Replacing my tweeters a good idea?

As has been mentioned your speaker system is the sum of it'parts.The drivers,box and crossover values were designed to work as a unit.I contemplated and did exactly what your thinking of doing.I had an average pair of small monitors that became test subjects.I disected the little guys and in the process with alot of other research learned a great deal about what constitutes a good sounding speaker.Trying to replace your tweeters involves alot more than just buying better ones.First off even if you had the specs for your existing pair don't forget that the new ones would not only have to match electrically but physically as well.Finding replacements with the same mounting flange diameter,bolt pattern ect. is the real challenge.If your determined to improve your speakers I'd go with the earlier suggestion of installing better crossover parts and again thats only if you can get a schematic with the exact values of the existing crossover parts.I have had excellent results with this approach.Generally you'll find that the major difference between an average speaker and a great one is the quality of the coils,caps and resistors.

To add to my thoughts above I forgot to mention that the easiest and most cost effective improvement is to replace the existing internal wiring with high quality wire from Cardas,Kimber,XLO ect. The upper frequencies are particularly suseptable to changes in the wire used.

Do you think that my cables/interconnects may be my problem? I have kimber cables running them, the grey and black ones, the 4VS model. Is there any speaker cable that might be better for about the same money? my interconnects are not that flash.. any reccomendations?

I hate to have to say it again, but changing the impedance of the driver ( or the load that the passive crossover sees ) WILL affect crossover frequency. If you don't believe me, try asking on the Madisound board. Calculate the crossover for a 4 ohm driver and then substitute an 8 ohm driver in its place. BAD NEWS, guaranteed. Nothing will work as you expected. That's why most quality speakers use impedance compensated L-pads or factor in the attenuators in the first place. Otherwise the hinge points would change as you varied the level of attenuation by altering the impedance of the circuit. I think that either Parts Express or MCM even covers this with charts for the various impedance drivers in one of their catalogues. Wiring a resistor that matches the tweeters impedance in parallel and then placing one that was rated for half its impedance in series would reduce the output while maintaining the same load / crossover point. Another "side effect / benefit" to doing this would be increased power handling in the high frequency section. Sean >

Opinions on speaker crossover theory are as varied as the colors of the world. Disagreements regarding how to design/modify/tweak a speaker are a dime a dozen(1000X more so than any other area of audio). The only thing that can be absolutely said is that you cannot follow all the rules. Everything that you do, breaks at least 25% of them(and wait till you compound them all together...). If anyone disagrees with that they have never done anything in the world of speakers. I believe in simple crossovers(I don't say that others don't work), and simple solutions(wiring a resistor in series to attenuate a driver). My current speakers(Coincident) have exactly TWO components in the crossover(a capacitor on the tweeter, and an inductor on the coil). Some may say that's ludicrous, "what about notch filters, Zobel networks, attenuation circuits, etc. - you NEED those". NO, you don't. My speakers sound fabulous. And Israel Blume is revered by an increasing amount of people every day. Bud Fried had his business(when it still was in business) 5 minutes from my home. Most of what he said directly contradicted what the "experts" said, and vice versa. He would(and still will) get into violent arguments(with ANYONE) regarding what he believed in(transmission line bass loading, series crossover networks, driver selection, how he didn't care about how rock sounded on his speakers - it was only the music of drug addicts, etc.). Despite this, Fried speakers are legendary(and even sound good with rock music despite Bud's discounting it), as are the products of many other companies(basically almost every other speaker company). My opinions are based on the personal experience of building and listening to many speakers. Along the way, I came across many a person who would use the suggested technique, foremost would be Joe D'Appolito. Obviously, others have differing views. If someone disagrees with this technique, fine. Try an alternate route. But I KNOW this works.