Will I notice improvement with crossover mods?

Mitchb please keep us informed on how it turns out! I am rather familiar with the sound of the transendents.
My understanding of crossovers is that its much an artform as anything. I am really wondering if your goal can be successfully pulled of to sound "excellent"! I am under the impression that it's very easy to screw crossovers up. I also wonder if simply using good parts with the same values will give you the proper sound still.
Maybe my understanding is wrong.
Either way, please up date us on the results and definite parts used!
I have long thought of trying to do upgraded crossovers for many a cheaper speaker desing, to see if it would improve sound quality. Maybe your results(be honest) will give me hope and inspiration for my ideas. Thx and good luck

I am one of the biggest proponent of loudspeaker crossover improvements on Audiogon, but like spices in cooking, care needs to be exercised.

Finding good resistors, such as Mills or Ohmite, will always pay dividends in the treble. You really cannot go wrong here, as getting a good resistor, as opposed to those used in almost all speakers, will smooth out the response while allowing more information to flow through at the same time. The effects are such that it is the best upgrade you can make valuewise to a crossover.

Likewise, better coils always improve things. The key is to go to coils with better copper and a larger guage. The impact and slam jumps up, but what I hear and is not normally noted is that the sound just plain opens up. It's hard to describe, but it feels as if you have just gotten a much better loudspeaker.

Now capacitors, here we can understand why many people will advise you to just leave well enough alone. You have to be very careful with your choice in capacitors, as the wrong one will ruin the sound of your loudspeakers. The biggest danger is that many of the "good" capacitors can bleach out the sound and turn it harsh. They can lay bare and bring out a lot of the nasties in a system. Capacitors should always be used to balance things. Going for a better cap can often bring about the opposite of improvements.

My advice when it comes to caps is to analyze what kind of sound you are getting from the speakers now, and which direction you go in. If you are trying to back a speaker off from being upfront, most West Coast caps are not the place to look. As an everyday cap, which will almost never get you in trouble Solen/SCR/AXON caps are wonderful. Above that, AuriCaps, DynamiCaps, and North Creek's caps are superior, depending on the sound you are aiming for, but the costs jump up considerably.

I have never heard of Mundorf prior to here on Audiogon this weekend, but it seems as if they have their followers here in this thread. Maybe they are also that good?

GOOD LUCK!

Great advice Trelja!! I wanted to mention the inductors.But I didn't want to confuse Mitchb anymore than I have already! LOL

Thanks for all your advice. I am researching the availability of different caps through the shop where my speakers are at. I may go with the Solen parts as they are easily available but I will wait and see what the technician has to say about his availability for better parts. How are the Solen Hepta-Litz coils, Solen foil caps and their best resistors? Thanks again

So now I am waiting for the return of my speakers with Mundorf Supreme Silver/Oil caps all around, Mundorf Zero Ohm coils and MR10 non inductive metal oxide resistors. It will be interesting to hear how my Hales will sound with these moves. As they were always different sounding from each other due to one of the crossovers not being correct, I'm sure I will enjoy the sound. As well I have my Pass X250 being looked at by Pass Labs as the right and left channels sounded different from each other as well. If the speakers weren't enough I had an amp problem as well just to confuse the issue.At least all is being taken care of at the same time and I won't have to have my system down much longer than necessary. Thanks for eveyones advice as I'm sure I'll get a better loudspeaker returned than I sent out