Passive X-over elements available in Australia

[Cloth Ears]

Hi All,

I've been having a bit of a surf looking for components for a passive Crossover. And I've tried having a search through DIYaudio as well. I'm not having much luck finding variety in resistors and air-core inductors.

I can find quite a few different sorts of caps - from the cheap ones available from Jaycar (green, black and yellow), through Bennic, Solen, Auricap and even Hovland. I can also get Visaton, but I can't price them on the 'net.

But there appears to almost no range of resistors available in the 10watt range - the only ones are the wire-wound ones available through Jaycar (or Rockby and others). Does anyone know of any other types available in Aus?

And on the inductor search, I could find only the Jaycar generic (31ga?) plus Solen (16ga) Hepta litz and Solen (18ga) - except that the Solens did not come in the size I wanted (which means having to buy 2 or 3 Hepta litz). Again, any suggestions?

Being a newby in creating my own crossover I'm not sure of the effect of the better components. But one consistent thing seems to be that the better the cap in the tweeter Xover, the better the sound. Is this true of other elements (resitors/coils) of the crossover?

[rick57]

Why do you think you need resistors rated as high as 10watts?
IIRC 5 is ok.

[Cloth Ears]

Hi Rick,

Agreed - but I can also only find one type of 5W available (ceramic - 22mm long).

What's IIRC?

[busterno1]

try http://www.wescomponents.com/default.htm

I know there is a aussie importer who does roll coils up to 2.5mH

I just cant remember who .

[rick57]

Hi Cloth Ears

IIRC = If I Remember Correctly
see http://www.netlingo.com/emailsh.cfm

Better for Oz to buy locally, but I find it's about as easy to buy from OS. Keeping the acronyms flowing, have you tried RS?


Are you a member of the Melbourne Audio Club - they have a strong DIY group
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~macinc/contents.htm

Cheers

[Cloth Ears]

Thanks for the link, Rick. I was wondering where I could look that up.

I am a MAC member (which reminds me that it's nearly June), but a very lazy one - only one meeting in the last year.

I've found (so far):
http://www.wescomponents.com/
http://www1.jaycar.com.au/
http://www.speakerbits.com/
http://www.warco.com.au/waraudio/
http://www.soundlabsgroup.com.au/
http://www.gsoaudio.com/ - not active
http://www.dt.com.au/
http://www.rockby.com.au/
http://www.acousticconcepts.com.au/
http://www.rswww.com.au/

I actually did find some other resistors in RS Online (the last one) since I posted.

busterno1, if you can remember that name it would be of interest. Once I've finished searching I'll try to post a list of the places I've visited.

[busterno1]

I think it was audio concepts . they do various gauge wire .low dcr

[Centauri]

Although not listed on their web page (due to not having their shopping cart set up yet), WES Components do stock a good selection of Solen caps and cheaper brands, as well as "non-inductive" 5W and 10W WW resistors (which have been fine for me), and a range of 1mm (18AWG) air-cored coils.

Cheers

[tktran]

My Australian wide search for quality inductors took months after ME Audio closed down last year. Most places either have a limited range (eg. 1mm wire) or were reluctant to provide custom sizes (+ AUD $50-70 per inductor). Things started to look hopeless to the point where I accepted the fact that I'd have to do it myself. I bought my own LCR meter (+/-3% accuracy), tracked down some enamelled wire (2 different sizes), built my own bobbins (out of MDF!), and then had a go at winding. Not that hard if you're into DIYing, but the real problem is that it takes so much time and without machinery it's difficult to do with only 2 hands.

Then by sheer luck I found a source that could provide coils at a reasonable cost. For one-off projects it's a no-brainer, but even now I buy all my inductors from Rick of Equinox Audio. In fact it was he who bought ME Audio's coil winding gear for his own commercial speakers.

He has several different wire sizes, can do solid core or multistrand, and custom sizes is not an issue because they're all wound to order. This means there are no problems satisfying any requirements for DCR, and according to my LCR meter, pair matching was within 1%.

He designs and sells loudspeakers, but was very interested and encouraging of my DIY loudspeakers. Pricing is fair, but when compared to the competition in this country, it is in fact excellent.

OTOH WES is a good source for SCR caps and non inductive wirewound resistors (both 5W and 10W)

[Cloth Ears]

tktran, Centauri and busterno1.

Thank you.