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MMG Crossover Upgrade (yeah, another one)

Hello inmates from a new arrival; may I request some advice?

I bought a pair of MMGs a number of years ago and generally like them. The one quality of their sound that bothers me is their rather forward, if not downright "honky" upper midrange. I've ordered parts to upgrade the crossover with hopes that this will help - some of you have suggested that it will.

Currently, they are on a pair of steel stands which I constructed for them. I also gutted the cheezy connectors, fuses and such in favor of straightforward and soldered wiring. The work I've done thus far has resulted in relatively subtle improvements in sound. For the money of the crossover upgrade, I'm hoping for more!

After much reading, I decided to install the original (mine have the newer, simplified version) MMG crossover configuration in these speakers - just using quality components. There is a great deal of variation in the crossovers other inmates have installed in their MMGs. I'm simply following the official (1996) Magnepan drawing - 2.2mH Alpha-Coil inductor (14AWG) with a 24uF (drawing indicates 25uF) Sonicap shunt for the low end and a pair of paralleled 12uF Auricaps for the high end.

Can I *really* expect a solid return on my $250 investment? I desperately want to tame the midrange of these otherwise sweet little speakers. Have I missed something regarding the values of the components? I've read a number of posts specifying 48uF (~50uF) of shunt capacitance on the low end crossover as well as much lower inductor values. I'd also like to know how far from the steel plate (swivel base) under the floor of the crossover box the inductor must be placed. Finally, I'm a bit nonplussed about the phase issue - with such a crossover configuration, there is no way to have the low and high end drivers in phase (reversing polarity to correct a 90 degree phase error only creates an opposite 90 degree phase error) - or have I missed something else?

Any information which a more knowledgable tweaker can provide will be greatly appreciated.


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Topic - MMG Crossover Upgrade (yeah, another one) - wazoo 18:04:14 12/07/06 (40)


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