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Crossover mods and speaker efficiancy?

I was just wondering if anyone can tell me if it makes sense that with complete crossover mods(caps, coils, resistors, and internal cabling)that the speakers would draw more current from my amp? My speakers are Hales T5's with totally upgraded crossovers. I am using Dynamicaps for the tweeter section, Dynamicap,Audiocap and auricaps for the midsection and Solen/Axon for the bass area. My coils were replaced with Solo foill coils(16guage for tweeter, 14 guage for mid and 12 guage for bass). Finally as well the internal cabling was replaced with cardas chasis wire of three guages for the three drivers.
My question is that should these changes make my speakers less efficient or draw more current from my amp. I have a Pass X250 which has a meter on it which indicates how much current is being drawn and when the amp is going out of A mode. When the needle moves at all it's out of A mode and into AB mode. What I have noticed with the crossover mod is that the meter is reading that the speakers are taking very much more current than before the mods. The needle bounces to around the 2 or 3 O'clock point on loud passages where as before the mods the needle rarely passed 12 or 1 O'clock. The sound is way bigger sounding and I suppose the bigger sound is due to the larger current draw but I'm not sure. Would this type of crossover mod make my speakers less efficient in that my amp is obviously working much harder than before but the sound is much bigger than before. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated. I should note that I can listen to louder levels of volume of the music as the sound is clean and doesn't sound "loud" as the speakers now tend to have less distortion and I can play loud without being annoyed. The needle on the X250 meter now tends to bounce around alot where as before it just wiggled.
128x128mitchb
herman
2,272 posts
 
I think we are all on the same page here. I agree with Mitch that what he did was a gamble, and I'm glad he won the bet. I'm sure the manufacturers do have to look long and hard at the components in the crossover. If they used the quality of stuff that Mitch used it would raise the retail price quite a bit.

The bottom line for me is that I don't think just replacing the stock components with more expensive (higher quality?) ones is always going to yield superior results, and since they are so expensive it is a gamble I'm not willing to take. In an ideal situation you would build the crossover and then play the same game the manufacturer does and try different values in different combinations until you hit on the best combo, but with each component costing so much few can afford to pay for all of the uneeded, leftover stuff.

Glad it all worked out for you.
gmood1
1,251 posts
 
After hearing what a crossover upgrade did for my speakers.I feel the gamble is worth taking and worth while in getting the best out of the speaker.Since I buy mostly used I can spend a little extra taking the crossovers and the speaker to another level. This is a win win situatuion for me . Since I am not losing money by constantly trading speakers out looking for a particular sound. I would rather spend $10.00 on some resistors to pad a tweeter than several thousand on another speaker. Lets put it in prospective. A 20.1 Magnepan retails around $14,000.00.The stock crossover parts on these speakers may cost magnepan $100.00..that maybe stretching it since they buy parts in large quantities.I have maybe $400.00 in crossover parts on my maggies. My crossovers aren't as complicated as Mitch's and the parts count is very low.The stock crossovers weigh a little less than 2 pounds for both speakers combined.Now they weigh over 12 pounds for both speakers.I paid less than $1000.00 for the maggies. I can assure you they don't sound like a speaker that retails for $1000.00.
herman
2,272 posts
 
You bought $14,000 20.1's for less than $1,000??

Do they have anymore for sale at that price? That is an incredible deal.
gmood1
1,251 posts
 
No Herman..LOL
Mine are the 2.5Rs.I was giving you an example of the quality crossovers in a expensive speaker. Not picking on the Maggies since I really like them.But they should be ashamed.
Hey if you see them for that let me know ! I would still have to upgrade the crossovers though.LOL
jonbok
9 posts
 
My experience here is limited but I do not feel it is a gamble to replace x-over components with higher cost/quality (not always related) components. I have done this in three pairs of speakers to varrying degrees and have had consistently impressive results each time. While it is fashionable to believe that crossover design is an act of alchemy and magic (that is a component) it defies reason to assume that a manufacturer would use only the ideal components for a design. Come on, they choose the $.20 sand cast resistor not because they wanted a resistor with inductance, but because they wanted something that was cheap. A $7 caddock never even enters the equation. More so for caps (which can get really expensive) and especially for inductors, which can be made cheap in house with magnet wire...
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