A previous discussion included a statement about crossover components.


The commentator stated something to the effect that some very high end speakers really cheaped out on the capacitors and resistors in their crossovers, and hinted that replacing them with high quality components might improve the sound quality of the speakers. My question is "Have you ever replaced the caps and resistors in your speakers crossovers, and to your ears did that result in better sound quality?" Also, what brands of caps and resistors do you consider to be "the best", and why?

peporter

Showing 5 responses by audioman58

I hav3 been upgrading Xovers for over 15 years ,having owned a audio store 

and having techs work for me ,I discovered with electronics ,as well as speakers 

on average only 25%  actually goes into the product the rest R&D overhead and markup .. sadly you see many using Solen capacitors or far worse ,and ceramic resistors ,cheap inductors and speaker terminals gold plated cheap brass which is 3 x less conductive then Gold Copper which = 3 x more resistance and noise

st least start there the WBT next gen are only $40 each , and if you have whst I call fake bywire setup 4 terminals many just are internally connected then you get the crappy straps ,always buy or make quality jumpers i,you can hear the difference 

go to Humble homemade hifi capacitor test for starters judt to see quality .

Duelund are the Bentley of the bunch. Path audio resistors, or Mundorfs Ultra resistors with a heat sink ,inductors I like Jantzen open coil Big for woofers and mids Waxedpaper Copper foil inductors very close to Duelund inductors. 
I spent over $1600 just in Xover parts this is a mid grade build but better then anything at $40k in a speaker.

Clarity capacitors sells big values perfect for bass if 8 knew the value I could help

and you can reach me direct at 

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You were talking 100-250 uf That is huge , what kind of speakers are these ?

most speakers are under 10 uf for the Bass woofer. You can vary the tolerances up to around 3% of the total before it starts effecting the Xover point a decent 1% of the total in a decent poly cap will smooth it out abit , and a good quality 

awg 12 Jantzen inductor open core would do it justice , I don’t use junky 

cheap sledge hammer type a magnet 🧲 with wire wrapped around it .

Jantzen are my favorite and great quality value ratio if you want a quality inductor 

speaker you are keeping . I rebuilt a nice Dynaudio speaker last year ,that I will be selling in the fall it now is called the model 30:$8k  and the Xover use Mundorf Evo caps decent ,but Mundorfs Supreme are their much better line. In parts maybe $400 I spent $1600 just in parts ,a solid 15-20% improvement in fidelity ,

pits the 🧠 or ❤️ of the speaker everythung hood or bad goes through there 

thsts why I always use top solder Cardas or Mundorf, and WBT connectors 

stock connectors on 90% are bright gold over brass , WBT Evo next gen $40 each 

at VH Audio I spent $250: on the WBT classic  no short. Cuts ,Everything counts .!!

Solen caps are a standard stock cap very fuzzy vs the many top quality caps Solen rated a 7 ,vs top 15 Duelund  that why I left 

Humble homemade hifi capacitor test   It’s the standard to go by at least 90+ accuracy with drivers there can be exceptions to the rules   Personally I wouldnot  use a Electrolytic capacitor even in a woofer , maybe exception the Clarity ones and use a 1uf as a bypass or bigger like a clarity CSA cap

Hifi collective in the U.K I buy many things ,and FedEx int For small parcels $28 U.S  they have great int rates and list everything and how many of each item .

the go to place arrives in 3-4 days .

For  20 years now I have been upgrading Xovers for myself friends  and family.

I have literally over 10,000 hours in experimentation knowing capacitors ,brands 

and discounting many so called engineers saying a resistor is a resistor  for example they too have accuracy and a sonic signature ,I use between Path Audio,and Mundorf ultra with a heat sink like in the Magico A5