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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
toddalin's avatar
toddalin
351 posts
 

The crossover can be used to modify flaws in the drivers’ response curves, or tailor the sound to the room/individual’s taste and so can be better than having no crossover at all.  It all depends on the drivers chosen to do the job and what is expected of them.

 

And, different caps can/do sound different from other caps, even the conjugate caps.

Post removed 
texbychoice
160 posts
 

There is basically nothing new in crossover design, no doubt, as time went on these manufacturers refined their crossovers, just as we can see that Eggleston did. It’s a natural progression. 

If there is truly nothing new in crossover design, why is refinement over time required.  A natural progression is required to get it right when there is nothing new. Makes no sense.

If one has never tried a better quality parts crossover, then just hot air driven opinion of good or bad.  An informed opinion would be based on trying better quality parts.  Fine if that did not suit the listener's taste.  

 

 

 

viridian's avatar
viridian
5,258 posts
 

I have tried parts upgrades on crossovers many times, both as a hobbyist, and an industry professional. Results have been mixed, but sometimes the improvements are great. Rarely does the speaker sound the same. I think that the focus on parts quality diminishes what DG does as he often changes the crossover parameters, a more complex operation.

If someone is aware of a new passive crossover topology that is being adopted past 1st order, 2nd order, 3rd order, bessell, etc, please educate me. Certainly there is some interesting work being done in the digital domain actively, but I don’t think that is DGs jam, and what is being discussed here.

If anything, IMHO, it is the measurement techniques that have been democratized and improved more than the actual crossover topologies. And that data leads to better refinement of existing topologies by their designers, in concert with listening.

And no, I do not consider parts swaps to be something new in crossover design, merely a refinement. Wait a minute, I need to take off my coat, I feel a gust of hot air in here coming from above.

bolong
746 posts
 

When Danny specifies "No Rez" for Klipsch speakers bad things happen.

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