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Upgrading crossover?

Has anyone done an upgrade to factory speaker crossover with better quality components and got good results?
I had opportunity to look at the crossover while upgrading friend’s PMC FB1 to + version, and I noticed that components were not of a high quality, inductors with ferrite core, electrolytic caps, resistors of 5%.
What are your thoughts of replacing these elements with better quality ones of the same value, inductors with air core (for example Alpha core Ribbon inductors), Solen caps, etc?
sashav

Showing 1 response by erik_squires

erik_squires
16,644 posts
 

ESR and DCR matter, a lot.

I suggest you buy a Dayton DATS so you can accurately measure these in components before replacing them.  Reducing either significantly will negatively impact sound quality.  Of course it will sound different, because you just altered the fundamental crossover.

If you want to do this correctly, and there are reasons to, measure the ESR and DCR of the caps and coils, respectively, as you go along.

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