Hi all,
This is my first crossover upgrade. I own kef reference model three two loudspeakers, which i like for the most part. The first problem i had with them, is the mid/highs being to aggressive and "bright" with female singers siblings. I liked the soundstage, and the airy sound of the speakers. The mids seemed OK, but in retrospect nothing to write home about.
I did watch several video's of GR research, and the owner of that channel does a lot of meaningfull upgrades. He seems to like sonicaps, and mills resistors, so i decided to use just that.
As sending 2 times of 70 pounds worth of loudspeaker to Texas across the world was not the most easy thing to do, i decided to attack the crossover myself. The first series capacitor of the tweeter was a 4,4uf yellow bennic polycap, and this i replaced with a sonicap of the same value. Also the first series capacitor of the mids was a blue bipolar cap of 8uf, which also was replaced with a sonicap. I worried a bit about the esr, but the difference between them wasn't alarming, 0.04ohms for the sonicap, and 0.07ohm for the bennic bipolar, so i just swapped them. Also all mills resistors in the mids and highs. These loudspeakers do gave a internal setting for switching in 0.5db steps in the mids, and highs, but i left everything alone for the first tryout.
The results receded my expectations. Initially the highs, and mids seemed a bit aggressive, but with less of a "sharp edge" and after about 60 hours of playing they seem to smooth out more and more. My soundstage is greatly improved in depth layers. But the transparency of the mids is impressive. Wow, never expected this.
The other thing that happened, is that vocals are much less warm sounding, but more accurate and less chesty. I would like the upgrade the rest of the crossover from the midbass, and bass drivers, but I'm not sure which brand of parts to use. The crossover is quite full of high value electrolytic capacitors, which can't be replaced by sonicaps. Not sure what to choose next, because i would like to improve the layers in my midbass as well. The highs and mids are so dramatically improved, it seems silly not to give the rest of the e crossover the same treatment. But where to go from here, and what would my best option be?
Bypass the electrolytic's in the low part of the crossover with sonicaps? To get some layers, and speed in the bass?
Suggestions are appreciated...