Help with Dayton 2 Way Crossovers.

[Aguilabrava]

Hi:

I need your help. I want to upgrade a pair of speakers that I purchased many years ago brand new and have never used, they are Cerwin Vega model D-1, just 2 components, one 8" woofer and a 1" bullet tweeter.

I want to install a 2 way crossover in each speaker, I've been looking at the Dayton sold by Parts Express: the #1 source for audio, video & speaker building components , but they show few different ones, they look the same but the frequency ranges from 2,000 Hz to 4,500 Hz, so which one should I get, or if you guys have the time and patience, can you explain what is the difference between them?.

They also list one that is not Dayton, they show it as "Parts-Express" brand at 5,000 Hz.

Cheking at eBay I found few options too, there is a Boston Acoustics 2 Way crossover at 2,700 Hz and a Infinity, really cheap at $4.50 a piece with 3,500 Hz.

Can you please help me here, I want to get the best crossover for my speakers.

Thank you.

[PeteMcK]

re:'the best crossover for my speakers' - that is a crossover designed for the actual drivers you're using, any off-the-shelf crossover will only roughly match the drivers.

To do that, you need impedance plots for the drivers you have.

What crossover does your speakers use at present?

[mdocod]

The best crossover for your D-1s is probably going to be the one they already have in them. Baring the ability to get very accurate driver data and re-engineer something better (unlikely?).

Have you somehow been lead to believe that these speakers do not have a crossover, or that the one in them is not working?

[edit in] just googled em, looks like they use a bullet or piezo type tweeter. It's possible there is no x-over in them and they simply rely on the natural capacitance of the tweeter and slap a resistor on the tweeter... That being the case, no off-the-shelf crossover would work unless you replaced the tweeters with something else. You should look inside the boxes and see if there is an inductor or any other components in series with the woofer.

[TMHutson]

I have a Cerwin Vega spec sheet that I got off the internet. It has basic specs for the D1 through D9 models. It lists the crossover frequency for the D1 drivers at 3k hz. The D7's I have, utilize 12db per octave crossovers on all drivers. You could upgrade or just replace the caps on the crossover if you want to, but if you don't have proper measuring equipment, I doubt you will get them sounding any better. Take the woofer out and see what you have for a crossover. If it is 12db per octave, don't mess with it. If you have not used them much, I would assume the crossovers are still ok. You can always test them....

[Aguilabrava]

First of all, thank you for your posts, it is very nice of you to take time and offer your help. I appreciate it!

Most of you here have a lot of knowledge in all related to sound and electronics, I can see that every time I decide to read through what others post here, that's the reason why lately I've been posting questions in these forums, the problem is that dealing with people with so much knowledge may get things a bit complicated sometimes for people with a big lack of knowledge in the matter like myself.

The Cerwin Vega D-1 speakers I have don't have a crossover inside, I opened one of them by removing the woofer and traced the wires to a couple of something that look like resistors or perhaps capacitors (they look like ceramic made rectangular pieces, white in color) welded right in the inside part of the speaker's terminal.

I have read in some forums posts from people that have been able to improve the quality of their speaker's sound by replacing the crossover for a better one, in my case, it looks like my speakers don't even have one, I am pretty sure that right now you know that my level of knowledge here is very low, but I figure that if I replace those resistors or whatever they are with one of those PCB assemblies available in the aftermarket these speakers will sound better, more bass will go to the woofer and more treble to the tweeters, better separation of the frequencies, at least that is what has me motivated to do the replacement.

Am I correct?.

[Max Phan]

I had some of the RE-20's and the tweeter was the weakest link in that model. They came with a 8 ohm poly-carbonate tweeter. I found an inexpensive 8 ohm paper cone tweeter that played down to 3500 (RE-20 x-over) at Parts Express. Took a bit of router work to enlarge the tweeter opening, but it made for a nice upgrade to speaker that I was about to pitch out.

[AllenB]

Originally Posted by Aguilabrava

more bass will go to the woofer and more treble to the tweeters, better separation of the frequencies,

At first glance I would probably assume that the woofer isn't very good at producing upper midrange. My first motivation then would be to cut that portion from reaching the woofer.

Then I'd need to assess whether the tweeter could take over from it at this new lower point. Based on what Max Phan says this kind of sounds like an opportunity to change the tweeter.

YMMV