ESR and the affect on sound.

Esreuter

Evening forum,

I would like to pick your brains about the ESR in speakers.

The example is this, about to embark on my monitor mods, rebuilding the XOs with nicer parts from inductors, caps and resistors.

I have matched everything to a T or with in a 5% +- margin.

I plan to replace the inner cabinet wire to a larger gauge wire.

I will build the new xo point to point and thinking of all this change I will be for sure lowering the ESR of the speakers a lil bit and would like to know generally what that does to the performance of the speaker?

I can not tell you the exact measurements yet as I have not received the parts, I would like to know generally what happens when the resistance is changed to the lower. More volume? or is there a frequency change? anything else?

please and thank you all for your knowledge!

ESR:loneranger:

skrol

The ESR is resistance and impacts the volume. You do have to be careful with the XO and changing ESR. If you change an inductor and it has a different ESR than the original, it will alter the loudness at specific ranges of frequencies and throw off the voicing. One of the former Polk engineers warned me against changing the internal wiring (gauge and length) for this same reason (though some will debate).

Changing the inductors is ok, just try to stick with the same ESR as the original.

Esreuter

I remember this post about changing the internal wire.

and as always in tinkering it was met with both sides of the deal.

I could have been more specific, forgive me, all inductors match the henries perfectly, my .8mh has just a slight higher dcr, it is suppose to be .21R but the ones i found are .24R. I chose the mundorf 10 watt resistors at madisound, i need a 5.7 but they had 5.6, so there is a touch on the low side. I am using clarity caps PX line, I dont know their DCR, but research leans towards the poly caps having less resistance than the electrolic type. Only cap i couldnt match exactly was a 9.1uf so i chose a 9.0 uf. I also incorporated the .22 bypass into the 8ufs making it into a 8.2 uf cap.

so all that with the increase in wire gauge would decrease the total ESR of the circuit. I was curious about if it would change the frequency response of the speakers drastically

I remember reading in the conversation, where I think the waring about replacing internal speaker wire comes from, some one said that modding the XOs gives results of bigger sound stage and more volume, but its actually because of the reduced ESR. That is not an exact quote, just one from memory.

so then more food for thought, if an inductors DCR is for the volume of the selected frequency, then what part do the Henries play?

or is it like caps? the ability to store and increase voltage is not sought after in the XOs, they are used for their low frequency attenuation abilities? if i am completely wrong set me straight. always learning!

ESR:loneranger:

zingo

Changing the inductance changes the crossover points, so not a good idea.

When I built new crossovers for my speakers, I used all new parts and wiring, and left nothing stock. I left all the key values unchanged of the caps, resistors, and inductors, but did change many of the secondary values just because I wanted to go with different components. I also changed out all the internal wiring and my vintage speakers sound better than they ever have. If you want me to go into more detail on the parts changes I'd be more than happy too.

Face

FYI, caps have ESR, inductors have DCR.

It's tough to get ESR info on film caps, it's not always published.

DCR info is usually readily available and should be matched within 5%(preferably) or at a maximum 10%.

The amount of DCR can have a small affect on driver Q and driver level. By making a drastic change in DCR, you can create a small peak, null, and have one or more drivers playing louder or quieter than the rest.

A little more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivalent_series_resistance

Esreuter

Yes sir, everything should come out hunky dory, I stuck to the values listed so now it is a matter of waiting for the parts and then the time to assemble.

I am stoked to hear the difference between stock and after market parts.

ESR:loneranger: