Is it good to upgrade the crossovers in your speakers?

It's a tricky business no doubt because confirmation bias is a thing.

However, I was once asked to solder a friend's Celestion 44 cable connectors where they met the drive units inside the cabinet.

The existing tag connectors looked pitted and dull and after hardwiring the cables (after stripping and cleaning) the sound noticeably changed.

The tonal signature was still the same, but the pace and dynamics seemed to have been given a shot in the arm.

Even 6 months later, when listening to the the Beach Boys Sunflower double CD I could not escape the impression.

Thankfully, my friend Mitch was pleased with the results but I daresay there might be some who would prefer the previous more laidback nature of the speakers.

Just how they sounded when new, early 1970s would have been anyone's guess.

Anyway, I'd like to think all decent loudspeakers nowadays are either hardwired or use non tarnishing tags inside.

It can’t hurt you can always put old caps back in. Have you ever seen the crap parts in some of these expensive speakers. I’ve only done it to a couple pair of speaker and was a very nice improvement. New wire improves sound and outboard crossover made it easy if caps are bigger than original. Also makes it easy to play around with caps. I wonder if crossover not rattling around if cabinet helped. Modding both pair of speakers improved sound for me. It wasn’t subtle. 

Arguments about issues with sensory perception is problematic here, confirmation bias exists with all equipment, whether oem or modded,  it can always exist. To make blanket claim that all crossover modifications resulting in one hearing sound quality improvements are faulty because of confirmation bias is total nonsense. One could make that argument with every single listening impression posted on this or any forum. This would conform to argument that more expensive equipment is only superior due to confirmation bias, little or no correlation to better sound quality vs. the less expensive component. This is argument for not trusting one's own sensory perception. I could make the same argument in regard to the cheaper component, the value seeking consumer is biased towards the cheaper component.

Individual audio parts make their contribution to holistic sound quality of individual pieces of equipment. The savvy engineer or designer is aware of this and chooses his/her parts accordingly, you do see increasing use of specialized or upgraded parts in audio equipment. The naysayer will state its for marketing purposes, the listener will listen. The experienced listener remains ever mindful of bias, can also control for bias by return to previous configuration.

@mglik: A viewing of Danny Richie’s latest GR Research Tech Talk video on YouTube, in which he goes through his appraisal of the pair of Focal Aria 906 a customer sent him, will be informative.

It’s easy to find: go to YouTube, do a search for GR Research, and a row of his many videos will appear. The Focal Aria video is the most recent, and will be first in line.

Danny shows the Aria’s drivers and enclosure (he has already disassembled the speaker), it’s measured on-axis and off-axis frequency response, its spectral decay characteristics, and examines and describes the speaker’s crossover. He then explains the reasons for the Arias performance failings, and how he addresses them. He not only modifies the crossover to improve the Aria’s measured performance, but uses better parts in doing so. He explains the benefits in sound quality the better parts afford.

As with all Danny’s Tech Talk videos, it is a short (13:21) and sweet look into loudspeaker design and build. You will be VERY glad you watched it!

bdp24,

I agree with you. I love watching his videos. Very informative, and he backs up what he does by showing the improvements in the measured frequency response and spectral decay.