How good is the crossover in your loudspeakers?

Excellent post, @deep_333.

It is only in crossovers which produce poor driver phase relationships (or other technical problems) that Danny Richie does a x/o redesign. If he finds no such problem(s), he merely puts together a parts package that replicates the stock x/o, but with audiophile grade high end parts. He takes the stock crossover out of the speaker enclosure, showing all to see what it is comprised of. Watch a few of the videos, and you will see the proof that even many expensive speakers use poor quality parts in their crossovers. Iron core inductors, sandcast resistors, electrolytic capacitors, binding posts with ferrous parts, etc.

The X Series versions of some Magnepan models offer much the same crossover parts package as does Danny’s Magnepan upgrade kit. From the Magnepan site:

"The general idea of the X Series is to take the existing design of a given model and improve it..."

"How is that achieved exactly? Better capacitors. Better coils (inductors). Better resistors. Better wiring. Better connections. Better materials." These were all covered in Danny’s video on upgrading the Magnepan model send to him by a customer, and included in his upgrade kit.

Magnepan continues:

"Okay it’s better on paper, sure, but how does it sound? The short but truthful answer is that it sounds better! A lot better." 

Here’s one of Danny’s videos on the subject:

https://youtu.be/8IQ4t1Y1mxo?si=shhz3kYWZID3IX9f&t=1

@spenav: Yes, he has.

To be more specific, he has found some speakers with crossovers that need (iho) no "correction", but can be improved by using better parts (capacitors, resistors, inductors, coils, binding posts, wire, etc.) of the same electrical value. If you do a search through all the GR Research videos on YouTube, the title of some episodes gives a hint that the speaker under review met with his approval. He has praised the designs of Andrew Jones, for instance. There are some others, but yes they are in the minority. But remember, people send Danny their speaker because they themselves find fault in it. No owner of a Magico is going to do that!

In other cases he has advised the owner that the cost to "fix" their speaker is not cost effective, and they would be better off starting over.

As for manufacturing and selling his own, he does, in two forms:

1- As stated above, he sells loudspeaker kits (subs too) for DIY enthusiasts. He supplies the drivers and crossover parts, the customer builds the enclosure and assembles and installs the crossover. By the way, Rythmik Audio also offers their subs in both factory assembled and DIY kit versions. The plans for the F15HP enclosure call for a 4cu.ft. box, while the factory built version uses a 3cu.ft. one. You can build the enclosure in any manner you want,  as long as the internal volume is correct.

I built my pair of 4 cu.ft F15’s with double walls of MDF and Baltic Birch ply, and braced the Hell out of them (a 1.5" square brace every 6 inches, front-to-back, top-to-bottom, and side-to-side (I copied the honeycomb bracing in the Salk subs, which coincidentally used the Rythmik Audio sub kits inside Jim’s beautiful enclosures). Another fault Danny finds in most loudspeakers is insufficiently-braced enclosures. Tekton, anyone? 

2- Factory built loudspeakers and subs. Danny Richie and Brian Ding of Rythmik Audio collaborated on some subwoofers; GR Research sells the Rythmik Audio F12G, the G used in reference to the company name. The G version of the F12 incorporates a paper cone version of the 12" woofer, and Rythmik sells the plain F12, the cone of the same woofer being aluminum. Danny prefers the timbral character (and lower moving mass) of paper over aluminum, Brian the stiffness of aluminum.

GR Research sells only the F12G sub, while Rythmik Audio sells many other models. Danny and Brian collaborated on a remarkable model, the unique Open Baffle/Dipole/Servo-Feedback Woofer. THE sub for all dipole and planar loudspeakers. It was that sub that led me to GR Research.  

Danny has for a number of years now offered his speaker (and sub) kits as assembled and finished products, the work being done by a couple of cabinet makers he partners with. Those cabinet makers also offer the Danny Richie-designed enclosures (the plans for which come in the kit) the GR Research DIY kits require, selling them as "flat packs"---the enclosure baffle, top and bottom, rear and side panels packed in a carton. All that’s required are some woodworking clamps, wood glue, and paint or veneer. Not for your average audiophile, obviously. Not everyone is an @erik_squires. 

The above responses are not uncommon. Loudspeaker voicing, spectral and timbral characteristics, the basic sound of a loudspeaker company’s designs is understandable and to be expected. Richard Vandersteen has a sound he goes after, as did David Wilson. Everyone claims to be trying to achieve the "accurate" reproduction of acoustic instruments and voices, yet every designer makes a line of speakers that makes recordings sound different from that of other designers.

Danny Richie has addressed the above arguments (the term not used in it’s pejorative sense) in some of his other videos, and does so again in this one. His argument is: Would a designer think to himself "I know what would make for a good sounding loudspeaker; I’ll operate two drivers in such a way that they are out-of-phase at the crossover point where the output of the two drivers meet, the result of which is a 12dB hole in the loudspeaker’s frequency response?" Danny says "No, no loudspeaker designer thinks that."

If you look at John Atkinson’s measurements of the Eggleston models that have been reviewed in Stereophile, you will find the same "hole" in the frequency response Danny did when he measured the model a customer sent him. Is a frequency response hole (12dB down from the speaker’s midean output) a loudspeaker voicing choice, or a design fault? In this video Danny Richie gives you his opinion. You are of course free to disagree with it, and even like the sound of an Eggleston speaker.

I myself have never heard one, but I find the topic of loudspeaker crossover design an interesting and important one. Is a 12dB hole in a loudspeaker’s frequency response a "Problem that doesn’t exist"? The "corrections" Danny came up with for the Klipsch models sent him by customers have been incorporated into the Mk.2 iterations of those models by Klipsch themselves. The crossover ideas Danny suggested and offers for Magnepans are now offered in Magnepan’s own "X Series" upgraded versions of some of their models. Are the X Series versions a solution to a problem their standard versions don't have? Is Magnepan cynically catering to a gullibility they know some audiophiles fall for? C'mon, you know Magnepan better than that!