My crossover

[speakerjunkie1]

Here is my design. It is my understanding that the caps that are 10uF and 22uF and the 1.0mH inductor would be of most importance. If so I take it that is where I should focus most of my money? Please tell me if I am wrong.

[5th element]

Yeah, those would be the ones to focus quality on as they are the series pass elements. Who designed the crossover and what loudspeaker is it for?

[Face]

Madisound Crossover?

[speakerjunkie1]

I was considering using a Goertz foil inductor on the 1.0mH and solen perfect lays on the rest debating on caps for the 10 and 22uF caps. Which caps do you all prefer for the parallel caps?

[Face]

Which caps do you all prefer for the parallel caps?

Generally the same as what I use for my series caps.

I'm a big fan of Claritycap MR and ESA caps. Or when I'm on a tighter budget, Solen.

[speakerjunkie1]

I have been looking at ESA and Sonic Gen1

[JonMarsh]

I'm pretty much with FACE, especially Clarity MR's for the tweeter caps in a high end system; though I've had good results with Jantzen Superior Z in the series positions and Jantzen Z-Standard for the other locales- maybe just a slight notch down in performance, but significant cost savings.

BUT, the appropriate choices and expenditures really due depend on the system design and drives, and the rest of your system- though since your system and source components may evolve into higher quality choices, building the speakers for the future makes sense. OTOH, matching a $50 cap with a $30 tweeter might not be the best use of coin...

[speakerjunkie1]

I'd love to use MR, they are a tad out of budget.

I am thinking about possibly using the Clarity PX caps for the 2.2 and 15uF caps on the mid and the ESA on tweeters.

[JonMarsh]

Sounds like that could be a reasonable choice at a given price point- what tweeter are you using?

[speakerjunkie1]

Scan D3004/6600, I can use ESA all across the board too, but I am open to any and all suggestions.

[5th element]

I use bog standard polyprop caps everywhere unless the design really needs to be done on a budget, in which case I'll use good quality lytics in every shunt location and only use polyp's for series pass elements.

I prefer to use cored inductors for series pass elements, such as the 1mH here, to keep the DC resistance down.

Your mileage will vary considerably in this. I do not believe in the 'sound' of good quality and appropriately chosen/spec'd parts used in the right place, others do and pay for expensive boutique components.

I'd much rather go active and remove the crossover entirely and with some of the better performing system on chip designs that you can get nowadays you can do this a lot less expensively than buying a plethora of expensive crossover parts. I do realise one needs to be able to build these themselves for this to be applicable, but nevertheless, the point still stands.

[speakerjunkie1]

Aslo, where it says .6mH is needed, all I can find is .62, that shouldnt be a big difference, correct?

[5th element]

That is correct.

[---k---]

Still haven't heard the drivers or the designer, so I'll roll this out there. My personal opinion is that I respect a lot of people who like fancy caps, so I believe they have merit. But, I've never used drivers that merit fancy caps. I think the money is in most cases much better spent on better drivers. I probably wouldn't spend money on caps beyond basic poly's until the tweeter was over $100. Probably same with the mid or more. I personally wouldn't ever consider spending more on the crossover parts than the drivers.

My Khans were about 60% drivers / 40% crossovers when they were built with all basic poly caps. And this was one of CJD's fancy, high part count crossovers. A fancy caps on the tweeter would probably take it to 50/50, and could be easily justified. Beyond this, I think better rewards could be gained with better drivers.

Everything depends on the quality of the drivers, complicity of the crossover, etc... So, if you're using a RAAL tweeter (or something similar), I would say those are amazing and deserve a Clarity MR!

[JonMarsh]

The relative worth of "fancy caps" also depends on the quality of your source components and electronics. To justify getting into the "fancy caps" area, I would recommend having something at least on the order of an NAD M51, as a DAC/Preamp, for example. If you're using typical HT components, I would say stay with standard Jantzen or base Clarity components.

My own recommendations would be if you're using tweeters in the range of the SS Be parts to Jantzen or Accuton diamonds to RAAL, then I could strongly recommend the Clarity MR. The 66000 is right on then cusp, as regards it's intrinsic neutrality and performance.

http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/download/ClarityCap_Technical_Report.pdf

Next tier down in tweeter caps is Jantzen Superior Z, which are fairly close behind Clarity MR in sonics and construction (and also use a highly constrained mechanical construction to minimize the capacitor physical resonance. That's what I initially used in the Isiris, and what I use in the Wavecor Ardent.

If you have a killer front end, then even with a 66000 or the SS Discovery 9130, then I'd go with the Jantzen. OTOH, if you're using typical HT component with the electronic volume controls and so-so DAC's, I wouldn't spend more than Clarity ESA or Jantzen Standard Z. Solen's sound a bit dull and grainy to me in the tweeter position, and I don't use them there anymore. YMMV of course, this may all be stuff imagined in my head, yes? But I have to live in my head, it's what's between my ears...

I haven't heard a DSP crossover solution I'd be happy with yet unless it was re-clocked with a Brainstorm DCD-8 or something similar, like a Mutec MC-3. Analog solutions tend to suffer a bit from cascaded noise, and you have to be careful selecting the opamp you chose for it's base sonics- you wouldn't believe how hard it was to find a decent sounding line preamp back in the 90s, so don't pooh-pooh the effort it takes to make a good sounding electronic crossover. (best sounding preamp I have heard lately is NO preamp- just a DAC with a rock solid high resolution low impedance output stage). It's a different set of challenges, including typically more problems with reliability due to all the parts and cables and amps required. Just saying... and that's the feedback from the semiofficial board curmudgeon. :W

[speakerjunkie1]

The source and amp are both Mcintosh, were handed down at a very generous price from a relative who upgraded. Couldn't say no.

Madisound did the crossover.

[speakerjunkie1]

Can anyone tell me if I would be ok using the 8ohm version of this mid instead of the 4?

[5th element]

Absolutely not.

[speakerjunkie1]

Didnt think so, my biggest concern is at rest my impedence is 3.5-3.6 ohms.

[5th element]

That's pretty good for a 'nominal' 4 ohm impedance loudspeaker. Most amplifiers are okay with a load like unless unless there are crazy phase angles going along with it.