How good is the crossover in your loudspeakers?

The crossover is in my speakers are good enough so that they sound amazing!

I’m using Joseph audio perspective 2s and Thiel 2.7s.

There’s always been a certain section of audiophiles who believe “ the less parts the better.”

But that just doesn’t seem to be sound engineering principles.

I’ve heard things like  “ lots of parts in crossover obscure the sound and also drain energy and dynamics.”

I found that to be clearly untrue decades ago whenever I heard, and eventually owned, Thiel speakers.  They have notoriously complex crossovers with lots of parts in order to achieve gym, attempt at time and face coherence along with flat frequency response.

Do the Thiels lack detail, clarity, imaging focus,  dynamics or energy?

Hell, no!  Those are all strengths of the Thiels!  They have always been among the most clear, focused, detailed, and dynamically lively non-horn speakers that I’ve heard. 

@mswale if you are posting about sonicaps, I think it depends on the speakers you are using them in, I haven’t found them to sound bright whatsoever, especially compared to clarity caps.

A friend and I used to have a bit of a "cottage industry" upgrading crossovers in vintage, and not so vintage speakers. This was back in the late 90’s and 00’s. 

Even if the speakers were engineered well (reasonably flat response, no major phase issues at the crossover between drivers, etc), upgrading crossover components, i.e., better caps, replace iron core inductors, replace sand cast resistors. This was at least 2 decades before Danny’s videos and upgrade kits. 

We also added bracing when needed

Our findings were almost exactly what Danny has found.

I also believe there are certain aspects of speaker design and implementation, that are not a matter of "voicing". If there is a hole in the response, especially if it is at the crossover point, that is simply bad engineering. 

If the spectral decay plot shows stored energy, that is distortion, and a sign of poor design and implementation.  

My friend and I didn’t have the ability to do spectral decays when we were upgrading speakers, but we could easily hear the improvement after we added cabinet bracing and used one of several methods to dampen resonant enclosure panels.  

@invalid I'm not saying that they are bad caps, just bright/detailed. 

Have used them in both ribbon and horn speakers, they were too much for them. Think more modern less sensitive speakers will benefit from them, also any speaker on the darker side. Put them in a bright, high sensitivity speaker and they become overwhelming. 

@prof 

Which speakers have the best sound quality ? The JA or the Thiel ?