuit. I have experienced using bypass cap in xover, sometimes you get better result, sometimes it make thing worst.

This post has been edited by valve_300b: Jul 13 2006, 12:46 PM

As I know M-cap only use in high-end component crossover....!

Not quite sure what you meant by M-Cap, but if you meant modding the capacitors in the crossovers to a higher grade or different material type of capacitor, then yes, it does sound better provided you change into the same value type, juz different material(eletrolite, film)

The M-cap highend, small but expensive & heavy cap ...
If you open up the high end crossover, u can fin the special cap call M-cap which not appear at normal crossover...
My friend say he wish to add M-Cap to his crossover..
The M-cap cost few hundred..

do u mean ADD or REPLACE ? it's totally different

You can add or replace. Both can improve the sound. Replace will be a better option in this case.

This post has been edited by valve_300b: Jul 14 2006, 03:46 PM

I had already mentioned ADD la..

Well... i think by simply adding components into the crossover, it doesn't definitely be a good thing.

Moreover, AFAIK, M-Cap is actually the brand name of a capacitor that's used to upgrade to better crossover components, so... if it's replacing wif the same values but different capacitor brands, it does make difference sonically.

i agree with GRexer

shud change it instead of adding

Just now I hear my friend's Helix blue 6 with adding M-Cap with bi-amp setting...
Sound clean & clear... Vocal become real, effect too
Love it so much...

The M-Cap used very heavy & Costly...

is he using the white one or the black one(zn series) ?

I tested the white one normal series in my crossover -- and can hear the singer's voice like having a cold or something ... then changed to the black one ZN -- no money to get the more exotic series -- but the change definately brought a lot of improvements


edit -- added image of my crossover -- it's a bit messy though but it does it's jobs ... using the cross for quite sometime but I feel still needs abit of modification.



powering some peerless mids and vifa tweets ..



This post has been edited by Escaflowne: Jul 31 2006, 09:57 AM

Please post, i want to see..

Escaflowne, is that a custom self-made passive crossover? Looks like there's quite some components inside, IMO, for passives, if possible, it's best to keep component count low

i would suggest that u go for d M-cap supreme rather than d silve/oil especially for the tweeter....d silver/oil is a bit of the bright side but its very very detail .....

as for the midbass try to get d Blackgates.....its better than the M-cap (the real name is Mundorf)......but the bad thing is Blackgates full run in period is 500 hours ....thats a long time to spend in d car.....thats y most ppl would go for d M-cap which needs only bout 50-100 hours to run in ......till today the best audio caps is still the Blackgate

*Escaflowne...i c a lot of Octave caps....hehehe....cheap n good....

This post has been edited by Fusion: Aug 1 2006, 11:53 PM

yup I opted for a fourth order linkwitz riley design, impedance equalizer for both mids and tweets and a notch filter for the tweets just to balance up the sound --- reason for the jumbled up wires and component counts


** ohh and btw Fusion the blue coloured caps in the middle are the black gate AC series for crossover s * wink *wink .... And thanks for the advice

what the fudge is an M-cap? A Matsushita or PANA FC?

I like Pana FCs but i think Cerafine ROAs and Rubycon ZL sound better without the use of BGs. Well, best way to filter out buzzing is at the source by using good power conditioning and filtering, plus it makes yer whole system sound better.

Was wondering, where you guys usually get the parts for your custom passives? Been thinkering with the idea of making a passive from scratch but don't have the clues of where to buy high quality parts, would like to avoid those Jalan Pasar stuff though

go get it from octace electronics ....less fuss but expensive ....if not u can order it online ....there r many website that u can actually order them ....

ecaflowne ...change lar all your octave caps to blackgates....hehehe....d resistors u use look familiar.....is it 10 bucks each ??

* BTW ....empire23....i thought they stop production on the cerafine caps already ??....most of the time d cerafine caps are for bigger value ....used for d power size....more for amp designs ...isnt it ??....but d last time a friend of mine mode his amp using cerafine ...its damn good ......one of d best caps u can find in d market.....

You still can get fine stuff from RS (expenseeve), Mouser (Cheap but 35 usd minimum transport and their minimum order thing). You can try other places like Handmade electronics or partsconnextion if you're looking for exotics.

Generally cerafines are still in production, but their limited quantity make them a niche item like Rubycon Blackgates so major electronics suppliers don't hold them. Well, i personally prefer the favourite Audiophile resistor, Milspec Vishay Dale RN60Ds , Wima/Visyah Rodenstein for Poly caps, ELNA ROA Cerafines for Outputs and the Nichicon FMG (KZ) for most things including tank caps.

Sorry for bringing up this topic again ... just that just browsed through today

anyway imo for passives some of the hardest parts to get would be the inductors

For testing purposes (trust me this saves a lot of hassles and costs) .... there was a car audio shop near segambut (forgot the name) if not mistaken which my friend brought me to last time that could wind up an inductor to a specific value for you at a cheap cost roughly around rm 10 buck ++

alternatively you could go to jalan pasar .. I think there's only a few shops (2-3 shops) selling these ... some of them with value and some of them without ... air cored .. and for easier task of finding the values you want you may want to bring a lcr meter with you .. if if the shop has one maybe they'll let you use theirs

If I recall last time KF does have those meters ... maybe you can buy a few and unwind it at their shop or if your close with thier boss they might let you borrow it for a while

anyway dont underestimate the value of jln pasar .. last time when I was browsing around I did manage to find some audiophile rated stuffs at quite a bargain ... wakakaka

once done testing building your test setup and satisfied .. you can substitute it with your parts of choice .. and if you prefer built a proper pcb for it .. or maybe just point to point wiring

Good Luck