Any here modified their speakers crossovers before?

[admin_exported]

Hi all, i have been absent from these parts for a while - been concentrating on work and study - but now i have a little more time for my passion for hi-fi and related tweakery.
i have done quite a few mods on my speakers now and have received very worthwile results to date. now i am ready to tackle a significant upgrade in terms of replacing the capacitors and resistors on the crossovers. aparantly, the capaitors have a habit of degrading over time and as my speakers are more than 25 years old (all the drivers are new though) i thought it time to update.
i have purchased the appropriate replacement capacitors(Jantzen Audio) but because of their size i will need to create a new circuit board. this is no problem as i planned on doing this already as the exsiting cb is copper plated - which is showing signsa of oxidisation.
so, the question is if i wire the capacitors, resistors and inductors (in the correct series) point-to-point with solid silver wire (18awg) do you think this will be a problem? i am just thinking that maybe it will alter the total resistance offered by the original crossover design. or am i just talking rubbish?
thanks in advance for any help

 

[matengawhat]

you need to contact trevor79 he has acouple of times with good results he says

 

[a91gti]

Please don't take my word for it but I reckon you'll be fine. You may well find a change in overall brightness tho, worth bearing in mind.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi guys

Please give us a clue on what speakers you are talking about, and the rest of your system.

This is much an art as a science in maintaining tonal balance.

 

[Anonymous]

hi, thanks for the replies so far.
trevor i was hoping you would have some input as i knew you were a serial tweaker too! unfortunately even if i tell what gear i have it wont help much as its either unheard of or modded by myself already but here goes... speakers are T+A Spectrum ADL IIIs (huge 3 way, transmission line standmounts), amp is pioneer a400GTE (tom evans modded + additional modds from me!) and source is arcam dv135 (as yet un-modded). hope this can help you.
worth mentioning that by doing this mod i am hoping to acheive a similar sound from my speakers but just a little better in every area - if that makes sense....?

 

[a91gti]

Can you make the new x-overs without cannibalising the existing ones? That way you can at least reverse the process if it doesn't suit.

 

[Anonymous]

trevor79 - any more information on modding speakers is welcomed

 

[Anonymous]

I have had excellent results replacing caps with the same value Clarity Caps SA and bypassing them with Vishay MKP 1837 polys.
Test results on a wide variety of caps can be found here.....

www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Cap.html This guy has done a lot of work and has been good enough to put his findings out on the web.

Mundorf Air-core Foil Coils/ Mundorf Ferrit-core M-Coil BV pin-core (baked varnish)I find very very good, and wiring the crossovers up with copper wire (prefer to stay away from silver wire it makes the sound too brittle on my system) along with replacing the internal wiring transforms the speakers onto a high end plane.

Of course these replaced components are much larger so it can be easier to start building up a new crossover board. Also I use long haired wool to shield the crossover within the cabinets.

Hope this is of help.

 

[kusum65]

Hi trevor, read with interest about the russ andrews speaker mod, a large part of which involves taking out the crossover and replacing the correct rating kimber caps in its place which sounds pretty drastic. Im curious but apprehensive , any views on this?

 

[idc]

ifitsoundsgood.... any chance of posting pictures of work in progress. It makes such discussions easier to follow for us who are still learning. Thanks.

 

[lordmortlock]

I'm with idc one this one - totally over my head but very interested to understand more.

 

[Anonymous]

kusum65:Hi trevor, read with interest about the russ andrews speaker mod, a large part of which involves taking out the crossover and replacing the correct rating kimber caps in its place which sounds pretty drastic. Im curious but apprehensive , any views on this?

Yes done that mode many years ago with good results.

Currently prefer the Clarity Cap SA's which are outstanding at there price point.

 

[Anonymous]

ifitsoundsgoodlistentoit:

i have done quite a few mods on my speakers now and have received very worthwile results to date. now i am ready to tackle a significant upgrade in terms of replacing the capacitors and resistors on the crossovers. aparantly, the capaitors have a habit of degrading over time and as my speakers are more than 25 years old (all the drivers are new though) i thought it time to update.

Crossover components and their values are chosen very carefully by the manufacturer to work with the fitted drive units.

If you have replaced the drive units with different types and makes to the originals?, then just replacing the components with new ones of the same values will probably not give you the results that you are hoping for. Some tweaking of values will be needed!

 

[Anonymous]

Trevor79 - Business Opportunity me thinks - Modification of loudspeakers......