Skiing Ninja Magnepan 1.6 xover upgrade

Not a Maggie owner but have had "the Ninja" install bypass caps on my crossovers - great to deal with and really knows his stuff. I would presume his products to likewise be first class.

Here's a new review of this xover mod by Tone Audio:

http://www.tonepublications.com/gear/get-more-life-from-your-magnepan-1-6s/

You can do much better for alot less money. That's basically a stock crossover with slightly upgraded parts. If you can DIY you need to got to the Magnepan users group(MUG) at Audio Asylum and ask around.

Mike's rite. The caps that come stock in the 1.6 are Solon. Not bad, but certainly not up to the highest end standards.
Likewise, the inductor is an iron core, NOT aircore, so at those highly vaunted power levels Magnepan owners like to talk about, saturation is a possibility.

The Ninja seems to address both issues, but at the 'ask' of what.....600$, that's a lot.
Maggies are a DIY dream speaker with the crossover easily accessible and the rest of the wiring just a 'skirt lift' away. Removing the 'sock' is not that much trouble, though dealing with Magnepan's overenthusiastic use of staples can be a PIA.

Peter Gunn will send you the schematic for his 'series crossover' gratis, which he includes in his wood frame rebuild (BEAUTIFUL) of many Magnepans which not only improves the looks, but also improves the sonics.

Beautiful only covers the looks...you should hear them!!! I just got my 12s back they are truly works of art in the looks as well as the sound dept.

Thanks guys

You guys are giving me the impression that these are way over priced. What would you expect to pay if I did it myself?

How much for DIY? That sure depends......and depends.

Are you going to go wacky and buy the most expensive caps? OR will you be happy with middle of road.... say Clarity SA?
Connectors? Budget or over the top?

I've been looking into this and the Inductor is the BIG hangup. To get the same or similar DCR (DC resistance) as the stock unit in an aircore, you need the RIGHT inductor. If you go to say....10ga. you can get extremely LOW DCR values. Using 16ga, too high. Do you want foil or traditional magnet wire?
I am NOT a crossover designer, so do NOT know how much this value matters or if the material choice makes much difference in a correctly potted inductor.

So, to answer your question, you can spend a Bundle and may not end up with what you want. There are probably a dozen makers of hi-end caps. Some are flat, others the traditional cylinder. Theory abounds with some good and ?able science thrown in.

That the original crossovers are built to a price is beyond question. The real question is can you improve them and for how much? DON'T forget that you will end up paying near-list for the parts, even with your 'I'm good looking' discount, so will only save on labor and markup.

Here is the Peter Gunn site. Tops.

http://www.indiespinzone.com/mag/mag12.html

I did my 12s to Peter Gunns specs for approx $300.00 including boxes. The boxes were nothing special,just craft boxes that the capacitors fit in(some are huge).