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Is it good to upgrade the crossovers in your speakers?

A confessed audiophile, threw this Forum I have contracted “Tweakitus”.
QSA fuses, SRA Platforms, Townshend Podiums, NPS Q45T, ad nauseam.

The latest bug in my bonnet is upgrading the crossovers in my speakers.

I asked my speaker designer about part quality. He did mention that caps, for example, can cost as much as $800 each. And that he has gone up to $50 ones.

Like all things “Hi Fi”, cost does not necessarily dictate quality. And I doubt that I would opt for 2 $800 caps. But there must be a sweet spot for crossover components? Any ideas?

mglik
hilde45's avatar
hilde45
5,383 posts
 

Besides the cost, there may be changes in sonic character. I suppose the initial question would be, What do you hope the speakers to do that they're not doing adequately now? What aspect would you hope to improve? After that, I would go searching for some correlations between the parts you would change and other testimonials about what those parts contribute to a speaker's sonic character and performance.

akg_ca's avatar
akg_ca
2,379 posts
 

Assuming you already have speakers you are generally comfortable with, I would not recommend that you screw around with the OEM design and OEM crossovers…especially as a tweak.

There is no “set” or “standard” crossover point - different speakers mean bespoke different crossover points.They are already “tuned” at a certain precise point with their bespoke speaker drivers and parts. What you are proposing is to introduce an unknown new component on an informal ad hoc basis that ignores the speaker’s overall design characteristics…. This can - ….and usually will… - be a recipe for a bad outcome.

“ if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it “ rules.

Your are better off to consider other alternatives if your audio presentation is lacking.The philosophy is clear. An affordable speaker (… which includes yours left in its full OEM current state …) matched with a high-end source and amplification makes more sense than an expensive speaker with a cheap amp and source.

erik_squires
16,733 posts
 

Parts cost/quality is so subjective, but my advice to you is this.  If you have an itch to get your hands dirty build a new speaker from a kit.  Then you can upgrade all you want to and be involved in every stage of the process. You'll learn a lot more this way and be more satisfied.

Upgrading parts in an existing speaker may or may not lead you where you want to go unless you've already done it several times.  Rather than play with your perfectly nice existing set, I strongly suggest you get a hold of a good 2 way speaker kit from Meniscus or Madisound or even Parts Express and make it 100% yourself.

petg60
1,486 posts
 

You can change everything in a crossover but the point is what do you want to achieve. More detail, different character?

The easiest part are the resistors and internal wiring and most likely what you refer as a sweet spot. Capacitors are costly, can bring a very good improvement but can also expose drive units. With wrong inductors it can get a real mess.

I agree with all posts above, leave them in factory form unless you have good experience in parts and building crossovers as not upsetting speakers' voicing.

 

 

 

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