AR3A Replacing Capacitos

[musma]

Hi, I'm new to this forum.

I would like to restore my AR3A speakers and need some advise. Now I'm in the process of changing the capacitors. I'm intending to change those to Solen Caps. According to the restoring manual, several resistors are suggested to add in series with the new capacitors inorder to reduce ESR. My question is where should I put those resistors? Is it between the capacitor and driver or before the capacitor? Any recommendations of which resistors do I use, Dale, Ohmite or any other suggestion?

Thanks.

[rrcrain]

This is one of those things that have been debated until people are ready to vomit. I recommend you try it with and without the resistors and make your own decision.

No one knows exactly what the ESR was of the original caps.

[Carlspeak]

I'm not sure the resistors are needed at all. You have the rheostats there to add resistance and pad a potentially brighter tweeter or mid if needed.

[michiganpat]

I'm not sure the resistors are needed at all. You have the rheostats there to add resistance and pad a potentially brighter tweeter or mid if needed.

I agree with carl...why add cost, complexity, and more components into the signal path?

[RoyC]

As one of the authors of the restoration guide, I lobbied against the inclusion of the added resistor suggestion. In my opinion they are completely unnecessary.

If someone is really concerned about esr, electrolytic caps can be used instead of film caps...and they are cheaper.

Roy

[Carlspeak]

I agree Roy.

The use of low value resistors in series with new film caps may indeed be appropriate in speakers where there is no convenient means to compensate for a brighter presentation following recapping with film caps in place of NPE's.

[musma]

Thanks for all your advise. I'll drop the idea of adding the resistors. I have another question about by-passing those Solen cap. Is this a good idea? If it is, what is the suggested value? And by-pass all the caps or just the high.

Thanks again.

[Carlspeak]

Thanks for all your advise. I'll drop the idea of adding the resistors. I have another question about by-passing those Solen cap. Is this a good idea? If it is, what is the suggested value? And by-pass all the caps or just the high.

Thanks again.

AFAIK, you don't need to bypass Solen caps. Just get the 6.0 cap and be done with it. Depending on how much money you want to spend you need to decide on film or NPE's for the 50 and 150uF cap replacements. My suggestion would be to get NPE's and bypass the 50uF cap with a low value 0.1uF film cap and don't bypass the 150.

[RoyC]

Thanks for all your advise. I'll drop the idea of adding the resistors. I have another question about by-passing those Solen cap. Is this a good idea? If it is, what is the suggested value? And by-pass all the caps or just the high.

Thanks again.

By-pass caps are even less necessary than the resistors, imo...on any driver. This is a 40+ year old design which originally used electrolytic capacitors. The likelihood of improving anything with this approach is slim to none...and just another item in the category of "unnecessary cost and complexity".

Roy