carbon comp for crossover? oh yes!

[Coconutout]

i just swapped out all my resistors for cc in my statement monitors and wow, what a difference. there's more air, warmth and especially inner detail- such as quivering of the notes, nuisance in the background, timbre of instruments are more easily heard than when i had the mills resistors installed.

drifting is a concern which i will be monitoring in the upcoming weeks but since i never play my music loud to where the resistors would heat up, i doubt they'll be any issues.

i used bunch of ohmite resistors bundled togather (.25w120ohm x 20 for 6ohm 5w ect.) and did not solder them because once again, of the value drift.

at first the speakers sounded closed in (albeit warmer) which had me concerned but the sound opened up noticeably after only two songs and continues to do so.

[JonMarsh]

Or your ears could be adjusting. Don't neglect psycho acoustics.

Measurements, OTOH, before and after, including distortion, might be interesting.

Enjoy your speakers regardless- this is a hobby to pursue as you see fit.

[---k---]

Thanks for sharing. I'm still on the fence about fancy crossover parts - though more in caps and less so with resistors. I know Jon is a believer in fancy caps. I tried a few barely more expensive caps in my Khans and thought I heard an improvement. I tend to believe that it is just me wanting to hear the difference or slight differences in the tolerance of the parts. But, I'm open minded. Would you mind sharing a link to the resistors you're using. Maybe some day I'll get the opportunity to try it out.

[Coconutout]

youre welcome, ryan. resistors definitely have a sound to them. my speakers are much warmer sounding now. voices are truly eerie to listen to. caps are a huge deal for me, especially ones for the tweeters could make or break the speaker in my respect. i went through 2 different 3.6uf caps before settling for jantzen supremes. auricap i had previous to that was way too bright to be down right fatiguing. but haha, rambles aside, the resistors i bought are ohmite .25w/.5w from digikey. simply search the brand name and you'll be there.

for 4ohm, i bundled together 30 120ohm resistors. it doesn't look like much, though, since they're so small.

thx for the advice btw, jon. but only tools i have right now are my ears :P

[Face]

What were you using before?

Mills have a warmish sound to them too, and you won't need to bundle 30 together either. :P

[Coconutout]

yup, mills.

warmish, maybe. but carbons are definitely warm

[---k---]

I think it is great that you're actually experimenting and trying, rather than parroting so much crap on the internet like others. I'm not dismissing your opinion. Have you ever thought about using a meter to test the real values of the components? For example, I can see very easily, for the 10 ohm resistor in the tweeter, if the old resistor had a true value of 10.1 ohm and the new one had 9.9 ohm, that could clearly explain the difference. Resistors would be easy to test with a simple multi-meter. Caps a little more difficult...

Anyway, now you need to start taking one or two of those resistors out or add more and try your hand at voicing. It is eye opening how much difference you can get by small changes.

[Coconutout]

ofcourse i tested out all the resistors- they were all off by no more than 5%. some builders use caddock film or graphite rod resistors and i feel like this would be my next step

[cjd]

I just try to build where resistors are only in use on a zobel... Avoid this whoooooole discussion.

Pity it's not always possible.

[---k---]

ahhahahah that explains the Khan's greatness.

[Coconutout]

Khan does have a smart crossover

[Coconutout]

i really didnt want it to end this way but back to the crossover the mills went today

i was hoping for the cc resistors to improve on one area of concern through break-in but no such thing happened... the cc resistors are simply grimy, not being as transparent as ww resistors.

sure there's more harmonics and it's warm n soft but in the end, it's all but a blanket over the sound.

i lost quite a bit of money on this experiment so my conclusion is- not worth it.


on the other hand the diy graphite resistors are a go.

[---k---]

But now you know. And knowing is half the battle!