On 16 Oct 2003 18:08:03 GMT, Steve Cohn
wrote:

In article ,
John Stone wrote:

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.

Well, they look like polystyrenes, but I can't be sure. Even so, they're
20 years old. Don't they degrade over time?

Polystyrene caps have not shown any signs of degradation in the past
30 plus years.

Since you have no way of referencing back to the
original crossover curves, I'd do as few changes as possible.

Actually, I do have an extra set of crossovers to test, but it's true
that I don't know what the exact intentions of the designer were.

Well, that's the problem. As the B&W FAQ points out, their crossovers
design in the known limitations of the components employed. Change
them for 'better' components at your peril.
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering