"Parts upgrade" on crossovers -Any experiences?

Many of the "problems" that one runs into when modifying speakers are that the "high grade" replacement caps are not oriented with the proper "polarity". While some will question the validity of a comment that states that non-polarized caps can be installed with the incorrect polarity, please read on.

Caps have an inner winding and and outer winding. As such, one can orient two caps, which look the same and have the printing facing the same way, in the opposite directions within identical circuits. The end result is a fuzzy mess with a lack of focus and cohesiveness. Another common side-effect is blurring of imagery and an increase in harshness. As such, one should go to the trouble of "polarizing" the caps so that they all share common directionality prior to installation. Bare in mind that, just because the labels / printing on the caps are all facing the same direction, the caps may not share common polarities / connections inside the cases. There is a trick to finding the correct polarity and once you do this, you will instantly know what i am talking about. One can see the differences in polarity on a scope once you learn the "trick".

Once this is done, you will find that having all of the caps polarized in one direction will sound different than if you reverse the polarity of all of the caps within the circuit. In such instances, there is no right and wrong, so choose which orientation sounds best to you.

On top of that, caps used within speakers can take a long time to fully break in. Due to the very dynamic ( read this as being "sporadic" or "non-steady state" ) signals that are applied to them, the caps don't really "form" like those that are used in power supplies or line level signals that are relatively constant. As such, one can "form" the capacitors prior to putting them into a circuit using a signal generator of high amplitude and speed the process up drastically. Once you've done this, the differences in "sonic polarity" with the cap facing one way in the circuit and reversed will become more evident also.

Besides all of this, every wire and resistor will impose their sonic signature into the circuit. As such, it is best to use wires that you already know sound good with those speakers and to keep the legs of any component ) cap, resistor, etc... ) as short as possible and make a good mechanical connection prior to applying solder. In other words, the connection should be solid prior to applying the "electrical glue" aka solder. This helps to minimize the influence / sonic characteristics of the solder. If you don't do this, the solder becomes the conductor rather than the actual leads on the components.

Other than that, each product is built to a price point and most engineers / designers have their own likings. If you like a product and it was truly designed to be as neutral as possible, adding passive components that are even more "transparent" by nature will only improve the product ( if done correctly ). Otherwise, taking a product that has a "built in flavour" aka "colouration" and trying to hot-rod it can end up in something VERY different. Whether or not it is an improvement is up to you as an individual and how much you liked that specific colouration. Sean
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Outside of crossover tweaks, I will also add that if the drivers in your speakers make use of stamped baskets, damping them can make a HUGE difference. This is especially apparent in the upper bass / mids / lower treble as that is where the baskets tend to ring once excited. Cast baskets will benefit from this trick also, but not as much.

If you want to see if this "trick" will help you, pull a woofer or midrange driver from your speaker. Obviously, pay attention to how it came out, what was connected where, etc... Once you have the driver out, hold it by the magnet structure without touching any part of the driver. Now take your finger and "flick" the basket near the mounting flange. If it sounds like a bell and rings, you are hearing a source of colouration that IS apparent when listening. While it is true that the speaker is mounted and the ringing is reduced due to mass coupling, the resonance has simply been altered in amplitude and frequency. What you are trying to achieve is a basket / mounting structure that does not contribute to the output of the speaker once excited.

I was shown a trick by an industry professional that works like gangbusters for this situation. What he recommended was taking a tube of "Liquid Nails" and filling in the gap between the front plate of the magnet assembly and the rear of the basket. Depending on the driver in question, this can take quite a bit of "Liquid Nails", but the benefits are VERY obvious once you've done this. This approach drastically deadens the basket without impeding air-flow in or out of the driver. One can go further and coat the entire basket of the driver with liquid nails, but if doing so, you have to make sure that you don't get any on the driver, block air passages or interfere with how the driver is mounted.

My personal experience with this is that filling the gap between the motor assembly ( magnet ) and rear of the basket works GREAT and produces a frame that is FAR less resonant. Since you are filling in a "gap" that already has a form to it, you can simply pressure feed the Liquid Nails into the crevice and it takes care of itself. You'll know when to stop when the crevice is full.

As to coating the entire basket of the driver ( except for the mounting lip and area right behind it ), this can be trickier and a lot messier. First of all, it is hard to apply an even coat of material to the entire basket. Secondly, you'll probably end up trying to smooth it out by hand and end up making a big, very sticky, mess. My suggestion is to wear some latex gloves if you want to try this approach.

What i've found to work best is to fill in the crevice between the basket and the magnet with Liquid Nails and then to apply damping sheets that you can cut to fit the rest of the basket. While these sheets come with their own adhesive already attached, i've found that applying a very few dabs / thin layer of liquid nails to help keep the sheets in place works best. Obviously, if the basket of the driver uses very thin rails without enough area to attach damping sheets, you may be stuck with just using the Liquid Nails. Either way, something is better than nothing.

Using the Liquid Nails / damping sheet approach can result in a driver that is dead, dead, dead !!! The only sound being contributed to what you hear is coming out of the active cone area of the driver itself now. All of the other sympathetic resonances have been removed from the drivers themselves. In effect, you've tried to remove any outside influences from the sound just as a good quality manufacturer tries to minimize cabinet vibration from contributing its' own sonic signature to what you hear. The reason that most manufacturers don't do this is that it is very time consuming. As we all know, time equals money, especially if trying to mass produce a product.

Once you've learned to "tweak" using what i like to call "the total approach" concept, you'll find that your equipment is far more revealing and transparent. Whether or not you like the end results will depend on how much you like neutral sound and how high of quality the design was to begin with. This is not to say that your equipment will be more to your liking. It is possible that the "ringing" or "colouration" that the basket was adding may have been part of the "voice" of the speaker that you were used to. Removing this characteristic from the speaker may not be to your liking, BUT, the sound that you now hear is more representative of what the speaker system is truly capable of providing under optimum conditions. Sean
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One Audiophile: While Dynamat works, it is cost prohibitive to use in big quantities. Technically, while the Dynamat may work "better" in an all out effort as compared to the Asphalt or Vinyl based sheets i linked to above when used all by themselves, in all reality, there really isn't a noticeable difference in actual use. Combining the "Liquid Nails" and "generic" damping sheets approach that i listed above really does offer a HUGE bang for the buck.

As far as horns / horn bodies go, let's just say the differences between damped / undamped are pretty amazing : )

When using "foam insulation", did you use something along the lines of "Great Stuff" ( aka "foam in a can" ) or was it something different ? I've tried using that before but it was WAY too cumbersome to work with on drivers / horn bodies.

The one place that i did find it to work well was on the inside of folded bass horns in the corners. In order to minimize internal standing waves, i like to radius the corners in these designs. I do this by taking a sheet of paneling and bowing it out so that there is a gentle curve rather than a dead-end corner. Once you get the paneling tacked in place, you can fill in the gap between the cabinet and the radius created by the paneling with "Great Stuff", heavily packed fiberglass or something similar. The idea is to deaden the cabinet and offer some form of support for the paneling so that it does not contribute its' own resonance to the sound. This is another trick that can make a world of difference as it really cleans up upper bass / lower mids on such a design. Once again though, this is a very time consuming project that would kill a manufacturer if trying to mass produce a product. It can be done simpler than what i mentioned, but like anything else, the results are not quite as good using a "short-cut" approach either. Sean
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Pelv: Is this Elvis P in disguise ??? : )

Long fiber wool is the best for internal damping followed by fiberglass with everything else a distant third. Altering the quantity and density of damping material will alter tonal balance and attack characteristics. Increased quantity / density will enhance low frequency extension with a decrease in mid-bass output while a reduction will increase mid-bass output at the expense of low frequency extension. One can fine-tune the quantity to adjust for room acoustics and / or personal tastes.

As far as using modeling clay, i would be afraid of vibrating it off of the baskets over time. Sounds like a "quick & dirty" approach that may be worth checking out though. After all, if you've gotten ten years out of the clay with nary a problem, it sounds like it could offer the best of both worlds i.e. extreme mass with complete reversibility with minimal mess during application.

Capaudio: Reliable sources tell me that Audience Auricaps have been bettered by Moncrieff's latest caps, the "TRT Dynamicap's". The Audience caps are supposedly VERY good though.

For those interested in such things, a phenomenally well put together source for finding specific types / brands of caps was put together and can be found here on the Faradnet website that is free of charge. One can look up caps by dielectric material, manufacturer, etc... Very handy website if looking for "tweaky" caps, etc... Sean
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