Top resistors

Yes, every part contributes to the sound.

In a resolving enough setup,even footers can greatly affect the sound. Every bit of wire, type of solder used etc.

I once had a bad fuse holder replaced with a different part, i noticed a difference in sound.

Each product manufacturer has a house sound, tuned based on cost of parts to achieve what the designer references presentation of music.

In the past few years, a number of very exotic equipment manufacturers now used these audiophile components, meaning -expensive parts in their design with different grades and market it accordingly. To a non tech savvy customer, at a much steeper price markup as opposed to what these parts costs, especially considering their oem costs.

Just stick to what is recommended by users based on their sonic finding and try. The more exotic parts usually always work rather well as opposed to mid tier audiophile components, which are many out there. These are a bigger effort to get them sound right in most ways than their tried popular and costlier counterparts.

Update on Pathaudio and Duelund resistors.

Somehow, i blew 1 of the Path resistors and dug out my old Duelunds to replace 1 side for the tweeter network.

Same values.... now boy it was that different.

The Duelund are louder at the same volume, very clear and bright...totally unlistenable. I added another 10% increase in value Duelund i had laying around in series.

Ok, not as loud still very prominent highs. This resistor brings detail very upfront with super clarity, but uitimalely lacks the balance and depth of the Path's.

The duelunds do revealmore detail, artifact of a very upfront sound? I think they need a copper wire instead of silver leads and vice versa for the Paths stranded copper leads.

Overall

Some developments, now came the mundorf m-resist resitor as a temporary fix till my 1 pathaudio replacement. I dont know what happened to the my pathaudio resistor which value went from 6.8ohm to 47k. It did not break but value went up so high i thought the tweeter had problems.

The sound of the duelund cast were had very spotlight detailed, too much of a good thing, internet streaming showed certain tracks distortion very clearly.

I could only try the Mundorf available the nest day, now:

M-Resist, 1 went in the right speaker first, banished the duelunds with great relief! This was much more balanced with very good detail and has a tiny hint of sharpness as compared to the Pathaudio.

This may not be sharpness, but because the Path's are darker sounding (or more neutral), not as highlighted yet detailed. The Paths were more relaxed and smooth, allowing a higher listening volume without fatique. I believe that the slight hint of brightness associated with the steel legs on the mundorf's which i feel is the minus point in the design.

Overall, these mundorfs are the best balanced out of the 3 brands tested though i will revisit the Paths after the new replacement has been burnt in on my cooker.

"The sound of the duelund cast were had very spotlight detailed, too much of a good thing, internet streaming showed certain tracks distortion very clearly."

I haven't tried Mundorf or Path, but Duelund R took my Merlin VSM Esotar tweeter to a level of clarity and refinement that has ended the search for resistors for crossovers. Definitely not too much of a good thing. No interest here in obscuring detail from any source.

Dgarretson, yes the Duelund would likely be a very good match for the esotar.

With a metal dome it can be a little distracting, very defined detailed. The other resistors are very detailed and do not obscure detail, similar to when you use silver wiring (which the leads of the duelund are.

The Mundorfs surprisingly sound very close to the Duelunds and the Paths sounding a little more laidback and softer detais(you look into the details as opposed as the details coming at you which i do find it more more relaxed sounding..