Sean, good advice there!
I agree that I have just about never come across a crossover upgrade that didn't yield very nice dividends. Bigtee, you must be speaking to paranoid loudspeaker manufacturers. Anyone telling you that you are changing the design of the loudspeaker is fearful that you will find happiness in the upgrade, and therefore will delay the purchase of your next pair of speakers.
Based on a recent thread, the Mills resistors were suggested to me over the Ohmite or North Creek I have always went with. I did give them a try this past fall, and I could not feel more strongly. The Mills resistors, while certainly superior to the norm which one comes across, were much flatter and more lifeless.
The Ohmite resistors are the best I have worked with. I consider them the single biggest, cost effective improvement one can make to a loudspeaker. Almost always a less than $10 upgrade. They get rid of so much harshness, grain, and glare from the high frequencies, without dulling detail or the music itself, that it almost(yes, almost) feels like a better tweeter was installed.
Also, while I normally go too far in parts upgrades(guess it's the hobby), I think we should scale back capacitor/coil recommendations for this project. Reason being chez stated this was an inexpensive pair of speakers. I think that Axon or SCR caps will provide a great improvement, at very low cost. Instead of the $150 he quoted for the Musicaps, he would be looking at less than $25. And, I would go with 14 gauge coils as opposed to 8, from either North Creek or Alpha Core Goertz.
I think that for an inexpensive pair of loudspeakers, one will find the limiting factors to be the cabinet and drivers. In my opinion, even if these two areas are improved down the road, the limits of the Ohmite resistor/SCR cap/North Creek 14 gauge coil will still not be exceeded. While I am a huge fan of MIT and REL film and foil caps and coils as big as a dinner plate, in order to see their improvements, the rest of the speaker must be on quite a high level themselves. This should keep the price of the upgrade at probably $60 - $75, while taking the speaker's crossovers farther than one would expect, including a sizable cushion for down the road tweaks.
I agree that I have just about never come across a crossover upgrade that didn't yield very nice dividends. Bigtee, you must be speaking to paranoid loudspeaker manufacturers. Anyone telling you that you are changing the design of the loudspeaker is fearful that you will find happiness in the upgrade, and therefore will delay the purchase of your next pair of speakers.
Based on a recent thread, the Mills resistors were suggested to me over the Ohmite or North Creek I have always went with. I did give them a try this past fall, and I could not feel more strongly. The Mills resistors, while certainly superior to the norm which one comes across, were much flatter and more lifeless.
The Ohmite resistors are the best I have worked with. I consider them the single biggest, cost effective improvement one can make to a loudspeaker. Almost always a less than $10 upgrade. They get rid of so much harshness, grain, and glare from the high frequencies, without dulling detail or the music itself, that it almost(yes, almost) feels like a better tweeter was installed.
Also, while I normally go too far in parts upgrades(guess it's the hobby), I think we should scale back capacitor/coil recommendations for this project. Reason being chez stated this was an inexpensive pair of speakers. I think that Axon or SCR caps will provide a great improvement, at very low cost. Instead of the $150 he quoted for the Musicaps, he would be looking at less than $25. And, I would go with 14 gauge coils as opposed to 8, from either North Creek or Alpha Core Goertz.
I think that for an inexpensive pair of loudspeakers, one will find the limiting factors to be the cabinet and drivers. In my opinion, even if these two areas are improved down the road, the limits of the Ohmite resistor/SCR cap/North Creek 14 gauge coil will still not be exceeded. While I am a huge fan of MIT and REL film and foil caps and coils as big as a dinner plate, in order to see their improvements, the rest of the speaker must be on quite a high level themselves. This should keep the price of the upgrade at probably $60 - $75, while taking the speaker's crossovers farther than one would expect, including a sizable cushion for down the road tweaks.