Hi Edd,

 I don't think you can put a specific age to them. I have a pair of Beovox 1000's still sounding great on their original components, and a slightly younger pair of 1200's that needed capacitor replacement. As long as the top end still sounds good I'd go with the rule "if it aint broke dont fix it".

Cheers,

Steve
 

Of course you can never make a solid rule and there are exceptions, but it seems that the capacitors used by B&O during the 60's tend to last much longer than the never ones. It's safe to say that all 1970's and 80's equipment will need new capacitors by now if not already replaced. Speakers are too often overlooked and their caps are often leading a hard life, some even being slightly underdimensioned as I see it. Remember that capacitors used in speaker crossovers are generally non-polarized (bipolar) types since they work with AC signals.

Capacitors will decay over time, it doesn't happen overnight so most often noone notices any difference. At least up until the point where the caps are replaced, surely quite a few owners are in for a very nice surprise. Capacitor kits are readily available for the main part of the 70's and 80's B&O units.

Martin

Thanks for the advice 🙂

Thing is I'm not sure what my speakers are supposed to sound like as I've only had them a few months! They're RedLine 45.2s which would make them late 80s-early 90s, and I suspect the last owner kept them in his garage/shed. They're by far the best speakers I've ever owned, but if I had to criticise I'd say that the high end does sound slightly muffled. Maybe I should do one and see if I can notice a difference.

If you replace bipolar capacitors, then use Epcos/WIMA MKP or FKP polypropylene types. They sound much better than the electrolytic ones, much cleaner. The company Intertechnik also manufactures MKP ones, not quite so expensive, but really good.

The other advantage is, they will almost never decay ever again. :)

Usually the Wima oder Intertechnik polypropylene capacitors have almost the same size, it should fit on the board for the loudspeakers. At least up to around 10uF. Above 10 uF these plastic capacitors become really big... 68uf 100V is like a fat mono cell battery. But in a Penta is a lot of empty space ;)

 I have modified several redlines, especially the tweater becomes much better and cleaner if you replace the bipolar elko by an Wima MKP.

Martin

Hi there,

I own Beovox S80.2 loudspeakers.

My father bought them with a Beocenter 5500 20 years ago, so they are as old as I am :)

He recently gave them to me.

I noticed that the woofers needed some repair stuff (used rings), so I ordered a repair kit. But now I think about changing the capacitors, I think that now is the time to do it, in order to give my S80.2 a "new youth"!

Has anyone done this on S80.2 yet?

I need your help, for I don't know which kind of capacitors to use, and I don't know if I need to replace them all.

Thank you for answering !

Some of the original caps are (in my opinion) slightly underdimensioned from the factory. In speakers like this I would recommend mounting no less than 100V components., they are all axial bipolar if my memory serves me right.
A capacitor kit is readily available and I would recommend you replace the lot while in there.

Martin