Crossover upgrades on my SDS SRS2's
jcaut
Posts: 1,849
I recently upgraded my crossovers on my SRS2's and I thought I'd share what I did and what I think about the results.
I was on a pretty tight budget for this project, so I mostly used parts that I already had in my speaker-building stash. Therefore I didn't use the Sonicaps that a lot of people recommend, and that I probably would have used otherwise. I used Solens for the 12uF, Dayton 4.3uF + Dayton film&foil .1uF for the 4.4uF and Mills resistors on the HF board (blade-blade models). I also jumpered the polyswitches and upped the subsequent padding resistor from 3.5 to 4 Ohms. I left the silver-mica bypass cap in place across the 12uF but removed the one that was across the 4.4 cap.
On the LF board I used Dayton 30uF + Dayton 4.0uF for the 34uF's. For the 130uF and 55uF electrolytics in parallel (185uF) I used (and don't be too hard on me here :redface:) regular non-polar electrolytics from PE in values of 100uF and 68uf along with the 12 and 4.4uF mylar caps I removed from the HF board, all in parallel. (Adds up to 184.4uF, measured a little more than 190uF)
I buttoned these back up initally with the polyswitches still in use on the tweeters and the stock 3.5 Ohm resistor. I listened to them while I was waiting on the 4 Ohm resistor I wanted to use when I eliminated the polyswitch. To my ears they sounded better, though not much different tonally. I thought the bass was a little tighter and the top end a little crisper. Biggest difference invlolved the SDA effect. Specifically the center image seemed much more solid which enhanced the overall SDA effect. I credit the tighter tolerances of the new parts for most of the improvement, though I measured all the parts I removed and none of them were way out of spec. A few days later I got the resistors for the polyswitch removal- That mod really opened up the high end. It was perhaps even a bigger difference than the cap replacement/upgrade, and one that I think most anyone could hear.
I know they need to break-in and I'm confident that they'll continue to improve. They sound fantastic to me, though, right now. Wish I had some pics to post, but I really forgot to take any of the completed crossovers.
I was on a pretty tight budget for this project, so I mostly used parts that I already had in my speaker-building stash. Therefore I didn't use the Sonicaps that a lot of people recommend, and that I probably would have used otherwise. I used Solens for the 12uF, Dayton 4.3uF + Dayton film&foil .1uF for the 4.4uF and Mills resistors on the HF board (blade-blade models). I also jumpered the polyswitches and upped the subsequent padding resistor from 3.5 to 4 Ohms. I left the silver-mica bypass cap in place across the 12uF but removed the one that was across the 4.4 cap.
On the LF board I used Dayton 30uF + Dayton 4.0uF for the 34uF's. For the 130uF and 55uF electrolytics in parallel (185uF) I used (and don't be too hard on me here :redface:) regular non-polar electrolytics from PE in values of 100uF and 68uf along with the 12 and 4.4uF mylar caps I removed from the HF board, all in parallel. (Adds up to 184.4uF, measured a little more than 190uF)
I buttoned these back up initally with the polyswitches still in use on the tweeters and the stock 3.5 Ohm resistor. I listened to them while I was waiting on the 4 Ohm resistor I wanted to use when I eliminated the polyswitch. To my ears they sounded better, though not much different tonally. I thought the bass was a little tighter and the top end a little crisper. Biggest difference invlolved the SDA effect. Specifically the center image seemed much more solid which enhanced the overall SDA effect. I credit the tighter tolerances of the new parts for most of the improvement, though I measured all the parts I removed and none of them were way out of spec. A few days later I got the resistors for the polyswitch removal- That mod really opened up the high end. It was perhaps even a bigger difference than the cap replacement/upgrade, and one that I think most anyone could hear.
I know they need to break-in and I'm confident that they'll continue to improve. They sound fantastic to me, though, right now. Wish I had some pics to post, but I really forgot to take any of the completed crossovers.
Post edited by jcaut on
Comments
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Jason, I recommend you remove the silver mica bypass cap as it serves no purpose now, but will impart nasty artifacts. I also recommend you remove the .1uF you added to the 4.3uF as it is now acting as a bypass cap.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
I almost left that silver mica off anyway... Not a fan of bypass caps, in general, I presume? I've been recapping some amps lately and studying different types of capacitors, bypass caps, etc.. I've given the whole "two time constants" theory some thought vs. claimed benefits of bypassing- just not sure how I feel about it. Anyway, I just added the .1 on the other because I had it and to stay with the stock 4.4 value.
It's easy enough to try. I think they sound great right now, though so I'm reluctant to mess with them! I'll clip clip the leads and see what happens.
Thanks!
