A previous discussion included a statement about crossover components.
The commentator stated something to the effect that some very high end speakers really cheaped out on the capacitors and resistors in their crossovers, and hinted that replacing them with high quality components might improve the sound quality of the speakers. My question is "Have you ever replaced the caps and resistors in your speakers crossovers, and to your ears did that result in better sound quality?" Also, what brands of caps and resistors do you consider to be "the best", and why?
i very much agree with this comment i recently undertook a fun project of upgrading the wiring, connectors and crossover components of my magnepan 1.7i’s ... i bought a second pair to keep as stock as a control the difference is monumental, and the capacitor choice in the crossover is of major importance, especially feeding the upper frequency drivers |
@audioman58, and anyone else experienced... How would you approach upgrading an isolated woofer crossover with cap values of 125uF and 250uF? Just stick to adding bypass caps to the OEM caps, or no? Those big uF values are basically non-existent for the select caps aforementioned in this thread. |
Solen caps are a standard stock cap very fuzzy vs the many top quality caps Solen rated a 7 ,vs top 15 Duelund that why I left Humble homemade hifi capacitor test It’s the standard to go by at least 90+ accuracy with drivers there can be exceptions to the rules Personally I wouldnot use a Electrolytic capacitor even in a woofer , maybe exception the Clarity ones and use a 1uf as a bypass or bigger like a clarity CSA cap Hifi collective in the U.K I buy many things ,and FedEx int For small parcels $28 U.S they have great int rates and list everything and how many of each item . the go to place arrives in 3-4 days . |
HELLO Peporter! Capacitors come in $0.50, $5, and $50 versions, like wine and cars. Is that surpriing? I hope not. I've bee upgrading passive speaker crossovers for years. My "Best for the Buck" rating is Mundorf MKP (250 volt rating). Delund is best but very pricy. I've tried them. They sound about 5 -10% better than Mundorf but Mundorfs sound a good 50% better than what is probably in your speaker's stock crossovers. Foil or ribbon (flat strips) coils sound better than round wire inductors, but not dramattically. Yes, you can spend huge $$ on passive crossover parts - but why? (I have seen passive crossovers a big a large picnic coolers!) An electronic two way crossover will set you back $100 or so (the price of a pair of small Delund caps) and shock you with better sound. Yes, you will have to remove the passive crossovers and add a new set of terminals (use good ones - no magnetic parts) and add an amplifier (don't you have a couple sitting around?) but the results are spectacular for the $$ spent. You realize that modern solid state amps have very high "damping factors," right? That means they can control the motion of the loudspeaker and minimizer errors in a speaker's motion that distort the music they are playing. A passive crossover limits the amount of control the amp can exert because they are inserted in the path between the amp and the speaker's moving (sound producing) parts. Electronic crosovers go between the preamp and power amps and allow direct connection between the amp and speaker's drivers. You think cables make a difference? (They certainly do!) But removing all those parts between the amp and actual drivers that produce the sound is an enormous improvement! 50 watts is plenty for an amp driving tweeters. Try it, you'll like it! Happy Listening. |
