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in article , Steve Cohn at
wrote on 10/15/03 2:06 PM:

Thanks. That was actually quite helpful.

I'd rather not mess with loss values and calculations of the resistance
needed to compensate. Sounds like my best bet is to replace the
polystyrene capacitors with some higher quality films caps of the same
value, and replace the electrolytics with the same as what's already
there. Agree?

Steve

If the existing film caps are polystyrenes, I wouldn't bother replacing them
at all. Polystyrenes are about as good as it gets for crossover caps. They
are very stable and would not go bad unless the system was heavily
overdriven. Even then, the electrolytics and the drivers would be damaged
first. This just leaves the electrolytics, and you can find good
replacements at a speaker parts supplier such as Madisound. There's no point
in going any further because the system was voiced with these types of caps.
I agree with the points in the B&W FAQ, and have personal experience running
into the problems they describe. Since you have no way of referencing back
to the original crossover curves, I'd do as few changes as possible.