New crossover assembly service available.

E-Zee · « **on:** 11 Apr 2021, 10:20 pm »

Hello all. I'm here to offer a crossover assembly service for any that may be interested. I realize there is lots of expertise and experience here in the forum and the market may be relatively small. However, for any that may be interested, I've created a website that is still undergoing some revision, but should provide sufficient explanation of the service offered.

Website is ezeescrossovers.com

I have discussed this matter with Danny Richie and with his permission I am making the initial post here.

Edit from original post: im doing everything I can to keep prices affordable. Please reach out for pricing details for your project. Complex designs, large or multiple board assemblies, will be slightly more than a basic 2way design.

Assembly for power cables, speaker cables, or other related projects would depend upon complexity. Please contact me if you have a project you want to discuss.

Please feel free to wander through the website and I'd appreciate any feedback. Any interested customers can contact me here through forum but my preferred contact is by email.

Thank you for your time.
-Elon

Elon@ezeescrossovers.com

oskar · « **Reply #1 on:** 13 Apr 2021, 01:46 pm »

That is good news. My one trepidation to building out speakers was the xover.
Good luck with your endeavour.

E-Zee · « **Reply #2 on:** 17 Apr 2021, 07:50 am »

Thank you to those that have reached out by email.

My sample size is small but the first two customers committed for assembly from this forum are both for the NX-Studio. Two additional customers for other small jobs (speaker cable build, and a repair) are also finishing NX-Studio builds.

I'm a long time fan of Danny's designs so I'm happy to see the NX-Studio selling well.

Speaker Challenged · « **Reply #3 on:** 19 Apr 2021, 12:02 am »

Great idea. You could buy and hold some stock of the components to build and send direct to the GR customer and Danny sends to rest of the kit once pre-built X over is ticked on Danny's site?

Collaboration could benefit all?

I am sure that a lot more people could benefit from that. The build becomes less scary to newbies and they are up and running so much more quickly.

E-Zee · « **Reply #4 on:** 19 Apr 2021, 06:30 am »

Speaker challenged,
I discussed those options with Danny. Bottom line is if I were to stock components for multiple builds of each of his designs, it equates to a few $1000's of outlay that I then recoup $50 to $100 at a time. Currently, ill put together anything that gets sent to me, and Danny is willing to drop ship straight to me by that makes a lot more sense for the upgrade kits than the full speaker kits with drivers.

As example, I have 2 commitments to assemble NX-Studio boards but those kits ship with Drivers and a front baffle so the extra cost of me shipping those large items a second time is counter productive for the customer. In that case its cheaper and easier for customer to first recieve full kit from Danny and then just ship me the crossover components which is the way those builds will go when they come in stock. However in the case of any of the upgrade kits such as RP-600M or similar, where no drivers are shipped, those would be a good candidate for drop shipping. Plus that market of customer who is upgrading retail speakers is possibly more inclined to need an assembly service.

I know there is a need, but am also aware word of mouth support takes time to build so I'm taking my time. I'm not marketing or reaching out in other places at this time. I chose to reach out first to Danny because I greatly appreciate and enjoy his methodologies and design principles and watching him interact with customers and even some critics in forums for many years, I think he's a person of integrity which I value more than any opportunity to make a few $$.

In the meantime I've got a couple small projects coming in. An Overnight Sensations kit showed up a couple days ago with all Jantzen Z-Standard caps which is easy but it's waiting for a 16ga foil inductor to drop ship from a vendor, The 2 "upgraded" inductors are both large enough diameter that standing either of them up will require an irregular shaped board ito fit through the 3.66" woofer opening. Ill do a quick photo write up on that one when the inductor arrives in hopes that someone else might benefit from seeing how an irregular shaped board can be used to fit through an opening that the crossover otherwise shouldn't fit through.

Speaker Challenged · « **Reply #5 on:** 19 Apr 2021, 08:30 am »

Quote from: E-Zee on 19 Apr 2021, 06:30 am

Speaker challenged,
I discussed those options with Danny. Bottom line is if I were to stock components for multiple builds of each of his designs, it equates to a few $1000's of outlay that I then recoup $50 to $100 at a time. Currently, ill put together anything that gets sent to me, and Danny is willing to drop ship straight to me by that makes a lot more sense for the upgrade kits than the full speaker kits with woofers.

