DIY Replacing Components in Crossovers
I have a couple pair of old speakers that I'm thinking about tinkering around with by replacing existing capacitors and/or resistors with different brands just to get a taste of how different higher quality parts affect the speaker's sound. I don't have any interest in redesigning the crossover networks, only to replace existing parts with better quality parts with the same values to see what kind of results I get. Soldering and the mechanics of replacing the parts isn't an issue for me but I just don't have much experience with the sonics of individual parts. Have any of you done this before? What has worked for you? All things being equal, do you hear much difference replacing crossover parts with better quality components? Any stories to tell? Thanks for looking.
Some say they don’t matter or matter as much. I find they really do and are in fact in the signal path. If one doubts that, then remove the parallel cap and listen 🤓. Yes, you can save money here and not get the very best. If it’s an electrolytic, then replace as it may have dried out over time.
Don’t forget resistors. Some nice $5-$7 Mills MRAs will be a very nice sonic improvement for relatively little money. |
Thanks Erik. Does Mundorf have a particular sound to them?
In the affordable kind, I like them a lot more than Solens, very warm, maybe too warm, and like I said, they break in funny so you'll get to hear the sound of caps breaking in.
The issue with parallel caps is that you need to measure the ESR and compensate. For that you need something like a Parts Express / Dayton DATS which is worth having around. :) Technically you still need it in series, but it's a little less critical. |
This project you have in mind is one of the most cost-effective and rewarding of all the mods or upgrades you could do. The way you are talking is exactly the way to do it. Don't try and reinvent the wheel. Designing a crossover is very technical and very difficult, especially trying to improve on an already professional design. Most all of the problems people have are due to changing values. The value of caps and inductors affects crossover points, changes the frequency each driver gets, and messes with the sound. Resistors are like volume controls used to turn the volume down on drivers that would other wise be too loud. Almost all the mistakes you hear about are people messing with these values. So measure and be very careful not to change any values. Audiophiles love to talk about caps. In reality resistors and inductors are equally important. The better ones don't "change" the sound so much as reveal more of what already is there. As you go better and better (read, more expensive) they remove or distort less and less and so you get more and more of what was already there. This is for caps, resistors, and inductors. Here is a good source for many different caps -
Here's one for resistors - This isn't really comparative but gives some good info on inductors. Coils make a huge difference! https://www.erseaudio.com/Products/FoilQCoils
Also if you look at my system page towards the end there are pictures of the crossover upgrade done on my Moab speakers. Several of us on the FB Owner's Group have done projects like this, to varying degrees. Everyone so far extremely happy. You will learn a lot. Good luck!
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