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How good is the crossover in your loudspeakers?

 

I just watched a Danny Richie YouTube video from three weeks ago (linked below). Danny is the owner/designer of GR Research, a company that caters to the DIY loudspeaker community. He designs and sells kits that contain the drivers and crossover schematics to his loudspeakers, to hi-fi enthusiasts who are willing and able to build their own enclosures (though he also has a few cabinet makers who will do it for you if you are willing to pay them to do so).

Danny has also designed crossovers for loudspeaker companies who lack his crossover design knowledge. In addition, he offers a service to consumers who, while liking some aspects of the sound of their loudspeakers, find some degree of fault in those loudspeakers, faults Danny offers to try to eliminate. Send Danny one of your loudspeakers, and he will free of charge do a complete evaluation of it's design. If his evaluation reveals design faults (almost always crossover related) he is able to cure, he offers a crossover upgrade kit as a product.

Some make the case that Danny will of course find fault in the designs of others, in an attempt to sell you one of his loudspeaker kits. A reasonable accusation, were it not for the fact that---for instance---in this particular video (an examination of an Eggleston model) Danny makes Eggleston an offer to drop into the company headquarters and help them correct the glaring faults he found in the crossover design of the Eggleston loudspeaker a customer sent him.

Even if you are skeptical---ESPECIALLY if you are---why not give the video a viewing? Like the loudspeaker evaluation, it's free.

 

 

https://youtu.be/1wF-DEEXv64?si=tmd6JI3DFBq8GAjK&t=1

 

And for owners of other loudspeakers, there are a number of other GR Research videos in which other models are evaluated. 

 

 

bdp24

Showing 1 response by lous

lous's avatar
lous
209 posts
 

My biggest issue with Danny is that he offers "better" kits. I'm no resistors guru, but they, caps, and coils actually do make differences, often significant differences. That said, he uses okay caps. Sonicaps are bettered by many others. Some ClarityCaps are much better, not to mention Myflex and V-Cap ODAMs. Were I running the business it probably would never have gotten off the ground, but I would offer good, better, best as Radio Shack did for several decades.

Having said all of that, one suggested leaving speakers stock. Remember, all audio is personal. I know a fellow who has serious loss of high frequencies. If it doesn't send me out of the room covering my ears it just doesn't sound good to him. 

So, if you are content, ignore and enjoy. If not, see if Danny can hook you up. If not, you can go lone ranger, and depending upon your skill set, and test setup, you may better Danny's kits. My son recently purchased a speaker. I looked at the crossover and suggested 3 solutions, all of them included Mills resistors, I am not a resistors guru. The good included ClarityCap MR MPK caps. Better used ClarityCap CMR MPK caps, while the best and by far the most expensive used V-Cap ODAMs. My insane cap upgrades include ODAMs bypassed with V-Cap CuTF caps for slightly improved highs. 

The bottom line though is that truly bright is going to be right for some. IME many consider transparent or neutral to be bright, and many consider "warm" to be dull. What "others" consider is right should only influence you if you are building the system to please others, which you'll likely never do if they are the least bit selective in their listening. So, try to build a system that you believe that you will enjoy. Don't worry about pleasing others. Where music is concerned, tastes just differ.

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