Modifying Crossovers

Regarding modifying OEM parts/materials, in my case vintage (Infinity Quantum 2): still undecided between

"they know better than me what is good" (here: tiny thin cheap internal wiring) or "it can't truly be cost that they chose those cheapo wires so don't mess with it"

and

"it can't be good to chase the signal through those horrible wires"

I get the 'cost' part for mass produced speakers.

But the more the price of a speaker deviates from the cost based price function (the material cost of a $100,000 speaker is maybe 10% of the sales price, the rest is eaten up by profit, sales/marketing/demos, development, customer service/support/warranty), the lower is the motivation to use lesser parts for cost reasons. 

Hi @falmgren, It doesn’t look like the consensus here is that you should improve your speakers’ xover. As you are serious about this, please check @elliottbnewcombjr ’s post above.

Changing the xover components for more expensive parts (I don’t think anyone of us here has evidence of which would be the "better" parts for that specific speaker!) could change the sound -- not necessarily better, but different.

It’s reversible, so go ahead, but stick to using exactly the same spec components. Someone above recommended Mundorfs and I too have had great experiences with them (the oil variant)

That is not a high tech crossover, not many parts IF you must, why not build a complete alternate crossover, then A/B OEM to Upgrade?

You could also leave one as OEM, and 'upgrade' a few parts the the other's factory board. Listen in mono/mess with balance, find a track with a lot going on in L or R track, evaluate one at a time for differences. Proceed or undo as you and/or your friend's ears tell you which is Preferred.

Clearly there are a few members here, a vocal minority that one person has called a "consensus" that think it is crazy to touch an OEM component and if God (the OEM) had intended you to have a better crossover, he would have given you one.

I’m fine with all those who don’t think it is a good idea. I think they are perhaps trying to come up with a reason why they shouldn’t do it. If it were to become the next hot mod, then they might be subconsciously forced to do it. Like cables.

As for doing A/B, installing a new crossover involves a lot of soldering of wires. In my case there are 6 seperate connections. Building an A/B would be a lot of work and expense. Those of us who have heard the mods, evaluated them technically, and understand what we are achieveing do not need to be convinced that it will sound better. Let me put it this way, there are likely components in the signal path in your speakers that you would shudder if they were in the signal path in your amp. Sand cast resistors that cost $1.99 apiece for one. Remember all those expensive bypass capacitors amp manufacturers use? Your speaker doesn’t have those, but mine will in a couple of weeks.

A friend has very similar speakers to mine.  Mine sounded slightly better until he upgraded crossovers.  Now every time I go to his house I'm reminded that I need to get my crossover upgrade done.

So don’t anybody feel you need to approve or disapprove of crossover modifications. Just like anything else in life, if it isn’t for you, don’t do it.

Jerry