[Emil]

Does anyone do plug and play upgrades for the 3.6 xover? Not looking to change the original design but to use upgraded parts.

[andyr]

Does anyone do plug and play upgrades for the 3.6 xover? Not looking to change the original design but to use upgraded parts.

Many people have reworked their external XOs; some their internal XOs as well.  Visit the archives and the "Tweaks" section of the Planar Asylum.

If by "plug & play" you mean does anyone produce a finished product for you ... I have seen mention on the Asylum of a couple of companies who do this ... but I can't recall their names - except Parts Connexion may do this?


Good luck,

Andy

[Emil]

Exactly. A finished product that just needs to be plugged in.

Skiing Ninja did this for the 1.6s at one time

[rollo]

Well one can try.  If you change parts the dynamics, bass and presence will stil the same just different. Enter GTAudio Works. Rock away, no Maggie has the presence, bass, dynamics and slam like this speaker.  If you decide to play around with the crossover you may consider North Creek inductors, Duelund CAST resistors, Duelund caps [ Alexandra bypassed with CAST ] .
    The new parts may make it different but maybe not better. It is a gamble. The real question is why ? What are you looking to gain ? What is missing for you ?
   



charles
 

[pelliott321]

I think you would be wasting your time it you just upgraded the external components
There is plenty of info on AA as suggested above. just have to do some digging.
When I rebuilt my Maggy IIIa's I did the whole thing. New frames and new xover. I was very satisfied with the results.
The urge to upgrade to new Maggy has never raised its ugly head. 

[SteveFord]

Not quite what you had in mind but it's really astonishing:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=87636.0

[pelliott321]

Thanks Steve

I had to redo the bass panels this winter....all is back and running again.
I still need to move the high pass on the bass panels up a bit more to maybe 55hz or even 60hz.
I have this huge bass bump at 50 hz from where the maggys sit in the room.  My subs are running from 40hz on down to flat to almost 10hz based on trueRTA and my Behringer mic. The room is 12 ft wide and about 18ft long with truncated corners behind the maggy's.  I run the subs just barely on except when I want to rock it.  They can really rattle the walls and move dishes around up stairs in the kitchen, definitely big fun.

[SteveFord]

Keep us posted with the battle of the bass hump, please.
I'm sure you'll get it with a little screwing around.

[Hasse]

Parts Connexion´s version



Connectors: Cardas CCGR-S and Cardas MAGGIE Pins

Wire: 14 awg NEOTECH OCC Copper for the bass; and DH LABS 18 awg pure silver (doubled up run) for the tweeters.

Inductors: 14 awg Alpha-Core copper foil

Caps: SOLEN 400V PB series for the bass; Mundorf M-Cap and Silver & Oil for tweeter.

[rooze]

DIY version- really quite simple, no circuit changes just better quality parts -

[Emil]

DIY version- really quite simple, no circuit changes just better quality parts -


Really? What was the cost in parts alone if I may ask.

[Emil]

DIY version- really quite simple, no circuit changes just better quality parts -

Were those pre-assembled by Parts Connection?

[rooze]

Were those pre-assembled by Parts Connection?

No, I soldered them myself just following the original circuit diagram. Both sides took less than a day to build, with another half day opening up and rewiring the speakers.
Back in the day, when little things meant a lot, I thought the upgrade was well worth it. But when I look at the performance of my present speaker, the Carver Amazing, I think the money I pumped into the 3.6's was probably a waste. I had almost $6K into the 3.6's and my Carver's are more satisfying at well under $1K. (though the ribbons do need to be rebuilt at some point, which will double my investment - still worth it IMHO).

I wrote-up the project and here's an extract from it with the pertinent info, for what it's worth:

Choose a XO board of suitable proportions. I used two 24" X 12" X 2" solid Mahogany boards, but would have appreciated another 2 or 3" on both length and width to allow better spacing of the components. This sounds like a large board, but your new XO components and going to be much larger than stock, so you will need it.

Plan on removing the back-plate from the circuit completely. Rewire the speakers internally and take leads from the 3 drivers through the back-plate cavity and terminate the leads with good quality spades. I used Nordost flatline cable throughout and AlphaCore solid silver spades. I left 18" on the leads from the point of leaving the back-plate. I didn’t use spades inside the speaker, I drilled small holes in the ends of the Nordost wire and used the actual speaker wire as the crimp.

