Will I notice improvement with crossover mods?


I've finally discovered that the difference in sound between my two Hales Transcendence 5"s is due to a difference in crossover values between the two speakers. Aparently one of the speakers was at the correct values but the other speaker's crossover was off by over 10%. I've decided to repair the speakers by having both the crossovers completely redone with new caps, coils and resisters. The crossovers of both speakers will be upgraded to better parts and they will be the same correct values(evenly matched).
My question is that will I notice a big improvement with this upgrade/mod? I am having Solen foil caps replacing the old caps, Hepta- Litz coils replacing the old coils and improved resistors although I do not know exactly which ones. Opinion would be appreciated.
128x128mitchb
Thanks for all your well wishes. The speakers really are sounding better by the minute and I've only had them plugged in for about 24 hours. I have a lot to look forward to. I'm replacing the tweeters to a pair that I know will work well as the person at Pass Labs who designed my X250 amp had a pair of Hales just like mine and he used the tweeters I am getting to replace the ones I've got now. The main reason for this move is that my tweeters are inbalanced. When I first got my Hales new they had a dent in one of the tweeters domes and Hales replaced the entire tweeter driver. The tweeters never since then sounded the same as each other. I tried changing both the voice coils and the problem remained, I then decided it must be a crossover issue which started this whole crossover upgrade idea and know although sounding better the tweeters are the same amount different than before the crossover mod. By process of elimination it must be the tweeter driver as every other variable has been explored and taken care of. At least I have a better speaker in return for my efforts and the Seas H881 are supposed to be really nice with the Hales.
Thanks again for all your inputs as it has helped me get a better speaker. I'll post again in a few weeks to let you all know how they sound with a bit of burn in time.
Mitch
Keep in mind that there's a plethora of good tweets out there that COULD be near drop-in replacements. All you need is the impedance curve & efficiency of your present tweets (choose the one that sounds "better", obviously there are discrepancies there) OR, simply, the efficiency of the mid-driver. You also need the x-over frequency, but you've got that anyway. Scanspeak, Vifa (T series), the bigger Seas, Hiquphon, Morel 33...
Gregm, I was going to suggest the same thing. Although, the Hiquphons are smaller than most, and will not drop right in.

I would suggest the Vifa Ring Radiator. At $65 it is a steal, our speaker designer at Fried likes it better than the much more expensive ScanSpeak Revelator at the same company. I have the Revelator now in my Coincidents, but will say upon hearing the RingRadiator, it sounds very special.
The tweeters I've ordered are the Seas H881 which I hear from a good source are supposed to match well with my speakers. Of course they are only a $28 tweeter but they are supposed to be OK for the Hales. I heard from a designer who had the same Hales T5's as me that he used the H881's with great success but went to the millenium series. He said the H881 tweeters were actually close to what he ended up using. I suppose I could spend hundreds on tweeters but I thought I'd try comparible (price wise) tweeters to the ones that came with the Hales. I'm going
to crimp the tweeter leads so that if I want to return the tweeters and go for something else I can. I'm leaving my options open. I hope the Seas H881's will do the trick as I don't want to start spending tons of money on tweeters.If anyone has advice regarding my current excersise please let me know.
Thanks again,
Mitch
The H881 did not fit in my Hales so I decided to order the Seas Millenium as they are the correct size(110.4mm) to fit my Hales and they are supposed to be quite good. They are costly however. As I crimped the leads to my tweeters I can always try the Millenium and if they don't work for me I can always return them.I was told by someone who did what I'm about to do with my tweeters but he said he removed the .33 ohm resistance in the tweeter area. I hope it will not be neccessary for me to do the same as it would be a real job to open up my Hales to get back at the crossovers.