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Will I notice improvement with crossover mods?

I've finally discovered that the difference in sound between my two Hales Transcendence 5"s is due to a difference in crossover values between the two speakers. Aparently one of the speakers was at the correct values but the other speaker's crossover was off by over 10%. I've decided to repair the speakers by having both the crossovers completely redone with new caps, coils and resisters. The crossovers of both speakers will be upgraded to better parts and they will be the same correct values(evenly matched).
My question is that will I notice a big improvement with this upgrade/mod? I am having Solen foil caps replacing the old caps, Hepta- Litz coils replacing the old coils and improved resistors although I do not know exactly which ones. Opinion would be appreciated.
128x128mitchb
sean
6,231 posts
 
I'm glad to hear that you're still "foaming at the mouth" over your "new" speakers Mitch. Given that you started off with what most would consider "better than most" passive parts in your speaker, can you even begin to fathom how some older but very well designed speakers using lower grade wiring, electrolytic caps, scrawny inductors, etc... would benefit from such an approach? This is why i've encouraged others to find good basic designs and build upon what was already there, much like what you did. With designs that are even older than yours, the results can be even more drastic and staggering in terms of improvements. Sean
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trelja
3,223 posts
 
Well, I am not one to usually say "I told you so", but in this case, that tweeter NEEDED to go. Personally, I am of the opinion that the tweeter change should have happened prior to the crossover mods, but Sean will probably disagree. Fair enough...

As the Hales have a really good cabinet and woofer, with your crossover mods and tweeter upgrade, you now have a speaker that competes on a VERY high level, at a cost that would NEVER allow you to play in that ballpark otherwise.

All I can say to everyone is that if you have a pair of 7 - 15 year old speakers with this kind of potential and do not follow in Mitch's footsteps but "upgrade" instead, you are going to cost yourself A LOT more money and get LESS performance in the end.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
sean...I did outfit my speakers with AWG10 coils and fancy capacitors and I do think that performance improved, although I can't say that the slight change I made to the component values (crossover frequency) might not be the reason.

However, do you have any technical explanation regarding WHY a coil with 0.15 ohm DCR should sound different from one with DCR 0.65, apart from slightly less attenuation (so that the volume control needs to be cranked up a bit)? It's been noted that after passing through the coil, the signal traverses some hundred feet of very fine wire called a voice coil (or in my case fine wire glued to a mylar diaphram). Why does the DCR of the coil matter?
theaudiotweak
2,801 posts
 
If you want to make the stage blacker, quieter and have the music arrive noise free and I believe everyone does, then the most over looked, easiest, most cost effective ,and most fullfilling crossover mod is to replace the resistors.. They are the lowest of the low when engineered even into some of the finest speakers on the market..Many designers turn a deaf ear to the device that is the noisest in the circuit...the resistors..Tom
gmood1
1,251 posts
 
I agree ..from my limited experience the resistors really make a positive difference.Mills and Ohmite resistors are both terrific replacements for the basic sandcast resistors found in a lot of speakers.
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