As example, I have 2 commitments to assemble NX-Studio boards but those kits ship with Drivers and a front baffle so the extra cost of me shipping those large items a second time is counter productive for the customer. In that case its cheaper and easier for customer to first recieve full kit from Danny and then just ship me the crossover components which is the way those builds will go when they come in stock. However in the case of any of the upgrade kits such as RP-600M or similar, where no drivers are shipped, those would be a good candidate for drop shipping. Plus that market of customer who is upgrading retail speakers is possibly more inclined to need an assembly service.

I know there is a need, but am also aware word of mouth support takes time to build so I'm taking my time. I'm not marketing or reaching out in other places at this time. I chose to reach out first to Danny because I greatly appreciate and enjoy his methodologies and design principles and watching him interact with customers and even some critics in forums for many years, I think he's a person of integrity which I value more than any opportunity to make a few $$.

In the meantime I've got a couple small projects coming in. An Overnight Sensations kit showed up a couple days ago with all Jantzen Z-Standard caps which is easy but it's waiting for a 16ga foil inductor to drop ship from a vendor, The 2 "upgraded" inductors are both large enough diameter that standing either of them up will require an irregular shaped board ito fit through the 3.66" woofer opening. Ill do a quick photo write up on that one when the inductor arrives in hopes that someone else might benefit from seeing how an irregular shaped board can be used to fit through an opening that the crossover otherwise shouldn't fit through.

Hey E-Zee,
I'm just offering ideas for a fledgling business to think about. If it helps GR also then it sounds like a win win for both and Danny has been in the game long enough to say Ya or Na.
Looks like you have it sorted for now and are happy with room to grow into things later on. There is no question about Danny's integrity, he is first rate and honest etc. But as you have recognized and I have seen a lot of potential customers for GR put off by the X over so at the very least you are giving more newbies a chance to get into this great hobby with the great people GR research has attracted here on this forum.
Keep up the great work.
SC

Danny Richie · « **Reply #6 on:** 11 May 2021, 02:37 am »

I get asked daily about crossover assembly services.

Guys, here is someone offering so I am giving this one a bump.

E-Zee · « **Reply #7 on:** 11 May 2021, 04:30 am »

Just as a confirmation for any newcomers, I'm still offering crossover assembly services at a discounted price. For any new commitments as of today, May 10th, Current pricing starts at $50 for any of Danny's customers.

I've had a few items come in for assembly recently and I will post some build pics of those items by the end of the week. I have a few commitments for NX-studio builds which are waiting for inventory to come in stock. I will likely end the introductory pricing after those NX-Studio builds are completed and I have created a website location for recent customer feedbacks.

Thank you to all those that have reached out by email with your project requests.

-Elon
https://www.ezeescrossovers.com

Shives · « **Reply #8 on:** 11 May 2021, 03:30 pm »

For those of you who are wondering and looking for some feedback.

Elon is a very kind, and knowledgeable guy! Easy to talk with, and here to help! If anyone is considering this route because you are not able to wire the network, Elon is a great choice!

His prices are insane! Lol! If anyone has done networks, it’s a good 2-4 hours. So, adding it up, he’s really here to help!

If I was unable, I would send him mine in a heartbeat! Heck, I would be happy to pay him double!

Thanks for helping!

daleda1 · « **Reply #9 on:** 12 May 2021, 09:31 pm »

Thank you, could be really helpful, a great service.

E-Zee · « **Reply #10 on:** 16 May 2021, 05:35 pm »

Here's a couple photos of the last two projects. The batch of projects before didn't get any good photos so I'll have to do better about taking photos of the next few for anyone that may be interested.

This set is Danny's upgrade to Klipsch RP-8000. It's a very well designed upgrade. I chose to separate the large inductor for the lower woofer to its own board to allow for greater flexibility of installation options so the layout you see below is just for the midwoofer and tweeter.

This drawing shows you my basic process. Using the wiring schematic provided I draw all the components onto paper just to determine board size and to visualize connections for the internal wiring. Very basic designs sometimes get sorted properly on first revision but I usually try to give everything a second revision to improve the layout even if it is just minor orientation improvements. In this case, first version was very much to determine size and spacing and give me better visualization for final adjustments. I didn't like how close the inductors were so in version 2 I spaced them out even further, then cleaned up the orientation and layout of the other components.

In each of these photos the top board is not yet soldered to show the actual physical connections. Bottom board has been soldered. The outer boards are the large inductors which are the only components for the lower woofers.