The leads will now terminate on one side of your new XO and I used good quality Cardas binding posts available from www.dedicatedaudio.com You will need a total of 10 sets of binding posts, around $400 if you use the Cardas design.

I built the new XO using the same value components as stock but selected better quality items. I used Solen fast-caps for larger values, Kimber for the mid values and Jensen oil/paper caps for the smaller values on the tweeters. I used Solen iron-core inductors for the bass, and AlphaCore air-core inductors on the mids/highs. (www.madisound.com)

I used Cardas silver solder and flux, and believe me, it makes life much easier than the Ratshack stuff that doesn’t stick to anything other than the carpet. (www.dedicatedaudio.com)

I used DH Labs wiring through the XO www.madisound.com

Building the XO’s is relatively easy, though some of the soldering maneuvers are a little tricky, particularly where 8 caps need to be wired in parallel.

I experimented with isolation under the actual components with great results, so it’s a good idea to leave a little slack on the point-to-point wiring to facilitate this. I tried Vibrapods under components and also foam. I found the best results were attained with packaging air-bags, but they are a real pain to work with.

I used brass cones on the underside of the XO bases and spiked them into the carpet (www.supercellaudio.com)

The end result is worth the effort. After around 2-300hrs of break-in, the sound is better in every possible respect. The deficiencies associated with the stock 3.6R speaker are almost fully addressed. Dynamic impact in the lower registers is greatly improved. Bass is more extended, tighter and more tuneful. The highs are effortless and extended, without sounding as shrill.

Transparency is greatly improved, as is stage presentation, particularly depth. There is a much-improved sense of layering in the soundstage with air around instruments/performers that just wasn’t there to the same extent previously.

The total cost for the XO upgrade and speaker re-wire was in excess of $2500, so it falls outside the scope of being a ‘tweak’. But it performs beyond its price, at least when taking a typical audiophile perspective on things.

[Emil]

Back in the day, when little things meant a lot, I thought the upgrade was well worth it. But when I look at the performance of my present speaker, the Carver Amazing, I think the money I pumped into the 3.6's was probably a waste. I had almost $6K into the 3.6's and my Carver's are more satisfying at well under $1K. (though the ribbons do need to be rebuilt at some point, which will double my investment - still worth it IMHO).

Wow. Something to think about.

Thanks the extensive write up especially at 2.5K cost for parts.

Maybe I'll just leave things as they are

[pelliott321]

My costs were quite a bit less that what others paid.  My frame costs was about $200 for raw materials. The xover box cost about $50 to build.
For the electronic parts for the xover I just sent Madisound, Andy's schematic and told them I wanted above average parts with air core inductors for mid and tweeter.  That cost under $500 and I got clarity caps at critical points and solens elsewhere.  I only had to tweak the ribbon xover a bit by changing a couple of resistors and adding a bit more capacitance to get the curve I wanted by paralleling a small value wondercap.  I am quite happy with the results.
I am about to redo the ribbon myself, a challenge I am looking forward to.  I feel its worth the $50 gamble over the $250 cost for replacements.  I have a spare set of ribbons if I screw it up

[pelliott321]

I just got back from calibration my measuring mic and ran a quick sweep this morning and things are looking pretty good
This is 10hz to 20k hz  most of the 50hz  hump is gone but a couple suck outs at 80-90hz and 140-150hz

[SteveFord]

What are you going to do to tackle that?

[andyr]

I just got back from calibration my measuring mic and ran a quick sweep this morning and things are looking pretty good
This is 10hz to 20k hz  most of the 50hz  hump is gone but a couple suck outs at 80-90hz and 140-150hz

A suckout at 80-90Hz could be due to the distance of your bass panels from the front wall.  Are they just over 3' out?  (1/4 wavelength cancellation.)


Regards,

Andy

[pelliott321]

Yes about 3 feet.
Am I right if I just move them the suck out point wikl just nove to another freq

[andyr]

Yes about 3 feet.
Am I right if I just move them the suck out point wikl just nove to another freq

Yes, correct ... unfortunately, simply physics! 

So - if you don't like the sound where it is - what you try to do is move them out so that the "placement dip" occurs at 50-60 Hz, where you will see, if you put 30-100Hz tones through them, the bass panel has a resonant peak before dropping off sharply.  So around 5' out.


Good luck,

Andy