Xover parts quality,/sound difference?

Sorry typo's above

Tons.... I have heard 800 dollar speakers that easily competed with 5000 plus (so called better designs) after being replaced with Alpha core Ribbon inductors, Mills Resistors, and Mundorf caps, Solen caps(cheap but very effective), and several other types of caps. 90% of the speaker is the Crossover, 7% is the cabinet, and about 3% is the driver selection... I have seen this ratio before from most manufactures and agree with it, now that is not to say a solid correctly designed cabinet is not of upmost importance but its easier, and cheaper to get then the crossovers sometimes. Some 20 dollar drivers with 500.00 dollar crossovers can sound better than 300.00 drivers with the most widely used 15.00 dollar crossovers.

As for what it did, well the speakers sounded more efficient flowing much more free, effortless so to speak.. bass normally hightens and tightens. Highs become further more airy. It will depend on how complex the crossover is too, some that use 14 parts are very complex in the first place and will have issues and be VERY expensive to build, but the more 1st order systems, that use 4 to like 8 parts only become very transparent and effective, still expensive but much easier to handle.

Tons.... I have heard 800 dollar speakers that easily competed with 5000 plus (so called better designs) after being replaced with Alpha core Ribbon inductors, Mills Resistors, and Mundorf caps, Solen caps(cheap but very effective), and several other types of caps. 90% of the speaker is the Crossover, 7% is the cabinet, and about 3% is the driver selection... I have seen this ratio before from most manufactures and agree with it, now that is not to say a solid correctly designed cabinet is not of upmost importance but its easier, and cheaper to get then the crossovers sometimes. Drivers of high quality can do many things is crossed over correctly, some 20 dollar drivers with 500.00 dollar crossovers can sound better than 300.00 drivers with the most widely used 15.00 dollar crossovers.

As for what it did, well the speakers sounded more efficient flowing much more free, effortless so to speak.. bass normally hightens and tightens. Highs become further more airy. It will depend on how complex the crossover is too, some that use 14 parts are very compled in the first place and will have issues and be VERY expensive to build, but the more 1st order systems, that use 4 to like 8 parts only become very transparent and effective, still expensive but much easier to handle.

Undertow,

I hate to be contrary but your post makes little or no sense...brand name dropping is always a bad sign as capacitors have Q factors that make them right or wrong for a circuit. Labels do not make great capacitors, its been proven time and again.

But back to what baffles me,

"90% of the speaker is the Crossover, 7% is the cabinet, and about 3% is the driver selection... I have seen this ratio before from most manufactures and agree with it,"

How can you say this and own the speakers that you do? Try harder to make your real-life world correlate with your theoretical world. Because if I didn't know better I'd be very confused because what you say doesn not match what you do. :) Agreed?

Different parts in the crossover will result in different sound most definitely. It is not even a matter of different parts, but even how those identical parts could be laid out and / or connected to each other. If i were to show pictures of some of the crossovers that i've taken apart and rebuilt / re-designed, it would blow your mind. Just because you're paying "big bucks" for "high end" stereo gear doesn't mean that you are getting what you paid for. This is especially true with speakers. Sean
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Huh? Baffled is right....No its not agreed in a friendly sense.. 90% of Standard Speaker DESIGN is crossover is all the point was. And exactly why speakers with NO crossover to worry about are even another step forward. That was not the question and I chose to not confuse the matter or put my own results of eliminating them all together in the original question, eliminate a crossover all together is infact another World as you put it. Do the crossover as well as possible is the best bet, Electronic or no Crossovers is even better, but for the conventional audiophile designs litered with extra parts, Yep go for the better parts and they sound better. Sorry I was not allowed to speak on the matter even though I no longer own crossovers, and this is the exact reason why after experiencing step by step thru many speakers.. But the many I did own and upgraded had very credible increases in sound when using the better parts.. I fail to see where my comments above were to offend or confuse anyone due to my own ownership, but I have to disagree that means I have no way to give info on past endenvors for the best.

By the way the crossover parts I mentioned in most designs will quite litterally require 5 to 10 times the amount of space over the basic 3" X 6" computer grade crossover boards used in many brands. Actually most will require outboard cabinets as big as 12" x 12" for exotic Caps and inductors, not to mention they will weigh in the 15 to 20 lb range vs. the 2 or 3 lbs of the original passive units normally replaced.

D_edwards, keep in mind I was speaking to the majority of audio speaker guys and not trying to push a product I happen to own on to them, simple as that. Thanks for the concern though :)