Edit: the forum reduces photo resolution so I added photos of the crossover boards to an outside page if anyone wanted to zoom in and look at higher resolution. https://ezeescrossovers.com/photos

A customer sent me these for assembly/ termination.
I did make an assembly log for these cables to hopefully help anyone else attempting the same as it can be labor intensive and any tips can be helpful. This link will take you there if you are interested.
https://ezeescrossovers.com/braided-speaker-cable-assembly

Please feel free to reach out if you'd like to have an assembly done for you. Even if you plan to assemble yourself but perhaps just want a little assistance with laying out your board or need confirmation that it is wired correctly before you start soldering, I don't mind donating a little bit of time to be of service.

-Elon
https://ezeescrossovers.com/

mikeeastman · « **Reply #11 on:** 16 May 2021, 09:16 pm »

I’m the customer that had Elon assemble the speaker cable for. As you can see I always have to do something different. He went out of his way to really make sure exactly how to make the bare ends, We spent awhile on the phone going over it until he was sure of what I wanted. I highly recommend his service.

The only thing thats not right is how little he charges, so if you need his service jump on it before he regains his senses and start to charge what it’s worth.

VinceT · « **Reply #12 on:** 17 May 2021, 03:14 am »

Good to know! Price seems very reasonable

Danny Richie · « **Reply #13 on:** 19 May 2021, 01:54 am »

That's nice looking work.

E-Zee · « **Reply #14 on:** 6 Jun 2021, 11:48 pm »

A little bit of a shameless self-bump here to refresh the thread for those that are newcomers or just casual visitors.

I'm still offering discounted assembly services for Danny's customers here on the forum. A couple of requests for assistance with non-GR-Research kits came in this past week which is perfectly fine.

A couple people have asked for assistance with creating a crossover board layout for a kit they purchased, with I have done happily without charge, since it really is a quick assist. I've offered the same to a few others here in forum just trying to contribute where possible.

If anyone is looking for assistance with crossover assembly or other related projects please let me know.

Preferred contact is email direct to elon@ezeescrossovers.com, but messaging through forum is also fine.

https://ezeescrossovers.com/

E-Zee · « **Reply #15 on:** 2 Jul 2021, 05:07 pm »

Customer sent some GR-Research 16 strand braided cable and their own top end Furutech stainless/carbon connectors for assembly. Here's the final product and one mid-progress picture.

If anyone else is interested in having some cables assembled please reach out by email or forum message. Im quite confident that component cost plus my assembly fee, puts you far ahead in cost than any other premium retail cable available. There are lots of options for cable and connectors, whether you choose a braided cable like this one or a more traditionally stranded, 3 conductor cable. By building to order, to your specification, your cost is lower because you are avoiding the traditional retail costs associated with purchasing, warehousing, and marketing thousand or tens of thousands of dollars of product sitting in inventory.

Hobbsmeerkat · « **Reply #16 on:** 2 Jul 2021, 05:52 pm »

Those are beautiful!
Excellent work!

E-Zee · « **Reply #17 on:** 12 Jul 2021, 01:19 am »

Time to add another photo to the thread.

This pair will be headed to a customer in Australia. These are upgraded components for Spatial Audio M4 S Turbo. Im excited for the customer who has a lot of time and effort into his audio setup.

E-Zee · « **Reply #18 on:** 16 Jul 2021, 05:29 pm »

Before and after of the Klipsch Forte III upgrade kit. It is a substantial kit weighing about 10lbs on its boards.

Here are the before pictures.

The customer sent their existing crossovers which they had assembled with some "assistance". As you can see there are terminals, anchor screws, jumper wires, and other things inserted unnecessarily into the signal. I did not sort through the mess of wires underneath to determine if the circuits were correct, just carefully desoldered, cleaned leads, and started over. Customer chose to upgrade by adding miflex bypass caps and swapping the resistors to Mills.

Woofer, mid, tweeter circuits are separated to their own boards to allow more space between inductors and to ease installation.

A couple people have asked recently about using terminals or binding posts internally to connect internal wiring between drivers and crossover. Final photo below shows my preferred method. Internal solid strand wiring is soldered directly to the crossover, heatshrinked, and then secured to the board after the solder joint, to eliminate most of the stress from the crossover while manipulating the wire. If it was a possibly fragile capacitor lead, securing the wire twice, nearly eliminates all movement or stress to that connection.

Danny Richie · « **Reply #19 on:** 18 Jul 2021, 09:39 pm »

Your work is looking really good E-Zee.