SRS SDA 2.3TL Crossover Upgrade

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obxdiver
obxdiver Posts: 60
edited October 2006 in Vintage Speakers
I finally got my Sonicraft capacitors on Friday, and dug right in to perform the rebuild.
The whole job took me 5 hours to do both crossovers.
The guy at Sonic Craft really did me right, as you can see in one of the images. He bagged each cap(s) in a bag, with a L and R for left and right speaker, with the values.
He was able to match left and right with 1% tolerance.
Here is the total parts needed in case someone else is planning to perform this mod.
This list is for 1 PAIR of crossovers
2x 27uF 200V
2x 18uF 200V
2x 16uF 200V
2x 8uF 200V
2x 5.8uF 200V
4x 750pF 600V
4x Mills MRA5 5-Watt 22.5 ohm wire wound resistors.
Total cost for both crossovers = $243.00


Sonic Craft was able to match most of these values, but not all. Therefore, 2 capacitors in parallel are used to obtain the proper values.

For the values:
18uF --> used 17uF + 1uF in parallel
16uF --> used 15.5uF + 0.47uF in parallel
22.5 ohms --> used 22.0 + 0.5 in series


Since the capacitors are so large, I decided to mount them vertically. I used a piece of AWG 16 speaker wire to connect the top of the caps to the PCB.

Its the only way you can get them to fit on the board.

I replaced the polyswitches as well with the Raychem 1.35amp current rating.
These are from Polk ...for FREE



Here is a link to the Sonic Craft GEN1 "Sonicaps"
http://www.soniccraft.com/sonicaps.htm

Here is a link to the Sonic Craft RELCAP RTE 750pF caps
http://www.soniccraft.com/relcap_rte_capacitors.htm

Here is a link to the Mills MRA 5 resitors
http://www.soniccraft.com/mills_resistors.htm


THE SOUND
The highs and mids are much tighter and fuller. I think the highs are even a bit brighter now. The bass is very tight, fast and deep.
I will be auditioning many sources this weekend. So far, ....very impressed, and happy I got them both right the first time.

Enjoy the pictures.

Thanks for everyones help and advice.

Steve in VA.
Post edited by obxdiver on
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 49,823
    edited October 2006
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    Congrats on your upgrade.
    For the values:
    18uF --> used 17uF + 1uF in parallel
    16uF --> used 15.5uF + 0.47uF in parallel
    22.5 ohms --> used 22.0 + 0.5 in series

    For future reference I would recommend using equal value caps when spliting them.

    18uF use two 9uF
    16uF use two 8uF
    22.5 ohm resistors use one 10 and one 12.5

    Also, that clear covered stranded copper wire is known to oxidize (the wire turns green) with time. A better choice would be 18 gauge solid copper wire available at Ratshack, etc.
    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

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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 49,823
    edited October 2006
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    Like this....
    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

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  • george daniel
    george daniel Posts: 12,096
    edited October 2006
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    Nice Job :) ,how do they sound? Finished my 2.3's last weekend, got about 10 hours on them and they sound pretty sweet.
    JC approves....he told me so. (F-1 nut)
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  • obxdiver
    obxdiver Posts: 60
    edited October 2006
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    F1nut wrote:
    Congrats on your upgrade.



    For future reference I would recommend using equal value caps when spliting them.

    Hum...I read many posts on this forum, where a 40uF cap was needed, that everyone used a 39 + 1 to get that value.
    Oh well..whats done is done.
    They are mounted in the speaker now.

    They sound very very good.
    Thanks
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  • BobMcG
    BobMcG Posts: 1,585
    edited October 2006
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    Nice job. Fun wasn't it?

    Say, have you swapped out the tweets yet?
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  • obxdiver
    obxdiver Posts: 60
    edited October 2006
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    BobMcG wrote:
    Nice job. Fun wasn't it?

