North Creek B&W 801 crossovers? Tried them?

Ken, thanks for the additional detail. I see the route in now. ;)

Do you have to leave the 801 bottom covers permanently off in order to use the NC XOs? I already have the speakers on Sound Anchor stands.

Dust is an issue at my place. If the NC replacement binding post plates do happen to fit on my speakers, does that mean I can hook up the new external XOs through them and close up the speaker bottoms? If that is the way its supposed to work, then even if the supplied replacement plates don't fit, I could possibly recut them so that they do.

If you can use the new plate in the stock hole, then you will be able to close up the bottom. That bottom plate when on.. may still allow you to run the wiring out the side even if you cant use the newer plate in the old plate hole. I think the plate has some areas that wires can be passed out of??

You certainly could cut the speaker to allow the NC plate to fit..but then you would be making a permanent change and I suggest this only if you are going to either keep the speakers or sell the speakers later with the XO's.

When I sold my pair, I sold them together, but offerd the buyer the option of taking the speaker with or without the NC XO's. I could have then reconnected the stock XO's and binding posts if necessary. You have to make that decision for yourself of course.

Ken, Thanks again. I've got a much clearer picture now of how it will work out, depending on whether the new binding post plates fit or not.

I wouldn't alter the speaker box to make the new binding post plate fit. I was speaking of possibly re-machining the new plate to conform to the existing hole in the speaker.

BTW, I noticed a vintage Mac MR-77 tuner in your setup. I have one that I bought new around 1974. It stopped working awhile back, and is now at Audio Classics being rehabbed.

Cheers, Bob

I see what you mean on the re-matching the new plate. You could do that..but remember you have 6 posts now instead of the 4. It may be a very tight fit.

I love the MR77. I also owned a MR71 several years back. My dad is a mac lover, and has his original bought new MR 71, C-28 and MC-2105 amp. I sent my 77 back to Mac this summer for a full alignment and new glass. It looks and sounds great.

Audio Classic guys are really good. I used to live not too far from them years back and visted on several occasions. They are a bit pricy for alignment and repair, but worth it for mods to the tuners. Now that Richard M. is with them...they can really make the 77 and 78 models sound good or better than when new. Richard does some addional upgrades that were not avail back then. As you may know..he was the original chief designer of those tuners at McIntosh.... Downside is the expense though :-)

Re: NC XOs. It didn't occur to me that there would be 6 posts on the new binding post plate instead of the stock 4. So, I gather that there are three pairs of wires--one for each driver--coming out of the external XO, and that each of these pairs of wires has to be connected to a respective set of binding posts? (Please pardon the "duh" factor here...)

Re: MR-77. I'm aware that the original designer of the tuner (Richard M) now works at AudioClassics. I decided in favor of all the available upgrades since he did a pretty good job the first time around!