"Parts upgrade" on crossovers -Any experiences?


I remeber upgrading the crossovers of a pair of B&W DM12's with esoteric resistors, caps and wiring (about 10 years ago). In the end I got a different speaker. The bottom end seemed improved and the highs were more delicate and smoother, but the midrange had lost some of the magic. I could not deal with the decreased midrange quality so I re-soldered most of the parts back to the crossovers but left the upgraded wire (the wire in there looked like tined copper and was tied with a Molex connector to the board!). I changed the parts since I felt that early 80's speakers could only benefit from higher quality parts and was worried that the cap values might be out of spec. I am currently using a pair of KEF 101 and I've been thinking about upgrading crossovers with Solen Caps, maybe some Caddok Resistors and Cardas or Kimber wire. The KEFs sound great but if I can get more out of them, I might give it a try. Anyone do similar upgrades with an increase in ALL aspects of your speakers performance...or have BAD results...or find the end result a mixed bag of better here, but worse there (like me)? Also, any input on what parts / brands to use and which not to use? Are Solen caps good choices (or are there others that work much better for this application)? Resisters Brands?
I am purposely leavig out the issue of active crossovers (don't want to find 4 identical monoblocks to run my speakers).
one_audiophile
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. :)
Why don't you get a Outboard Active Crossover network so you can adjust the points and give you the capability of Vertical amping which will go a long way in performance.

The Pro's are doing alot of this now and it's what I am going to do.

There are many advantages.Do a search of Vertical Amping to see what the advantages are.