Jeff Bagby's Tributes Build

[mmitic86]

In post #5 I said I my try an AR series xo with these drivers and I've done just that. I'm not saying it's better than Jeff's excellent xo but is different in sonics and is more suitable for my use as well as I am working with different box volume and bass tuning. I won't go into any personal subjective impressions of the alternative AR series xo.

It drops the tweeter to 18dB down at the tweeter Fs, BSC is increased and the impedance plot is smoother and ranges from 9R to 5R45 from 100Hz which is better for my LM3886 based Arcam A19. Phase over the crossover is very good as can be seen in the reverse null FR.

I'm posting this for reference only for any future builders using these drivers and not to disrespect Jeff's excellent design. In fact the xo was designed using Jeff's SCD.

I live with my Tributes almost a year and comparing them with other high end bookshelf speakers I realized that sound is somehow without flow. Also there is some suuup somewhere on 5.5kHz. I listen them on my FirstWatt M2 clone.
I want to try your XO design because, based on response, this issues which I spotted are corrected. Tell me one thing, are 10W resistors must or it will work with 5W ok? Based on driver specifications 5W should be enough, or?

 

[rabbitz]

Stick with the 10W resistors. I've never used a lower rating in a AR series xo.

 

[mmitic86]

Rabbitz, great job with XO! Finally speakers are more open, better vocals, treble is brighter, also bass is much tighter.

 

[rabbitz]

Glad it worked out for you. It makes the speaker more forward in it's presentation which suits me but others may prefer a bit more polite presentation of the original. Comes down to personal taste.

For reference the xo is easily tweaked. For less top end increase R1 and for less mids increase Cz. Going up to the next value or two is enough and will not alter the filter too much. Such as 4R7 and 3.9uF-4.7uF.

 

[mmitic86]

Thanks for the tips! I don't want to decrease mids or top end, this suits me well, but I will try to tweak some values, since my XO are still outside the box.

 

[rabbitz]

Great that it suits. I only added the tweaks if someone tries it and wants to reduce mid or top. If it satisfies as is, then leave it alone.