Monitor 70 Speaker Crossover Upgrades

wesouth · December 2009

I have been reading a post about possible upgrades to speakers to make them sound better. Crossover and Plate Upgrades. I have the Monitor 70 speakers and though they sound good I would like to get the best possible sound from them. I have done all I can outside the speaker and would like to go further. Has anyone here done this with any great noticable result. Money and time are not an issue. Can someone post a material list and talk me through the worthwhile upgrades available

nguyendot · December 2009

If money's not an issue why not just upgrade your speakers then? some A9's or LSis are calling...

lmacmil · December 2009

wesouth wrote: »

I have been reading a post about possible upgrades to speakers to make them sound better. Crossover and Plate Upgrades.

People who have done this claim they can hear the difference but that's not possible without an instanteous A/B comparison. It's a scientific fact that the auditory "memory" is milliseconds. People hear the difference because they expect to and they want to, not because they really do. I wouldn't waste my time.

wesouth · December 2009

about what i thought....thanks

nguyendot · December 2009

lmacmil wrote: »

People who have done this claim they can hear the difference but that's not possible without an instanteous A/B comparison. It's a scientific fact that the auditory "memory" is milliseconds. People hear the difference because they expect to and they want to, not because they really do. I wouldn't waste my time.

It actually depends on the delta between the differences. On crossover upgrades this is true, but if you're talking say a 128 mp3 to a 320 or lossless, you can definitely tell/remember since the delta is so large.

mrsteve7 · January 2010

I just completed an xover upgrade with Dayton caps and Mills resisitors and for the $48 can say this was well worth it. At first I thought the high end a bit too bright, but several hours after, the speakers are sounding great to my ear. Bought all the parts from Parts Express. Make sure you remove the bypass cap when replacing the cap 8uf in the tweeter curcuit.

Because the polyproplyene caps are much larger than the OEM electrolytics, I had to mount them on the top surface of the xover PCB rather than the underside as from the factory. Other than that, it was a fairly straight-forward upgrade which I'm extremely happy with.

Incidentally, I upgraded one of the speakers such that I could do an A/B comparison, and the results are obvious.

If you've got a deep pocket, I've heard other cap brands are better than Dayton (e.g. SonicCap), so the option is open to you. I use these speakers in a work-out room, so they are not in my primary listening system, hence I wasn't willing to sink a lot of $$$ into them. However, I'm quite happy as to how they turned out.

rallyshark · January 2010

Regardless of what others have said, I still say do it! It's worth it for the fun of doing it and learning if nothing else. Who knows YOU, may actually like the end result:)

lmacmil · January 2010

mrsteve7 wrote: »

I just completed an xover upgrade with Dayton caps and Mills resisitors and for the $48 can say this was well worth it.

Incidentally, I upgraded one of the speakers such that I could do an A/B comparison, and the results are obvious.

I'm glad it you liked the upgrade and were smart enough to do one first and compare to the other. I suspect a lot of people wouldn't find the difference as obvious as you.

jax3822 · January 2010

I vote for upgrading your speakers, not the crossovers. Why risk messing up the sound and any real resale value when you can upgrade. The Monitor 70 is a descent speaker to start with, but I believe tough to upgrade, as the the crossover powers two woofers, two Mids and the one tweeter. Plus it is not even a three way design, it only slighty crosses over to the 2 "Mids". I considered the same thing, but it was easier to return them to the store for a pair of RTi8's.

MANSKITO · January 2010

ya get better speakers, in order of importance would be Speaker, gear, power, wire and then maybe cross over upgrades. Sink most of your money into what matters most then you will get a larger delta change. If lets say you had the best you could reasonably afford of the other stuff then i might say go for it, however coming from someone like me who is always drooling over the high end gear but has no money, I'm not going to waste hard earned $$$ on small % changes in sound, I want bang for my buck. Blowing a grand on speakers or gear in my eyes is well worth it.
In other words $50 saved/ down on some new gear is doing your ears better then wasting it on like a sub 5% change.

BWilberg266 · August 2010

As far as bang for your buck the crossover upgrades can give you a great return on investment.

$50 is 12.5% of the cost (400 bucks shipped) of the Monitor 70's and I'm willing to bet that his crossover upgrade of $50 gave him that much of an increase in sound quality based on his description of before and after. The crossover components in mass produced speakers just aren't all that great.

Now let's say you go and save your hard earned money and buy a pair of Rtia7's for 650 shipped. That's a 62.5% cost increase, and while I love the sound of the Rti's I wouldn't say it is a 62.5% increase in sound quality.

I realize that everything is subjective to the listener but crossover upgrades are a very viable option that are done by many people to improve the sonic quality of their speakers. I just took a pair of 20 year old Precise Acoustic speakers and upgraded the crossovers and added better damping material and there is a HUGE difference. The speakers just came alive.

In my opinion crossover upgrades can be a great option to tide you over for a small cost ratio with a good return on investment. And to be honest there is something very rewarding about opening things up and reworking a crossover with your own two hands.

SivaNevets · August 2010

keep us updated, i would like to know how this could be done. ive read a review on amazon on monitor 40s that the mdf is only 3/8 as oppose to advertised 3/4. and theres a huge difference after a crossover upgrade and some damping.

i would like to know if theres a step by step tutorial on crossover upgrade, i just got my monitor 40s for my computer setup in last night and i think modding the crossover could be fun.