Xover parts quality,/sound difference?

Undertow,

I hate to be contrary but your post makes little or no sense...brand name dropping is always a bad sign as capacitors have Q factors that make them right or wrong for a circuit. Labels do not make great capacitors, its been proven time and again.

But back to what baffles me,

"90% of the speaker is the Crossover, 7% is the cabinet, and about 3% is the driver selection... I have seen this ratio before from most manufactures and agree with it,"

How can you say this and own the speakers that you do? Try harder to make your real-life world correlate with your theoretical world. Because if I didn't know better I'd be very confused because what you say doesn not match what you do. :) Agreed?

Different parts in the crossover will result in different sound most definitely. It is not even a matter of different parts, but even how those identical parts could be laid out and / or connected to each other. If i were to show pictures of some of the crossovers that i've taken apart and rebuilt / re-designed, it would blow your mind. Just because you're paying "big bucks" for "high end" stereo gear doesn't mean that you are getting what you paid for. This is especially true with speakers. Sean
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Huh? Baffled is right....No its not agreed in a friendly sense.. 90% of Standard Speaker DESIGN is crossover is all the point was. And exactly why speakers with NO crossover to worry about are even another step forward. That was not the question and I chose to not confuse the matter or put my own results of eliminating them all together in the original question, eliminate a crossover all together is infact another World as you put it. Do the crossover as well as possible is the best bet, Electronic or no Crossovers is even better, but for the conventional audiophile designs litered with extra parts, Yep go for the better parts and they sound better. Sorry I was not allowed to speak on the matter even though I no longer own crossovers, and this is the exact reason why after experiencing step by step thru many speakers.. But the many I did own and upgraded had very credible increases in sound when using the better parts.. I fail to see where my comments above were to offend or confuse anyone due to my own ownership, but I have to disagree that means I have no way to give info on past endenvors for the best.

By the way the crossover parts I mentioned in most designs will quite litterally require 5 to 10 times the amount of space over the basic 3" X 6" computer grade crossover boards used in many brands. Actually most will require outboard cabinets as big as 12" x 12" for exotic Caps and inductors, not to mention they will weigh in the 15 to 20 lb range vs. the 2 or 3 lbs of the original passive units normally replaced.

D_edwards, keep in mind I was speaking to the majority of audio speaker guys and not trying to push a product I happen to own on to them, simple as that. Thanks for the concern though :)

I have DIY speakers with crossovers I built from scratch. I have use precise calculation to find the right crossover points. On my crossover, I use Dayton caps and dayton ir core inductors. I did find the sound to be much better then the radio shack crossover.

I agree with Sean, it is the construction and layout that shape the sound.

Sure quality parts can be important but the total design is what matters.I do tend to use simple semi 1st order networks with very hi-quality parts in many of my loudspeaker designs also very hi-quality transducers and cabinets.Then like Bobby said its very easy to tell the good from the ugly.In more simple designs with highly complicated crossovers I can skimp on parts costs a bit without much penalty soundwise.