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!
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!