Evening Everyone,

I've just bought some tidy looking Beovox S75 speakers. The high frequencies sound more "shh" than "tsst".  Worn out capacitors maybe? I could pay 90 pounds sterling for  an ESR meter but I thought I'd beg for your opinions first.

I am a newbie but already see that cap kits are available: who's dillen and how much do his S75 cap kits cost?

Does anyone have an opinion on who makes the BEST QUALITY capacitors for this job these days?

Honest opinions appreciated

Thanks

PG

Could well be capacitors - S75s should sound quite bright when working. You can pay whatever you want for capacitors - Martin (Dillen on site) is skilled at restoring old B&O and I am sure his components will be picked to be good value and performance.

Dear Peter

Thanks for the advice on the caps.

Just out of curiosity is your avitar picture Thomas Jefferson?

Paul

No, it is one of my ancestors! He is called Brockett Grover and I have his picture as well as those of his wife, mother and mother in law. They are life size oil paintings and hang in my hall. Painted about 1799 at the time of his wedding.

Hello.

I bought S75 speakers some two years ago. They sounded pretty dull and I bought a capacitor kit from Dillen. I can't remember the price but it was very cheap for the difference it made! The instructions included were also very good. The speakers started to sound much better and I enjoyed them until I gave them away half-year ago in exchange (with some money, too) to Beolab Pentas!

Hope you will get them working.

I have restored several sets of speakers from this era using cap kits supplied by Martin (Dillen) with excellent results every time. The price was pretty negligible when compared to the improvements and ease - ie:- hours saved trawling the net finding the correct values and the hassle involved. Easily worth the money for that alone. I suspect that in 30 years time they could probably need changing again as they were straight electrolytic exchanges but for a couple of hours work in each case I would call them a bargain

They came with full photographic fitting instructions and were mostly bipolar (a godsend with these speakers as the polarity is often illegible on the original ones) which makes life much easier.

Chris.

PG,

You don't have to spend anywhere near UKP90 on an ESR meter.

I have the EVB ESR meter - a made-in-Portugal licensed production of the famous Smith meter.

http://clientes.netvisao.pt/greenpal/evb1.htm

It is an excellent unit, very accurate and highly reliable - mine's going on for about 7 years now.

It's much easier to use than the Peak ESR meter - I had that too, and sold it!

Menahem

I second the recommendation on the EVB ESR meter. It has been worth its weight (not that much though ) in gold! It really saves time & trouble because most of the time you can measure the caps without even unsoldering them first.

But, even if you are experienced in assembly work and electronics, I recommend to get the ready built unit instead of a kit. It's actually rather complex, requires some test bench setup for initial calibration, and the 10 euros saved really isn't worth the trouble!

Dear All,

I've installed (14) capacitors (supplied by Dillen) on both crossover boards and reassembled both speakers. Took most of weekend (Softly softly catchy monkey). All working again!

Details (inc. photos) later if your anyone's interested.

Paul.

Yes please!

I can't find a way to load images of the S75 recapping onto this forum. Can anyonre advise?

Paul

To upload photo's to a post, click on the "options" tab at the top left hand corner then click on the "Add/Update" box below "file attachment" and "browse" to downloaded the photo you require.

Chris.

condition in which received

through the woofer aperture in situ

bass driver sees light of day after 30 years

bass driver provenance

the wider picture

side view of primitive through- board arrangement

underneath the board

original components side-on

heat damage

new components in place

back in place with some silicone gel to stop vibration/rattling and stabilise

Nice job - do they sound better?

I did a side-by-side comparison of one recapped vs the other unmodified.  The difference is subtle but apparent. They sounded muffled before; they don't now. They sound well-balanced (i.e. flat freq response) and crisp. You have to angle them correctly to get the tweeter output and they are sometimes too bass-ey if floor mounted without stands (as they are at the moment).

Am I pleased with them? Yes, very much so. I've listened to Kraftwerk, Wagner,  REM, Zappa, Rush, Vivaldi, Led Zep, Jacko, Haydn, Mike Oldfield... and many more,  just to try all production sounds.

I have to say live recordings (e.g. classical) really show off these speakers. I am really enjoying them.

Paul