    Say, have you swapped out the tweets yet?
    Very fun, and a good thing I had my bifocals on, because my eyes are not what they used to be.

    Yes, I swapped the SL3000's for the RD198's and swapped all of the 6510 dimensional drivers with the rd6503's. This was due to bad 6510's. The stereo drivers are all still MW6510's.
    Also, some of my phasing was wrong on the individual drivers.
    So after I found this forum, and learned how to get the SDA's back to original wiring and driver numbers, I now have a brand new sounding set of 2.3TL's
    2 of my drivers were really MW6511's, which are 3 ohm drivers, so my SDA's were in bad shape 2 months ago.
    Now.....what a difference.

    Now, my next project is to do the same thing to my SDA-1C's.
    New RD194 tweets are already in the 1C's, so thats a start.
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  • obxdiver
    obxdiver Posts: 60
    edited October 2006
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    F1nut wrote:
    Congrats on your upgrade.


    Also, that clear covered stranded copper wire is known to oxidize (the wire turns green) with time. A better choice would be 18 gauge solid copper wire available at Ratshack, etc.

    Question,
    Does this 18 gauge solid wire fit through the holes in the PCB?
    I was going to use solid copper, but the wire was too fat to fit through the holes, so I chose this solution.
    Will green oxidized wire copper wire affect the sound?
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 49,823
    edited October 2006
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    18 gauge solid wire is rather thin, about the same size as the lead wires on the caps, it's all you need and fits the PCB holes perfectly. Yes, oxidized wire will affect the sound.
    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

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  • obxdiver
    obxdiver Posts: 60
    edited October 2006
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    F1nut wrote:
    18 gauge solid wire is rather thin, about the same size as the lead wires on the caps, it's all you need and fits the PCB holes perfectly. Yes, oxidized wire will affect the sound.

    Ok , I should have asked this question before I started...my bad.
    I will redo them using the solid 18 gauge.
    Is this bare wire you used, or does it have insulation?
    I will take a look at RatShack. If bare, I will cover with heat shrink tubing for safety
    And....do you think I should go ahead and redo the caps where I did not balance the values?. ie. 2x8uF as u said?
    Your picture looks sweet, and using the values like you did makes it look cleaner.
    I have been listening to lots of CD's and MAN, THESE THINGS ARE THE S**T NOW.
    But it is worth it to redo it, using solid wire, to keep the longevity of the speaker as high as possible.
    The highs are very crisp. This is a very good mod to do.
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 49,823
    edited October 2006
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    The wire is insulated. I would change the wire, but leave the caps alone as I don't think most folks would hear a difference.
    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

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  • BSUfbfan
    BSUfbfan Posts: 201
    edited October 2006
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    Alright, I'm going to pull the trigger on my x-over upgrade today, all this talk has got me "jiggy".

    Can I get your thoughts on Sonicap -vs- Solen please??

    Thanks guys.

    Mike
    SDA SRS 2.3
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  • george daniel
    george daniel Posts: 12,096
    edited October 2006
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    My last upgrade, 2.3's, I used sonicap, a bit more expensive than the solens.
    I used a .1uF in place of the silver mica
    JC approves....he told me so. (F-1 nut)
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  • schwarcw
    schwarcw Posts: 7,328
    edited October 2006
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    Today is the last day for the Soniccraft sale!!!! 20% off!! Buy Sonicaps today. You'll have to beg Jeff tomorrow.
    Carl

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  • BSUfbfan
    BSUfbfan Posts: 201
    edited October 2006
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    I suppose Jeff is not working at 8:27 p.m.

    That's my luck, always a day late.....
    SDA SRS 2.3
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  • schwarcw
    schwarcw Posts: 7,328
    edited October 2006
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    BSUfbfan, you may want to call Soniccraft tomorrow and ask for Jeff Glowacki. Tell him you were going to order yesterday but couldn't get out of a meeting. He may cut you some slack.

    Carl
    Carl

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