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"Parts upgrade" on crossovers -Any experiences?

I remeber upgrading the crossovers of a pair of B&W DM12's with esoteric resistors, caps and wiring (about 10 years ago). In the end I got a different speaker. The bottom end seemed improved and the highs were more delicate and smoother, but the midrange had lost some of the magic. I could not deal with the decreased midrange quality so I re-soldered most of the parts back to the crossovers but left the upgraded wire (the wire in there looked like tined copper and was tied with a Molex connector to the board!). I changed the parts since I felt that early 80's speakers could only benefit from higher quality parts and was worried that the cap values might be out of spec. I am currently using a pair of KEF 101 and I've been thinking about upgrading crossovers with Solen Caps, maybe some Caddok Resistors and Cardas or Kimber wire. The KEFs sound great but if I can get more out of them, I might give it a try. Anyone do similar upgrades with an increase in ALL aspects of your speakers performance...or have BAD results...or find the end result a mixed bag of better here, but worse there (like me)? Also, any input on what parts / brands to use and which not to use? Are Solen caps good choices (or are there others that work much better for this application)? Resisters Brands?
I am purposely leavig out the issue of active crossovers (don't want to find 4 identical monoblocks to run my speakers).
one_audiophile

Showing 3 responses by albertporter

albertporter's avatar
albertporter
4,949 posts
 
I totally agree with Rives. It is very difficult, almost impossible to change crossover parts and maintain the speakers voice. You might get improvement in one area only to make the speaker un listenable overall.

I post this from experience, having rebuilt the crossovers on three high quality speaker systems with the Snell Type A being the biggest disaster.

The Snell I "ruined" simply had the wire replaced and swapped caps with EXACTLY same value, but better quality. The sound was so shrill they had to be returned to the factory to be restored to stock. Luckily this was many years ago when Peter Snell was still alive, so he bailed me out. (Bless him!) he was a wonderful person and a good friend.
albertporter's avatar
albertporter
4,949 posts
 
Sean your suggestion about damping is a good one, could not hurt the driver and would remove some of the unwanted resonances.

Richard Vandersteen experimented with this many years ago and developed driver frames and baskets (computer aided) that reduce not only resonance, but reflections as well.

I've heard both versions and the results are astounding. Do it yourself members could follow your lead and get a nice improvement with almost no investment.
albertporter's avatar
albertporter
4,949 posts
 
Unsound, Liquid Nails is a brand name, and implies that it holds like steel nails do, but it's simply a thick liquid glue. Reminds me a bit of Weldwood contact cement the way it sticks (and smells), but it can be applied much like GE Silicone from the pointy dispenser tube.

It comes in a "small projects" tube, about the size of a tube of toothpaste, and in large cylinders the size of painters caulk. Inexpensive and typically available at Home Depot.
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