NHT SB3 Crossover Upgrade
I decided to upgrade the crossovers in my NHT's. The top picture shows the stock board with it's 2 tiny caps on top. There is a bigger mylar cap on the bottom side. Since the board is so small I had to mount the new caps inside the speaker and run leads to the board as shown in pic 2. The replacement for the stock mylar actually fit on the board as shown in pic 3.
I chose Solen caps for this upgrade because the speakers only cost me $275.00 used and new Sonicaps would have run more than that. The cost for the Solen's was $47.58 including shipping. I didn't change the resisitors because of their high wattage values and basically what's in them is all that's available.
Parts:
Solen Cap Values
3.3uF
2.0uF + 12.0uF piggybacked to get a 14uF
50uF
20 gauge insulated solid core OFC wire
Heat shrink tubing
Cardas solder
Hot glue
The mounting of the 50uF cap at the inside bottom back proved challenging as the hot glue gun will not fit inside the cabinet, so I put the hot glue on the cap and shoved it into place. Work fast when doing this because the hot glue is HOT when it slides off on to your hand. :eek:
I chose Solen caps for this upgrade because the speakers only cost me $275.00 used and new Sonicaps would have run more than that. The cost for the Solen's was $47.58 including shipping. I didn't change the resisitors because of their high wattage values and basically what's in them is all that's available.
Parts:
Solen Cap Values
3.3uF
2.0uF + 12.0uF piggybacked to get a 14uF
50uF
20 gauge insulated solid core OFC wire
Heat shrink tubing
Cardas solder
Hot glue
The mounting of the 50uF cap at the inside bottom back proved challenging as the hot glue gun will not fit inside the cabinet, so I put the hot glue on the cap and shoved it into place. Work fast when doing this because the hot glue is HOT when it slides off on to your hand. :eek:
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
"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
Post edited by F1nut on
Comments
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The top pic shows the crossover back in place with the piggybacked 14uF cap mounted to the bracing inside the cabinet. The second pic shows the 50uF cap mounted at the bottom and lastly, ready to play.
I did one speaker first and compared at against the stock one. I noticed increased clarity and detail right away. In fact, the stock speaker sounded muted in comparison. After both were completed and fully burned in the highs are clearly smoother with more detail and the bass has tightened. I'm very pleased with the outcome.
NOTE: Do not remove the leads to the tweeter, it's a bear trying to get them back on.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'm going to have to try this as well on mine!
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That says it all.I'm very pleased with the outcome.
Crossover upgrades can be a wonderful, inexpensive tweak. Glad to hear you got great results.HT/2-channel Rig: Sony 50 LCD TV; Toshiba HD-A2 DVD player; Emotiva LMC-1 pre/pro; Rogue Audio M-120 monoblocks (modded); Placette RVC; Emotiva LPA-1 amp; Bada HD-22 tube CDP (modded); VMPS Tower II SE (fronts); DIY Clearwave Dynamic 4CC (center); Wharfedale Opus Tri-Surrounds (rear); and VMPS 215 sub
"God grooves with tubes." -
Looks good but I have one unrelated question. How do you keep them clean? That piano black laquer finish is amazing.... I have enough trouble with the little tops of my lsi7s
I should really start doing some reading about crossovers and maybe test out something like this on my speakers. -
I have these on a shelf above my workbench in my shop. The sides stay clean, but the tops get dusty. Since I can't see up there, I don't worry about it.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 -
Lookin' GOOD !!!
How's that hand, broham??
BDTI plan for the future. - F1Nut -
All healed, thank you.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 just want to say that if anyone is in the market for a bookshelf at anywhere near this price point, especially for music, they owe it to themselves to at least seriously audition the NHT SB3, and you better move quick as they are being replaced with a new Super Audio line in September. I've heard that the SB3's replacement will be a 3 way model.
The bass output on these bookshelf speakers is just incredible, -3 db at 39 HZ in a sealed acoustic suspension enclosure, so actual in room response is probably even deeper than that in most cases. They can actually top some towers in that department, even some powered towers. You definitely do NOT need a sub with these for music listening. Now how many bookshelf speakers can you honestly say that about?
