[beat]

hello all,
It seems like it would be pretty easy but how can you judge if the outcome is worth the effort?

[randytsuch]

hello all,
It seems like it would be pretty easy but how can you judge if the outcome is worth the effort?

By listening?  

Seriously, I have kind of considered this too.  Putting a xover together would not be too hard, designing a GOOD xover is the hard part.

Depending on your speaker, and the quality of parts used, you can just take the existing xover, and swap in better parts. Should make a difference.

I have also considered just taking the xover out of the speaker, to get it away from the driver magnetics, I think this would help too.

Is it worth it?  Seems like it comes down to a personal decision.

Randy

[beat]

I hear ya,
If i cared to fork out 90 bucks for a crossover building program it would be a no brainer. Since I don't, I'm looking at using the prefabed ones from partsexpress. I've used the bottom of the line ones there and they work fine for surround speakers but I want this pair to kick @$$.

[JohnR]

Hi beat, I think it's hugely more difficult to design a (good) crossover than it is to build someone else's design. The former means a long road of education and experience. (I assume, I am only at the start of it myself...) It's a lot of fun to learn new stuff, but if you're more looking to build jiust one or two pairs of kick-ass speakers and then be done with it I'd be inclined to look at designs or kits from the more highly-regarded designers who publish/sell that kind of stuff -- Matt Dillon, Dennis Murphy, Rick Craig, Danny Richie come to mind.

HTH

[beat]

John,
where would I find kits or publishings from these guys?

[JohnR]

Hm, OK, lessee...

http://www.gr-research.com/  (Kits only, forum on this site)
http://www.selahaudio.com/   (Ditto)
http://www.ellisaudio.com/     (Ditto)

http://www.murphyblaster.com/  (Designs)
http://www.dillonacoustics.com/index.htm  (Designs)

Others who sell kits include madisound, zalytron, and partsexpress. Oh and let's not forget CSS in canada: http://www.creativesound.ca/

Ah, and Adireaudio as well. I'm sure there's others I've forgotten.

If you could give an indication of what kind of speakers you want and how much $$ I could try to suggest a couple to look at to start with. In general I'd say don't get too ambitious, build something easy first.

There's a lot of speaker-building discussion on the Madisound board: http://www.madisound.com/cgi-bin/discuss.cgi