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Maggies and active crossovers

Posted by slownlo (A) on November 19, 2006 at 15:45:52

Cayin CDT-17A
Korsun V8i
McCormack DNA-2
Magnepan 1.6QR's
Monster Power Conditioning
Signal Cable Silver Reference speaker cables & interconnects
Zaolla Interconnects
Signal Cable Magic Power
Rane SAC-22 Active Stereo Crossover

I just got tired of the whole capacitor BS...trying to find the right caps for the right sound...ones that weren't too harsh or too soft, that took forever to break in...that didn't cost a kings ransom only for me to find I didn't like the way they sounded after all...

So I got active:

I got a Rane SAC-22 active stereo crossover and disabled the passive XO in my 1.6QR's using 18ga silver wire from the upgraded vampire BHEX binding posts to the driver connections, and Silver solder. The Korsun V8i has unbalanced pre/main output/inputs...so I got some "Zaolla" balanced/unbalanced cables (ZRXF-3 & ZRXM-3) and ran the pre/out from the V8i into the input of the SAC-22, Low-out from the Rane to the V8i main in, and the Hi-Out from the Rane into my McCormack DNA-2 (The DNA-2 has balanced inputs so I could use fully balanced cables from the SAC-22 Hi-out to the DNA-2). Per the SAC-22 product page

"The SAC 22 employs state-variable 4th-order Linkwitz-Riley filter alignments to minimize phase difficulties in the critical crossover region. Simply put, a Linkwitz-Riley crossover exhibits identical phase characteristics on its Low pass and High pass Outputs. This characteristic guarantees in-phase outputs at all frequencies. In-phase outputs are mandatory for proper acoustic summing of common signals from adjacent drivers in the crossover region. An added benefit of this topology is steep 24 dB per octave rolloff slopes. A slope of this magnitude guarantees drivers designed to produce a specific range of frequencies, and no more, will not be driven past their limits, thereby minimizing distortion and driver fatigue"

...So when I did the surgery on the 1.6QR wiring I connected the tweeter and bass panel in phase (They are out of phase with the stock passive XO)...I double checked all connections, then set the crossover point on the SAC-22 to 600hz...and adjusted all the output levels as optimum...

All I can say is "Holy Sh*t"....

These Maggies opened up like a $800hr call girl (don't ask).

I always use George Michael's "Older" album as a test record because its probably one of the most well recorded pop albums I've ever heard. Needless to say, I know this record very well. I know where every instrument is and with the active XO, the staging was like I've never heard it before...there were so many other nuances that I've noticed before that I now could hear extremely well: the slight (smack) sound of his lips parting before each verse, stereo panning, and minute effects that were veiled by the passive crossover and all the parts in it. The midrange is even more magical now, and the bass is amazing. I started playing with placement,...and now I don't even need to turn my sub on (The SAC-22 has a sub-out I'll play with later on)!

The Cayin is a Tube output player (6922) that I modded myself with Mundorf Silver/Oil caps on the unbalanced tube output and I replaced all 6 OPA604 OPamps to AD825's),...anyway, I remembered I had some brand new Russian Cryo-MP SLNM 6922 tubes in my other player (Canary CD-100)...When I put those in the Cayin things got even better...the midrange was more holgraphic, and the bass tightened up just a tad more, but the high end was what really improved. Crystal clear yet velvety highs...I feel like I can listen to my stereo forever...I am getting so much more power and detail from my amps because of the frequency limiting that its amazing. If I had known that an active crossover made this big of a positive difference, I could have saved myself thousands spent on modding crossovers, buying exotic caps and inductors, etc...

Its been said before and I'll say it again:

The best crossover is NO crosseover at all...

Amen!

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Atma-Sphere Music Systems, Inc.

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