Very few have a lot of experience with various materials to make there crossover box out of. I made mine out of maple because its easy to work with, is rumored to "sound good", looks good and offered piece of mind over using a metal or acrylic box that could introduce static electricity into the mix. I made mine point to point and a metal box would have me worrying about something shorting out. Another benefit to using wood is the fact it can be changed very easily. More important then what the box is made of is of course finding component that suit your taste and setting them up as to optimize there performance. Make sure you keep your inductors on different planes, this will help create a blacker back ground and reduce any interaction between the coils. Build your boxes larger then you'll think they need to be so you can move things if you desire, its best to have the room and not need it then the other way around. There are a lot of tweeks once you get your crossover built, it depends just how far you want to push the limits. You can expect even with a moderate crossover and internal rewire a 60% increase in over all performance. Increased bass response, much greater transparency and detail, more articulation top to bottom, greater dynamics at lower and higher volumes, wider/deeper soundstage, creepy good imaging(a quick funny story about this, I was talking to a friend how you can distinctly hear things from behind you with some discs, keep in mind my system is strictly 2 channel. He laughed and said RIIIIIIGHT, he came over and listened and could NOT believe what he was hearing from above and along side him! They didn't do that before the upgrades) in short they are hardly the same speaker. These are just my experiences, I have no knowledge of anyone using a metalic enclosure with modified magnepans- I am curious what the differences would be!
btw the internal crossover houses the majority of the mid and tweeter crossover not just the tweeter. Also be aware the new components will be MUCH larger, so plan on this when you design your boxes. I have caps that are nearly the size of soda cans in my crossovers!
This is a fun and ultimately very fulfilling project have fun with it.
btw the internal crossover houses the majority of the mid and tweeter crossover not just the tweeter. Also be aware the new components will be MUCH larger, so plan on this when you design your boxes. I have caps that are nearly the size of soda cans in my crossovers!
This is a fun and ultimately very fulfilling project have fun with it.