LSi7 Crossover Upgrade - SoniCaps and Mills

Thanks for the great directions! I just got done listening to one modded LSi7 and one un-modded. This is my first crossover upgrade, so let that be a preface to my comments...

After listening to a quite a few songs (maybe 40 minutes), I notice a little more clarity and a lower noise floor, but the big thing is the tweeter sounds more natural and less harsh on any passages where it was slightly harsh before. Right now, it is pretty subtle though, so it is a wash as to whether or not it was worth all the stuff that I will describe in after this paragraph. But, based on what you all say, they should get better as the caps and resistors get some hours on them, so I am looking forward to that

All right. So, I have done an all right amount of soldering, but never on a circuit board. I do have a de-soldering iron, so that was quite helpful! As I went along and meticulously took out the connections I needed, I started noticing that the copper on the board had slightly peeled away at some of the soldering joints. In one place, after I removed the extra solder, it was uncovered fiber glass w/no copper. So, I knew then I would have a little more work ahead of me.

I actually got everything together and buttoned up with one wire run instead of using the circuit board on that connection and hooked up the speaker. No tweeter

I then took it back out and looked at it. Those connections where the copper was pulling away were on the tweeter part of the network. So, I run another two wires. Button it up. Now the mid-range driver is going in and out

At this point, I decide that I will be wiring point to point and throwing out the circuit board. Luckily, I had a 3”x24”x0.5" solid oak board lying around and I cut two pieces off about the size of the circuit board and sanded them a little. Next I drilled the holes for the connection to the plastic binding post mount. Next I started diving into the schematic to set up the layout on the new board, and figure out how to wire it. After that was all done and all the soldering of the components was finished, I drilled holes for wires to pass through the board. Then, I started hot gluing things to the board in the places I had figured out, running wires through holes in the board to connect to the woofer inductor, and the leads on the binding posts. I changed out all of the wires in the speaker except the stranded runs going to the drivers themselves. I soldered the speaker leads to the proper components, and the crossover to the binding posts, and then put her back together. She worked great on the first try (3rd if you are keeping track )

If you decide to go down this route, one piece of advice. Go out and purchase some #4 sheet metal screws, preferably 1" long, but 3/4" works. You will need them to go through the MUCH thicker board.

I will be doing speaker #2 in 3-4 days, and when I do that one, I will replace the binding posts in that speaker as well. That way I have a modded (w/ about 50 or so hours on it) to un-modded speaker comparison, then a modded to modded w/ binding post change-out comparison, and lastly I will fix the binding posts in the speaker that is currently modded and in my LSiFXs:)


Anyway, I am looking forward to hearing the LSi9s and C when they are done

Ted

Finshed the other speaker last night. Overall, not night and day, but I like the improvement

I upgraded all caps and resistors to sonicaps and mills, exactly like you did. I did have all the caps matched between the two speakers within about 0.05 or so uF. The folks that sent them to me had marked the exact values on the outside for that very reason, for example the 4 12 uF caps were values of 12.02, 12.03 12.25, and 12.27. I put the 12.02 and 12.27 in one speaker and the 12.03 and 12.25 in the other, with closest value caps in the same location in each cross-over. Probably over-kill

I changed out all the wiring in the cross-overs so the only thing stock were the wires to the speakers. I also replaced the binding posts while I was there with Vampire BPs. Since I was doing that, I replaced the binding posts and the wires from the binding posts to the x-over on my LSiFXs too.

This first step on the LSI7s will be a very nice comparison to my LSi9s and LSiC that will have a Ninja Master network in a few weeks

McLoki wrote: »

...They said it should ship Monday (since I asked for the custom Value of 16.5) and I will post more when I get them in.

Michael

I was looking for 16uF but only saw 15uF or 17uF. They do custom values?

Should I be considering a different cap value in order to bring out more detail in each of my LSi speakers? I've got 7s, 25s, FXs, and a C. And I no longer see anything in your sig McLoki. I'd like to take the sides off my 7s if I could find that thread.

P.S. Nice job McLoki.

Thanks sk88. I found it also. Still would like a visual verification though. I got money.

1) Back wire = tweeter negative
2) midbass negative
3) Tweeter plus
4) midbass positive

a little blurry, but mine are wired like this. the black negatives are on one side and the red positives the other. But after I started this post, I think you were asking about the leads from the board to the drivers so never mind...