upgrading crossover components on speakers


Has anyone ever dealt with tweaking perfectly good orginal crossover components to get better performance. I have to replace a broken capacitor on a crossover with something other than the original. I will be replacing an original Polyester capacitor with a Polypropylene one. Some people have even suggested that I replace all of the Polyester capacitors on each network with Polypropylene ones. Anyone have any experience with such tweaks?

Also, could I not create identical crossover networks to play with by just building a new one with components that have the same values as the existing ones? I mean there is no magic to the way the parts are layed out on the PCB, right? As long as the signal path is correct, right?

regards,
Lance
eltbee

Showing 1 response by bob_bundus

Regarding the caps, for the sake of symmetry the "other speaker" crossover's cap should be made the same as the one that you're repairing. You could change just those 2 caps & then listen to determine if you notice any improvements. If you do like the change then maybe try replacing some others. Alternatively the remaining caps in the Hi freq. crossover section could also benefit from installation of small bypass caps such as 0.1 uF's soldered across them, rather than wholesale replacements.
Regarding building complete new units, "same component values" would include inductive & capacitive Q values, not simply the L & C measurements. You could end up assembling a completed unit that appears identical but does not even sound close to identical. Regarding layout: pay attention to inductor architecture & alignment; they can cross-couple via stray magnetic fields. Just replicate what the designer has already figured out.