"Parts upgrade" on crossovers -Any experiences?

Also...I would experiment with speaker placement,damping, cables, or improving stands(if u own monitors)...before having the itch to upgrade crossovers...if one is that unhappy with the performance of their speakers...better to simply buy a new set that has the attributes you seek...just my .02

Sean your suggestion about damping is a good one, could not hurt the driver and would remove some of the unwanted resonances.

Richard Vandersteen experimented with this many years ago and developed driver frames and baskets (computer aided) that reduce not only resonance, but reflections as well.

I've heard both versions and the results are astounding. Do it yourself members could follow your lead and get a nice improvement with almost no investment.

Sean, nice damping mod. I have used "Dyanmat" in the past (mostly automotive applications). I don't know why it never occured to me trying the stuff on mids / woofer baskets. Years ago I experimented with Altec Voice of the Theater speakers and remember adding foam insulation on the back of the horns to reduce ringing...and it helped. I think I'll try it.

One Audiophile: While Dynamat works, it is cost prohibitive to use in big quantities. Technically, while the Dynamat may work "better" in an all out effort as compared to the Asphalt or Vinyl based sheets i linked to above when used all by themselves, in all reality, there really isn't a noticeable difference in actual use. Combining the "Liquid Nails" and "generic" damping sheets approach that i listed above really does offer a HUGE bang for the buck.

As far as horns / horn bodies go, let's just say the differences between damped / undamped are pretty amazing : )

When using "foam insulation", did you use something along the lines of "Great Stuff" ( aka "foam in a can" ) or was it something different ? I've tried using that before but it was WAY too cumbersome to work with on drivers / horn bodies.

The one place that i did find it to work well was on the inside of folded bass horns in the corners. In order to minimize internal standing waves, i like to radius the corners in these designs. I do this by taking a sheet of paneling and bowing it out so that there is a gentle curve rather than a dead-end corner. Once you get the paneling tacked in place, you can fill in the gap between the cabinet and the radius created by the paneling with "Great Stuff", heavily packed fiberglass or something similar. The idea is to deaden the cabinet and offer some form of support for the paneling so that it does not contribute its' own resonance to the sound. This is another trick that can make a world of difference as it really cleans up upper bass / lower mids on such a design. Once again though, this is a very time consuming project that would kill a manufacturer if trying to mass produce a product. It can be done simpler than what i mentioned, but like anything else, the results are not quite as good using a "short-cut" approach either. Sean
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Sean, I used "foam in a can" type. and it was VERY messy and hard to work with. Once I do the damping sheet mod, I will post my findings. :)