One weekend, just out of curiosity, I took the NHT SB3 pair home to compare them to the Polk RT1000i. I used an Onkyo TX-8511 2 channel stereo receiver, 100 watts x 2, with A + B speaker switching which made it easy to go back and forth between the two pairs of speakers. Admittedly, I don't feel Onkyo's amps are the best match for either Polk or NHT though. Later on I switched the Onkyo for the HK 3480 2 channel stereo receiver that also has A + B speaker switching, and IMO, it was a much better match for both the Polks and the NHTs. Since the tweeter is inverted upside down on the SB3, I simply put them right on top of the Rt1000i pair and it was about the perfect "stand" height for them.
Granted, the Polks obviously took a lot less power to drive thanks to their integrated sub amps, but when matching, balanced volume level settings were dialed in with a SPL, IMO, to me, the SB3 bookshelfs won out in EVERY way over the Polk powered towers, even on bass! I think the RT2000i could take them on bass, but not the RT1000i.
I thought that was a great testament to the SB3's bass output. I honestly thought the RT1000i would at least be better on bass, but they're not. The RT1000i could "boom" and sound "muddy" or "sloppy" more than the NHTs if you cranked up the sub's output, but that's as far as it went. When it came to clean, tight, well defined bass, the SB3 was better in every way.
The only bookshelf speaker that I've ever heard that might would even make me think about replacing my beloved pair of SB3 are the Revel Concerta M12, which retail at like $50 more per pair than the SB3 does. And if you were to compare a pair of the SB3 with Jesse's crossover upgrade done to the Revels, I'm sure that the SB3 would probably easily top them then. -
Mark,
Do you have any info on the new line?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 -
Jesse the new SuperAudios probably won't be out till end of summer/early fall. Basic differences include a more curved front panel for better dispersion and fewer baffle effects, a dome upper midrange on the 3T/4T/3C (compared to the SB3/ST4/SC2) and a 10" woofer for the 4T (compared to 8" on the ST4).
The SB3's replacement, the 3T will have a different sound, with more detail in the upper mids and a bigger sweetspot and soundstage.
Rumors put the 4T at $1500/pr, but that's largely the 4-way design and bigger woofers. I'm guessing that the SB3 replacement might go up a bit, but I've heard that the bookshelf speakers will either be the exact same price OR, the smaller ones *could* go up $50/pr and the 3T *could* go up as much as $50 or $100. IOW -
SZT - $300-$350/pr
2T - $400-$450/pr
3T - $600-$700/pr
Edit- IMO, this new line will have some SERIOUS competition at it's price point from the new Revel Concerta line. NHT will have their hands full on this one. -
Interesting, thanks!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 -
You're welcome! They claim this new series will help close the performance gap a little between the Super Audio line and the Evolutions, but at their probable MSRPs, I think one would just as well go ahead and get the Evolutions instead in the first place and be done with it.
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I know this thread is old but if anyone is still out there, I would like a schematic or description of the crossover ??
Specifically I'm using the NHT drivers in a larger box and would like info on the setup they used. From the pictures it looks like there is only one inductor, two resistors and several caps. this looks like the tweeter is only a first order high pass (series cap only) and the woofer is second order low pass (L-C) ??
Any info would be helpful....
Todd -
Looks like 3 inductors to me.
I'll see if I can find the pics I took, but don't hold your breath.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 -
Looks like 3 inductors to me.
I'll see if I can find the pics I took, but don't hold your breath.
Thanks, That would be great.
From your posted pics, I only see the one air core inductor.
Am I missing something ??
Thanks
Todd -
I see two.
"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you." Friedrich Nietzsche -
I see two.
I think you're right, Mike. What I thought was two is just one with a hold down strap in the middle of it.
No luck on the pics, so far and it's just not convenient to open them up again.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 -
Two drivers, two inductors.CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint.
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Great sounding speakers. Very impressive for their size.I like speakers that are bigger than a small refrigerator but smaller than a big refrigerator:D
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I think you're right, Mike. What I thought was two is just one with a hold down strap in the middle of it.
No luck on the pics, so far and it's just not convenient to open them up again.
O.K., now I see the second inductor with cable tie around it.
So it is a second order (12dB/oct) filter for both drivers !!
Any chance you remember (please don't open them up to see) if that second larger inductor was air core or ferrite ?? It's hard to tell from those pics.
Now if I can figure what the 50uF was for ???
Maybe a zobel network for the woofer ?
Thanks for your inputs...
Todd -
They both look like air core.CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint.
