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"Non Inductive" resistors.

I have a couple of Boston Acoustics speakers that I picked up for free at the dump. The woofers were torn, but the boxes and grills were like new. I put in a couple of Dayton Audio woofers, and they are better than OK except that the tweeter needs about a 4 ohm padding resistor.

In view of my minimal investment, I don't feel inclined to use exotic resistors. Question is...so what if the resistor had a bit of inductance? Wouldn't the resulting roll off be well above the audio range?
eldartford

Showing 2 responses by trelja

trelja
3,226 posts
 
Yea, like "what if someone simplified these crossovers..."

Would they not be so much easier to drive and also far cheaper at the same time?
trelja
3,226 posts
 
Resistors do make a big difference in the treble. This is most obvious on a speaker that uses a metal dome tweeter. A lot of the glare, hash, spit, and irritating sound is gotten rid of.

Just because a resistor costs $4 does not mean it will sound good. I have seen several expensive "audiophile" resistors that make things even worse.

There are not many real "audiophile" resistors. Like most things in this hobby, the upper echelon products aimed towards other industries do best in our applications. As someone who used to make the materials for the likes of Vishay, Sfernice, Holco, etc. I can tell you there are three main types of materials that go into good film thick/thin resistors:
1) 55% Palladium/45% Silver (Pd/Ag). Very low TCR (Temperature Coefficient of Resistance) and quite stable. Used in low resistance applications (0.1 Ohms to 10 or 100 Ohms - depending on the source material and company). Expensive, as both are precious metals. I believe these have the best sound.
2) Ruthenium. Less good in all respects than Pd/Ag, but provide higher resistance (>10 Ohms). Also expensive, as Ruthenium is also a precious metal, but much cheaper than Pd.
3) Carbon resistors. The most stable, and lowest cost. Can be good, but often can be poor sounding. It may depend on the source, but also the processing of the end user, as I have heard good and bad.

Personally, I prefer none of the above, and think a good wirewound resistor, such as Ohmite or NorthCreek, can sound the best, but there are just as many bad sounding ones, so many prefer film resistors.
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