Speaker crossover mod. Your advice?


I'm considering modding the crossovers of my Focal 1027s. Specifically, I am thinking about replacing the capacitor associated with the tweeter. I have received some helpful advice from another A'gon member who has done a similar mod to his crossovers (on a different model speaker from the same manufacturer).

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions from folks who have experience with this sort of thing. In particular, what sort of improvements can be achieved with this kind of mod? Any thoughts on which caps to use? Any common mistakes I should avoid? Is the whole thing a bad idea?

Thanks for your input.

Bryon
bryoncunningham
Bryon,

I don't have any experience with mixing caps from different brands. However, there's a lot of information in that Mundorf thread I mentioned. Those guys talk about mixing caps of different brands.

On 11/29/10 Undertow talks about his cap mix ratio a bit, but also mentions that there is no golden rule-of-thumb ratio.

On 2/1/11 Undertow responded to one of my questions, “I have used the Duelund, Clarity combo, but found that 100% Duelund or Clarity were better in my case overall. As for the bypass with the Silver oils and the Clarity MR's that is the best mid cost combo yet I have heard consistently, and very organic with good dynamics never any edge.” Also on that same date Face said that his experience was consistent with Undertow's.

My first choice in the various components we are talking about (capacitors, resistors, inductors) is Duelund. I used a Duelund VSF copper capacitor in my previous speaker project and loved it. The guys on the other thread have pretty much gone 100% Duelund CAST components, which is the blue riband of this arena. However, on my current project I don't have the budget to go with Duelund VSF copper, much less CAST. My goal with this project was to find the capacitor that those guys really liked before they went Duelund CAST, and that seemed to be the Clarity MR, so that's what I am going to try this time around. I also have access to a lot of tubes and will fine tune my system further once the crossover is in place.

I'm taking my crossover outboard this time and plan to use all Clarity MR caps and Duelund Cast resistors. I haven't decided on the inductors yet.

If you can get Clarity to build you a 3.6micF cap for you, I would do that and not worry about mixing caps.

Regardless of the caps you choose, I would recommend that you change out the resistors too and go with the Duelund Cast. If you don't have room for the Duelunds, I have used Mundorf M-Resist and thought they were fine.

Just another thought, if you have room for Duelund caps, I would not hesitate to go that route. CAST is the ultimate, but don't hesitate to use VSF. Write Frederik Carøe, he owns Duelund, and tell him that you need a 3.6micF cap and they will make it for you. Basically they make everything custom anyway, so it's no big deal. If you order it through PartsConnexion he'll just ask you to make sure they make a note on the order of the value you want. They may be able to adjust the size of the cap to fit in your space – and the same applies to the resistor, they'll make it shorter than their standard 5-inches if you require it.

John
'Bypass' caps have a following, too.
Caps in parallel add value, so if you need 3.6, you can use a 2.7, a 0.82 and a 0.1 equalling 3.62 which is 'over' but well within the tolerance.
The stock caps are probably 10% and the Clarity MR are 5% which puts you within design intent, even 'worst case'.

Looking at the picture of the board, the inductors are not in the best configuration.
ALL inductors should be at right angles to one another.....never parallel or coplanar.

The new caps will be GIGANTIC compared to the stock caps, so be ready. Look at the data sheets to get an idea how large the new caps really are and be ready to work with layout. Good idea going external, 'cause frankly, you probably don't have room IN the enclosure for the mods you have in mind.

Custom made caps? Not a bad idea, but I'll bet they cost $$$$
I believe custom MR's will have to be purchased in bulk, 10 or more. On the other hand, I don't believe Duelund requires a minimum.

Having tried bypasses and mixing values of caps(MR's, Duelund, Mundorf, etc...) to attain a specific value, I would not recommend it for the HF pass. Either use the correct value(within tolerance) or split the value in half as advised earlier.

Best of luck with your upgrade, sounds like a fun project!
Bryon,

I had missed your crossover pictures and apologize for my oversight. Magfan is absolutely right, there's certainly not going to be room on that board for any of the caps I've been discussing, and most likely not in the speaker enclosure either as he also mentioned.

If you do go outboard with your crossover, Google "inductor-coil-crosstalk-basics". There's also a good picture on the Parts-Express board showing good and bad inductor orientations.

John
Thanks to all for the valuable input.

John - No sweat. I was about to send them to you when I saw your last post.

RE: Outboard crossover. Unfortunately, that's not in the cards. The room is not dedicated. Plus wife, pets, kids, etc.

RE: The size of the new caps. I was hoping to have the new caps "float" off the board a little, as in the following sketch:

FLOATING CAP

At least two problems that would need to be overcome in order to make this work:

1. Finding a cap with leads that are long enough to reach the board.
2. Finding a way to stabilize the cap.

Thoughts?

Bryon