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
Rx...

In order of importance...

Change L6 to aircore inductor $$$$$$$$$$
Change L3 to aircore inductor $$$$
Change L1 to aircore inductor $$
Change C3 to whatever suits your fancy
Change C1 to whatever suits your fancy
Hi Jeffrey - Your advice is greatly appreciated.

RE: SoniCaps Gen 1 caps. They have a 3.6uF cap and a 6.8uF cap, but both are only 200V, whereas the stock Focal caps are 250V. So I assume that's not going to work.

RE: SoniCap Platinum caps. They don't come in the correct uF values, nor do I see any combination of 2 caps that sum to the correct values. Not to mention, they are, to use your phrase, more than I choose to afford. :-) I was hoping to do the whole project for $300-$500, so I need to find caps in the $100 range or so.

RE: MultiCaps RTX caps. Again, I don't see the correct values, nor do I see any combinations of 2 caps that sum to the correct values. Also, they tend to be 200V like the SoniCaps.

Hence the search for caps continues...

RE: Mills MRA-12 resistors. This is a stupid question, but I assume that replacing the stock 7 watt resistor with a 12 watt resistor is fine, provided that they have the same ohms rating (of 5.6). Is that correct?

Bryon
Jeffreybehr, have you tried Clarity's MR caps? The rest of Clarity's lines are mediocre in comparison. And as much as I like Sonic Caps, there is absolutely no comparison between Sonic Cap Gen I's and MR's.

Bryon, floating caps is fine as long as the leads are protected with shrink wrap, etc... The leads on MR's are generally pretty long.
More capacitor tests than you'd have thought possible.....
http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Cap.html

conclusion? Try for yourself.

Eld is correct. L6 is a roadblock inductor.