Recapping a soundbar. Worth it?

[Moreno83]

Hey guys ,

I got a noob question about recapping a soundbar for home use. ( Movies/music ). I am more in to tv repair then audio repair so forgive my ignorance.
I managed to get a Philips HTS6100 for cheap and the quality of the audio is ok. Not amazing but not bad either. It is a soundbar so i cant expect to much.

Inside it is full with real cheap chinese capacitors. The same capacitors you can buy from ebay ( 125 for $5 in all sizes ).

Will i get a upgrade in sound quality if i replace them by Panasonic FC series?
For example , more crisp & clear sound? Or is it not worth it?

When do i need to use these Panasonic FC caps in audio?



EDIT: http://www.ebay.com/itm/125-Pieces-1...8AAOSw95FZaBj8

These capacitors.

[budm]

Re: Recapping a soundbar. Worth it?

I do not know if it will improve the sound but it will at least improve the reliability of the unit so it will not fail due to bad caps, that alone is worth it by changing to Panasonic caps.

[Moreno83]

Re: Recapping a soundbar. Worth it?

Thanks for the reply! Will replace them anyways and see what happens.

[momaka]

Re: Recapping a soundbar. Worth it?

You won't get "better" / more "clear" audio output, unless you have those cheap caps failing somewhere in the path of the audio signal.
But the sound bar should be more reliable, at least, like budm said.

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: Recapping a soundbar. Worth it?

Thanks for the reply! Will replace them anyways and see what happens.

Let us know what happened after you replace those caps

[Moreno83]

Re: Recapping a soundbar. Worth it?

You won't get "better" / more "clear" audio output, unless you have those cheap caps failing somewhere in the path of the audio signal.
But the sound bar should be more reliable, at least, like budm said.

Thanks for the reply , why do people change capacitors on audio amps and claim they get better sound quality? There is a small amp section in the soundbar with cheap capacitors.

Just wondering if changing capacitors will help.

[jazzie366]

Re: Recapping a soundbar. Worth it?

Thanks for the reply , why do people change capacitors on audio amps and claim they get better sound quality? There is a small amp section in the soundbar with cheap capacitors.

Just wondering if changing capacitors will help.

Those caps that you linked are probably worse than what's in the soundbar currently.

After Dell's lawsuit, I don't think any of the companies are going to be making shitty power supplies or boards again.

The caps they may have put are cheap, but that doesn't make the biggest difference in this case as they are probably engineered to work for a decent life span before failing. I'm not saying the cap manufacturer is engineering them, I'm saying the soundbar manufacturer is engineering the circuit for that.


If I were you, I'd recap the entire thing with quality Japanese caps. If the amplifier they used is class D, it's not gonna make that big of a difference.

If it is a class A/B amplifier, then it's worth it to recap it. You'll get ever so slightly better sound, not noticeable by most. If you really wanna make this soundbar into quality, use Nichicon MUSE or if you don't wanna spend 50$ on caps, KA series. I personally use KA for most things as they work well in most all audio environments.

[stj]

Re: Recapping a soundbar. Worth it?

low esr caps have a wider frequency range.
that does not mean lower is better, rubycon YXF is really good in audio filter circuits.

[Moreno83]

Re: Recapping a soundbar. Worth it?

Those caps that you linked are probably worse than what's in the soundbar currently.

After Dell's lawsuit, I don't think any of the companies are going to be making shitty power supplies or boards again.

The caps they may have put are cheap, but that doesn't make the biggest difference in this case as they are probably engineered to work for a decent life span before failing. I'm not saying the cap manufacturer is engineering them, I'm saying the soundbar manufacturer is engineering the circuit for that.


If I were you, I'd recap the entire thing with quality Japanese caps. If the amplifier they used is class D, it's not gonna make that big of a difference.

If it is a class A/B amplifier, then it's worth it to recap it. You'll get ever so slightly better sound, not noticeable by most. If you really wanna make this soundbar into quality, use Nichicon MUSE or if you don't wanna spend 50$ on caps, KA series. I personally use KA for most things as they work well in most all audio environments.

The capacitors listed are actually in the soundbar at the moment. Same brand! I have seen them in many other philips soundbars.
I will see if i can find the MUSE or Rubycon ones.

Thanks!

[jazzie366]

Re: Recapping a soundbar. Worth it?

low esr caps have a wider frequency range.
that does not mean lower is better, rubycon YXF is really good in audio filter circuits.

I second this.

[momaka]

Re: Recapping a soundbar. Worth it?

Thanks for the reply , why do people change capacitors on audio amps and claim they get better sound quality?

Because there are people who will pay a ton of money for something and then pretend they are hearing a difference. Example: people who think overpriced MonsterCable will make a huge difference in the audio quality.

The precise word is "audiophools".

Though not all claims regarding recapping with special caps are bogus. Indeed low-leakage caps can help reduce amp noise, thus improving the quality a bit. But it is not anything that considerable.

low esr caps have a wider frequency range.

That hardly matters.

A signal passing through a cap only cares about the cap's capacitance and impedance to the amp/device that it is going into (because those two form a 1st order RC/RLC passive filter, otherwise). The ESR of the cap is usually 100's/1000's of times smaller than the input impedance of an amp, so that's why it does not matter.

That said, audio-grade caps like Nichicon MUSE exist simply because they are specifically made to have low-leakage currents. This is important when you have various signal coupling between the stages in your amplifier - high-leakage caps can cause an amp to become slightly DC-biased and also introduce noise into the amp.

That said, you really don't need those special audio caps. Any low-leakage current cap series will do.

[Moreno83]

Re: Recapping a soundbar. Worth it?

I replaced them and there is not really a difference. I think it is basically software that controls the output quality. Thx for the information , much learned!!