To twist or not to twist

**Altec Best** · April 21st, 2012, 09:33 PM

Yes to reiterate on the values.A 21uF cap will be difficult to find.Nobody makes them anymore except for large quanity special orders.So all you do is parallel a 10 & a 11 uF cap to reach the 21 uF value and so on.Best of luck with it.To show you some caps paralleled,here are mine done awhile back.

FWIW- Stranded wire is used a lot because it is easier to work with.I used 14awg high strand count 105.

**mah** · April 22nd, 2012, 12:01 AM

Be aware that components are subject to manufacturing tolerances. +/- 5% is a good figure for affordable capacitors - giving a range of approx. 19 to 21uF for a nominal 20uF cap.

BEAM Pieces -- Capacitor part codes

Resistor Colour Code and Tolerances Explained

**johnsonad** · April 22nd, 2012, 03:38 AM

I'm not too worried about plus or minus 1uF. That is well within Altec's tolerances and they are adjustable for a reason

My currect caps are off by almost 50% in some ranges and the inductors are no where close to correct. The speakers still sound good to me. The ground scheme will be a focus and thanks for pointing it out. I have an extra set of crossovers so I can A/B with the stock units after break in.

As for wire, 20g solid core is easier for me to work with than big gauge stuff. I can't figure a reason to go larger. It's what Altec used and if I'm not changing the gauge of the 100's of feet of inductor wire than I can't see what difference 10 feet of the other stuff will make...

Today I rebuild a Quad 303 amp. The internal wire is 22g and I left it as is. Right now it's making beautiful music and driving the 19's surprisingly well!

**bowtie427ss** · April 22nd, 2012, 07:24 AM

My currect caps are off by almost 50% in some ranges and the inductors are no where close to correct. The speakers still sound good to me.

This doesn't make sense, what are you taking your measurements with?

**Altec Best** · April 22nd, 2012, 11:29 AM

Originally Posted by johnsonad

As for wire, 20g solid core is easier for me to work with than big gauge stuff. I can't figure a reason to go larger. It's what Altec used and if I'm not changing the gauge of the 100's of feet of inductor wire than I can't see what difference 10 feet of the other stuff will make...

It's just preference.You use what you feel comfortable with.The difference if any will be so slight I doubt you will be able to distinguish it.At the very least will be very difficult to tell. But I just wanted to use the best I could, IMO.