Modifying Crossovers

I think it's true that in general, speaker makers have put a retail price of 10:1 at least for the electronics, so a $1 capacitor has to be sold for $10 to make a profit.

Exceptions here are manufacturers that make their own drivers, they can exceed these margins by quite a bit. 

B&W and Magico are some of the rare manufacturers who use high end scrossover ocmponents in their high end speakers.

@jaytor your values may be too small.  Try 0.1uF.  I use Ayudin True Coppers.  Sorry for the spelling.

I don't think the issue here is the brand, but a lot cheaper than the Duelunds.

@jaytor  +1 on the ceiling panels!

My cautionary tale is to be careful in doing too much.  Tweeter and mid-cap upgrades are simple and easy. 

If you have a 1980's - 1990's vintage speaker though, it's worth doing a complete analysis before doing much work.  The issue is the tools and effort it took to get a good crossover back then to work across both frequency and impedance.  There's plenty of examples of speakers in this vintage that need different crossover designs. 

Be extremely careful replacing caps that go to ground, their effects on the impedance curve is unexpected, so measure and compensate for ESR changes. 

Best,

E

OP:

Honestly wouldn't do this with any high end speaker, but if you are curious I highly encourage you to build your own speakers and play with parts.  That's relatively inexpensive, and you aren't destroying anything you want to sell later. :)

It's also a great deal of fun and frankly we need more builders in these forums to keep the disinformation at bay.

Best,

E

I would be highly suspect of anyone who thinks they know more than the speaker designer. If they know so much, why haven’t they designed their own speaker.

@gdnrbob

Heh, well I have made several sets of speakers but I don’t claim to know MORE than they do, but maybe have different tastes.

Modding a speaker with careful application of the right caps is like adding hot sauce to a really good soup.

Some I wouldn’t touch, at all. Top of the line Magico and B&W use top of the line Mundorf caps. NOT my favorite, but in both cases the caps are absolutely tied to the sound quality. Once I start playing around in the crossovers I’m absolutely changing things far from the brand intentions.

Wharferdale diamonds though are an easy win. :) B&W has used caps exclusively as the distinguishing feature between some models. In these cases and upgrade may be ideal.

With some older speakers, made in the 1980s for instance, not only are you dealing with older parts but non-ideal impedance curves.  Infinity and Yamaha speakers, and Focal Profile (newer than that, still crap impedance).  Definitely cases where a complete re-think of the crossover can have positive effects. This last approach requires a more advanced hobbyist capable of doing a complete speaker analysis, not just part swapping.

However, I love DIY and the point about making your own is a really good one.  Plenty of fantastic sounding, high end kits out there. :)

Well, if you know what you have and what you want.

For isntance, Focals have good components, but I like Mundorf MKP's better than the Solens they use in the mid to low end models.

Wharferdale speakers can sound really really good with some better tweeter caps.