How to design a high end crossover…

He liked TRT Caps too,, Teflons caps sent straight from Satan,, really tough to break in. But when they do. 3-500 hours.

I saw a few slow to learn customers. He'd tell them, cover the speaker with moving blankets, use the cables your going to use, plug them in put them side by side and let them play at 10-30% (vary the volume) for a week or two.. NO KIDDIND. Then go back, position the speakers close, let the cables settle for an hour or so and listen.. MAGIC, every time..

Regards

I new one XO designer that would tune each XO to the cabinet and drivers he was using. The left and right crossovers very seldom looked alike. When the drivers were pulled and matched top to bottom and left to right as close as his staff could get, they would load wire and seal the drivers.

The Passive XOs were point to point mounted to 3/4 pre formed MDF or HDF boards. He used two LPads and parallel quasi 2nd order for a 3/4 way.

Here is the real trick, he would put an untuned xo in, position the speakers in the same place every time and take tone burst readings.

He would add a small cap in the band pass to one side only, and normally unwind and remove a small amount on a hand wound inductor (made from a real dry 1/2" dowel and hand wound copper wire 20-18 ga) It had 16-20 raps. He would remove 3-5 wraps on a dowel, and retest the DB levels. That is how he balanced the DB level in the BP and lower or raise the pass side with a small cap of the same quality.
It’s not a bypass cap (super expensive), it’s a trim cap normally a long life poly or something.. It act differently, the same with the inductor.. It’s for trim ONLY doesn’t effect the SQ just the tonal balance..

THAT is how I learned to TUNE an XO. Making one it’s not rocket science but, you really need to be able to TUNE and know HOW to tune your work for a SOTA audiophile quality XO.. Production crap who cares..

The guy could build and tune 3 pairs of XO in a night, after spending all day selling, ordering and talking to customers..

The staff would ready the call in orders on the spot.. or paint the inside with sound coat or black hole or the different wire or wool vs fiberglass in the mids. 3 guys I think Brian C, was 1. RIP.

I stopped in after work 100 times, he would be there trimming OXs or making them or writing an article.. or getting ready for CES. the soldering iron he used, you could have soldered gutters it was so big.... no kidding.. ;-)

Regards

OP thankfully I haven’t had to break in to many pieces of equipment, cabling or otherwise over the last 6 months or so. A phono/tape pre amp and my V12r had new parts that took over 200 on the Cary and I’m at 300 on the Decware.

Cabling, literally 1000 hours to plug and play within 24 hours of hooking them back up..

I’ve seen people plug drop and call it good.

I’ve seen others carefully remove their nurtured, conditioned and static bagged prizes. String them out NEVER touching the floor (on risers). THEN discharge themselves remover the static terminal covers add contact enhancer and torque the securement nut to 50 inch pounds, back off 3 times and a 4th torque to 60-75 inch pounds.. The amp terminals first then to the speaker end, discharge again through the ground side of the cable and hook that end up.. Picky.. I’m picky and it pays great dividends

Maybe some folks like the "BRAND NEW" sound, me I’m running the other direction a full 2 weeks on a phono stage, cable, cart change and tonearm rewire.. Preamps, amps and cables 24/7 will do. A week of playing, no listening. I only turn them off to do a cable check (tight). I monitor with a thermal gun. I can usually tell if something isn’t quite right. Left to right temps and ambient vs gear difference..

Paying attention more to thermal changes than anything else..

The shops, wood and metal, THEN. Now, Wood and storage, I HATE working metal any more, just hate it.. I hung up my mechanic tool, thank GOD. I never thought I’d say that.. 14 year old working in service stations until I was 62, and came up with a broken neck. Two disk and a lot of bone chips..:-) I HATE wrenching now, at least the HD side.. Electronic side easy peasy. OBD2 and CAN buss is on everything now..

This stuff stereo, is a walk in the park to fix or make for that matter, really it’s NOT rocket science..

More like a door on a 64 VW with a whole lot of lipstick on it.. That people charge a whole lot of money for.. I got no real problem with that. They better have great customer service though, I will chew them up and SPIT them out.. No problem with that and or a plane ticket..

Almost went to Perth, behind a SA that sold me a pile of $hit.. Money was no object for me.. I should have sicked george on them.. ;-)

LOL we’re talking about how to make a turntable quiet. Try to get a power plant quiet for a offshore drill rigs with 5 generator plants on board, and 25 pissed off workers complaining of FEELING the stupid thing..

Caisson, dam face, deep mine, or pressure work.. SUCKS too.. Hard on the ol body..

I’ll take the turntable, the crossover, or the speaker build for that matter OP Yup Yup.... It's all easier than what I use to do..

Have fun.. Puff Puff pass..:-)

Regards