PSB Stratus Goldi Crossover ReCap

[@mattanderson967]

Great video! I have a pair of Goldi’s at well. They date back to 1997. I think I will soon embark on this project. I noticed you changed out 2 out of the 6 electrolytic capacitors for film. Is that because they are used for the high frequencies? Just curious. Thanks for any input.

[@luissolis3526]

How do you rate the sound change with the new caps? Was there a special reason for changing caps or was this just preventive. Thanks for your comments. Luis.

[@chuckchar]

Hey Luis , the change was subtle in a good way, Paul Barton made/makes well engineered products , the midrange seemed to open up more , and more detail across all frequencies . Yes it was a preventive measure and I "flipped" the drivers at the same time also preventive measure as these speakers are over twenty years old now.

[@triod371]

I have the same speakers, in glossy black finish, for 20+ years. These are great speakers! ...well when they were new-ish...😀 I don't know about yours being the case or not, but I noticed with mine the gradual decline in the output in the treble range over the years. That was not an illusion because I noticed it by comparing the sound with my other system that has different brand speakers, and noticed the sound difference getting greater over time. The Vifa tweeter drivers in the Gold-is have ferro fluid in the voice coil gaps helping cooling and damping. Over time the fluid can become "gunk up" and causing problems. These fluids are usually rated at 10-15 years of useful life. Unfortunately, PSB has long discontinued the Stratus Gold-i and not able to supply the replacement driver units. The PSB factory here in Toronto use to provide rebuild service to the tweeter units many years ago, but no longer now. After hours of online research I decided to replace the tweeters with a Peerless unit solen.ca/en/products/d27tg3506. This is a silk dome tweeter, response and impedance very close to that of the OE tweeter, only 2db higher in sensitivity, that needed to pad down with a couple resistors (1-Ohm10W in series, 33-Ohm/10W shunt). I did the mod and the real sound of these puppies has returned. I hope you don't need to go through what I went through, but if you do, there is a way to save those wonderful speakers. The Peerless unit has a smaller size flange but the screw holes are spot on. Thank you very much for the great video, especially for the capacitor measurement part.👍 It appears PSB had excellent quality electrolytic caps there back then, and I don't feel the need of re-capping the crossover anymore. 😄

[@chuckchar]

Thank you for the comment 👍 Fortunately I did not have any issues with the highs , I have since sold the PSBs to make room for a pair of Altec Lansing Model 19s I refinished and restored .