Upgrading crossover - Monitor Audio Silver 9

[enkidu78]

I have been reading about upgrading crossovers and thought i'd take mine apart to see whats in it.



My speakers are 3 way, the largest coil is for the low freq. with no cap or resistor.

The mid freq has 4.7k 100v on it.

The high freq has 3.3k 100v on it.


What would you recommend I buy to improve this?

[UV101]

You'd need to measure everything before you do anything!

For me, Mundorf Supreme caps was a very big step forward in my focal xovers. Will definitely be a step up looking at those film caps in their!

Better coils once you've measured too maybe!

[richie00boy]

I'd leave it alone, the caps used are polypropylene to start with and the inductors appear to be air cored so generally it's pretty good. You could try rebuilding the existing components onto a board spacing the coils further apart.

[ScottG]

The inductors all have an element of resistance.. either measure them or leave them. These are air-core inductors so you would likely have little if any benefit in replacing them.



The cap's however are can be replaced without measurement as long as you know their value (..which is usually listed on the each cap).

Look to Tony's Cap test here for potential cap replacements.. also consider by-passing with much smaller value "premium" caps:

Humble Homemade Hifi

Definitely consider moving the crossover "out" of the loudspeaker and into another purpose-built box and platform of it's own.

Wiring and connectors can also have some impact on the result.

[enkidu78]

The inductors on these speakers are wrapped round a solid core not hollow if thats what you mean by air cored?

Also why do those caps say 3.3k 100v? I thought caps were measured in uf?

How would you go about setting up new crossovers, purchasing all new components?

[UV101]

Originally Posted by richie00boy

I'd leave it alone, the caps used are polypropylene to start with

Thats pretty much the same advice I recived when I started to mess with my own x overs. Fortunately I ignored this advise and replaced all my caps poly's and horrid elco's with Mundorf Supreme and transformed the speakers into something quite outstanding.

Originally Posted by enkidu78

The inductors on these speakers are wrapped round a solid core not hollow if thats what you mean by air cored?

The solid part is the ferrite. Air cores are better. If you are looking to upgrade to air cores which are normally much larger, you'd be better off building someting off board. You would need an LCR meter to measure the original coils in order to ID for replacement.

Originally Posted by enkidu78

Also why do those caps say 3.3k 100v? I thought caps were measured in uf?

Are all the caps the same? 3.3uF is the value K is the tolerance (10% I think)

If you are looking for a quick win, I'd suggest changing the caps to something better for a start. Although those poly caps are better than a lot of std x over caps, they are still very cheap components.

Mundorf Supreme can be found here but they are not cheap!!! Rest assured, they are worth it. Check out the link in ScottG's post. It will give you an idea of caps. Also, if the Mundorfs are a little too expensive, it will give you an idea of what to expect from cheaper caps.

[UV101]

Check these out!

I don't think ampohm are trading now but I've used them several times in the past. They are excellent VFM. 3.3uF £5 vs Mund SUpreme £18!!!!!

imho i'd put them at about 80-85% of the supremes.

AMPOHM

Give Lee a call (he's also a member) he'll sort you something out I'm sure!

[enkidu78]

Thats great advice thanks, I think i'll start by upgrading the caps and internal wiring but will look at bulding my own crossover. My existing caps were 100v but it seems on that site they are 630 and 800. Is that ok to change?

[enkidu78]

Also another noob question, why does my low frequency crossover not have a cap?

[UV101]

Those caps will never see anything like that voltage. The lower value caps will be fine. I'll try to dig some pics out of mine but I used Mundorf supremes and because I tweaked my tweeter freq a little, I added an ampohm in there too. As I said, those ampohms are great vfm while you can still get them. As for cables, I also did mine shortly after the xover upgrade with some odd lengths of kimber 4tc I had. I'd be very surprised if you didn't significantly improve things by changing the caps and cables.