How good is the crossover in your loudspeakers?

Perspective, this is a major determination of what is best for a certain set of criteria, budget being the most important one in most cases.

I have had great experience in upgrading crossovers, designing them from scratch, using very high end manf ones and using active crossovers, all to great effect when done right.

My preferences adjust as the system requires it to but when I must use crossovers I much prefer active, if I can make it work for that particular setup.

Most speakers that use passive crossovers are substandard, built to a price point, money goes into how they look more than how they sound, sadly so.

Many very high end speakers use much better crossover components and design but I would rather go active on a much less costly speaker setup and spend the money where it matters the most in that case, active crossover, amps and decent cables.

Looking forward to my next build, mentioned in another threat, Frugel-Horn Joann with MA200 drivers, no crossovers, one pair of great DIY cables, simple, cheap and will be great as long as work in my restrictive space.

Rick

Really, really transparent!  Because my speakers don't have one!

Ref3A DeCapo I

@russbutton 

You provide an interesting alternative path that can work if one likes massive over-complication that introduces numerous paths to problems. Unless big bucks are spent, the number of cheap, wide tolerance, low reliability components increases at least 10 fold over a passive crossover.  If spending a few hundred to improve a passive crossover is unreasonable, the russbutton solution is insanely costly. 

@devinplombier 

If you want to pay $800 for an upgrade kit that consists of a few sheets of foam and $40 worth of Mouser components, go right ahead!

Completely uniformed claim that just proves you to be a hater.

@devinplombier 

If you want to pay $800 for an upgrade kit that consists of a few sheets of foam and $40 worth of Mouser components, go right ahead!

Completely uniformed claim that just proves you to be a hater.

@texbychoice Danny? Is that you, Danny?

Here is the source of my information, for all to witness:

https://gr-research.com/product/infinity-sm-152/

Like I said, a few sheets of foam and $40 worth of components. 

To boot, the so-called "upgrade" actually deletes functionality, and it doesn't cost $800 as I falsely misinformedly claimed, it costs $888 - to make $100 speakers sound like $120 speakers. Thank you Danny, you're a genius!

Oh and @russbutton is right.

My old Acoustic Research AR 9 speakers sounded great in the 1980s. But they need some work now. The old Callins capacitors are shot. I'm fortunate I found a local guy who specializes in rebuilding/refurbishing Polk Audio speakers and is willing to give my AR 9 a look.  

We have the crossover schematics and he is going to replicate the crossover but using modern better performing capacitors and resistors while using the original inductors and replacing the old crappy PVC jacketed wiring with something better. 

I'm also going to ask him to take out the response switches from the signal path and leave them at "0". I never used them anyway, so figure why not take them out for a cleaner electrical path. 

When he is done, I expect the performance of the speakers to be as good as new or even better. That this can be done to speakers that are 46 years old for a reasonable price is amazing. This is going to cost me around $2000 or so. I could never buy any $2000/pair speaker today that would give me as much value.