# Sony XEC-1000 and cap on tweets



## miphonematt (Sep 21, 2009)

Okay, so the guy I bought my Sony XEC-1000 from said "to be sure to cap my tweets". The reasoning he claimed was due to initial DC Startup damage. Does this sound reasonable? 

Caps to me are for signal filtering, much like on a passive xover. Is there something I'm missing?

Any insight would be much appreciated.


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## buchaja (Nov 10, 2007)

What's a Sony XEC-1000? An amp? I hope he didn't sell you a bad one.

Either way, a cap on a tweeter is a good idea. And, your not wrong, they are filter devices. In this case, an inline (in series) cap acts as a bass blocker to protect the speaker from low frequency energy.

There's no lower frequency that DC.


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## [email protected] (Jun 12, 2008)

a cap by itself would be a 6db crossover


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## Melodic Acoustic (Oct 10, 2005)

I guess he saying the XEC-1000 crossover has a start up pop or thump that may damage you tweeters. So what he recommending is for you to put a cap to filter the thump out a bit more. Putting it below you crossover point or near the tweeter Fs frequency is more then likely what is his saying to protect them from getting a surge from the pop below the Fs of the tweeter that could cause damage.


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## miphonematt (Sep 21, 2009)

H-Audio - AKA - Here-I-Come said:


> I guess he saying the XEC-1000 crossover has a start up pop or thump that may damage you tweeters. So what he recommending is for you to put a cap to filter the thump out a bit more. Putting it below you crossover point or near the tweeter Fs frequency is more then likely what is his saying to protect them from getting a surge from the pop below the Fs of the tweeter that could cause damage.


Okay, well that makes sense. Is there any downside to having to having the cap on the tweet, AND the active Xover also filtering? Will I be losing performance. Would it make sense to skip the XEC-1000 to the amp running my tweeter and just using the cap as a 6db slope Xover straight out of my amp?

I actually haven't recieved the Xover yet. He was simply forewarning me to cap my tweets for the DC pop when it powers up. I just down want to over filter if it will cause performance degredation.

Thanks guys for your responses. Is this something that is common with many active Xovers?


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## gymrat2005 (Oct 4, 2009)

no leave the XEC-1000 (wow that's an old one) in place and just put the cap below what you are setting the crossover at. It will not have any effect on sound if it is below the cutoff frequency, but will be there just in case. What tweeter is it? Perhaps I can tell you what value cap you need.


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## miphonematt (Sep 21, 2009)

gymrat2005 said:


> no leave the XEC-1000 (wow that's an old one) in place and just put the cap below what you are setting the crossover at. It will not have any effect on sound if it is below the cutoff frequency, but will be there just in case. What tweeter is it? Perhaps I can tell you what value cap you need.


Well currently, I'm running some PG tweets from the ZR Octane component sets (silk dome 1 inchers), but have some Vifa's coming and some Soundstream coming as well.

Vifa's are BC25SC06-04. SoundStream are TWS.3.


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## gymrat2005 (Oct 4, 2009)

something like a 22microfarad cap would work with either of those tweeters. I would need the impedance of the PG tweets to be sure of those.


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## miphonematt (Sep 21, 2009)

4 ohms  This is awesome info!


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## inoii (Nov 20, 2009)

does everyone who went active run their tweets with a cap? just wondering if i should get one too to protect the tweets?


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## miphonematt (Sep 21, 2009)

The XEC-1000 is pretty old school, but highly regarded by many. Technology may have improved on many active that remove the requirement for capping the tweets.

I, of course, could be wrong tho. It might be a good idea in general (couldn't hurt), so it seems


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## gymrat2005 (Oct 4, 2009)

by the way that cap gets put "inline" with the + wire. So just cut the positive wire and connect the cap to both halves.


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## jsun_g (Jun 12, 2008)

I also run active and have a cap on my tweets. It's a good protective measure just in case there is ever a "pop" (not just from xover, could happen from amp too). I use an xover frequency about half of what the tweets are actively crossed over at (you can find online passive crossover calculators). Use a good quality capacitor like the ones you can find at Parts Express.

BTW the Sony XEC-1000 is one heck of a good classic unit. Right up there with the Kenwood KEC-600 (which I have) and the high end Coustic/Design Reference active xovers.


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## miphonematt (Sep 21, 2009)

jsun_g said:


> I also run active and have a cap on my tweets. It's a good protective measure just in case there is ever a "pop" (not just from xover, could happen from amp too). I use an xover frequency about half of what the tweets are actively crossed over at (you can find online passive crossover calculators). Use a good quality capacitor like the ones you can find at Parts Express.
> 
> BTW the Sony XEC-1000 is one heck of a good classic unit. Right up there with the Kenwood KEC-600 (which I have) and the high end Coustic/Design Reference active xovers.


Thanks man!

The Kenwood unit was my first choice actually. I'd read on here about the Sony, Kenwood, and a few older alpine (non DSP style actives) but the ones I saw around for sale were the Sony. I lost an auction on eBay to get one. Then I had a chance on here, but there were two folks in line before me. I found this one on craigslist by chance from a guy in OC. Real good guy, and it worked out real well. It'll be here tomorrow. I'll finally have pretty much everything I need to do a proper build... well, for the most part. I'm going to run 3 way front stage plus sub. I have some 8" Kicker comps (they can run IB) in the doors of my Dodge Ram 2500 Quad Cab. Then some Dayton RS100T's in the dash, and the PG tweets from my PG Octane ZR components in the doors. I'll play around with the Vifa's and the Soundstream until I figure out what I like. I have a Hifonics 1200W RMS @ 1ohm for my subs (ya ya ya, I know...) an alpine MRP-300 for the tweets and midrange, and a MB Quart Premium 100X2 @ 4ohm for the kickers I'm using as midbass for now, which will eventually get replaced by some Peerless XLS one day. I have 15,000,000 different manufacturers in my system. Oh, my headunit is a Kenwood... older 1din DVD with DSP.. the KXV-817. But this site, including ya'll who've helped out in this thread... helped me get where it's going. Much of what I'm doing was inspired by this fella on here ClineSelect who also runs a Ram. Of course his ride is ridiculous.

Anyhow, I think I won't hear the straight pipe on my Cummins diesel anymore once this is all done. I'll be doing a build log once I get started.

Thanks to all of you for the useful info.


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