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The Story of a 0.01 Ohm Resistor

Try this: connect a 0.01 ohm resistor to the tweeters of your speakers and try to determine which setting is better. I bet they sound differently but they are no better than the other.

OK. Try it if you have time or read the below story.


I’ll try to cut it short.

Many years ago whilst in the course of seeking musical fidelity, I met a guy who built amps and speakers for living. He looked like ET as he has got a big head and skinny body. Here and after I called him X. X was a graduate from an electronic institution who has more than ten years of experience in the field of HiFi. He was willing to share his knowledge with me. At that time, I had some knowledge on audio DIY and refrained from buying commercial audio gears, because I could built something good with much less cost. I also built speakers and that‘s what X interested me.

He told me how to accurately adjust the tweeter/mid-range & tweeter level of a pair of speakers so that they would sound really good. The bass unit was connected directly whilst the tweeter level attenuated using resistor ladder network. That sound usual to me, what surprised me was that he was tuning the tweeter level using some 0.01 ohm resistors(and some others bigger in value) in a passive two way speaker system.

He explained that there was a perfect matching point when the tweeters were attenuated to reach the exact same level as the woofer, and that sweet spot could be missed so easily. He tuned the resistance of the network up and down (with solder) and listened to the changes. I wasn’t sure whether he was exaggerating or trying to fool me, but everything he told me was useful, true and confirmed in textbook. I however had no opportunity to witness the successful tuning and audition the sonic results.

I was not sure about X’s 0.01 ohm setting methodology. And I told myself should that be true then all commercial speakers would be inaccurate in attenuation setting and thus far from good sounding, because they all used 5-10% tolerance resistors. No, I told myself that can’t be the case.

However, X’s methodology kept popping up as I was not satisfied with the speakers I built. About 2 years later, I decided to give it a try when setting a pair of 2-way speakers.

At first, I had no success at all despite my attempts for two months. At some points sub-sonic emerged and I remembered X had told me that it was near but not close to the spot. I went on varying the value of the resistor network using a chain of 0.0.1 and 0.03 ohm resistors(of course there were others with bigger values), moving up and down and at the same time maintaining an overall resistance of 8 ohm. It was annoying because each and every time I had to solder both legs of the ladder, and for both speakers.

My ears were fatigue after listening for 2 or more hours almost everyday for more than two month, because I need to compare the sonic difference each and every time I changed the values. Nevertheless, faith had driven me to keep on trying despite so many unsuccessful attempts.

I attempted further for almost three months, and eventually I hit the spot. It was so distinguishably good at that exact spot that moving 0.01 ohm upward or downward would totally ruin the balance. It’s just that sweet spot and nowhere else. And I had to agree with X.

I demonstrated to some audio friends the difference between the exact tuning spot and off 0.01 ohm or further, all of them could tell where the right point was. The differences were so significant that friends who had no interest in HiFi could judge.

During the rest of DIY life, I attested X’s speaking setting methodology on five more occasions when building speakers for myself and friends. Once I spent more than one years tuning a pair of 12" 3-way Dynaudio speakers. That was really difficult because the mid and tweeter had to be matched first and then bundled to move up and down the resistor network. Matching the mid and high alone was not easy when they were nowhere match to others in level and there were a lot of resistor soldering works(4 sets)to do. The last attempt was done about three years ago with a pair of Morel 6” 2-way speakers. The owner auditioned the changes in SQ (and unsuccessful attempts) during the two month tuning period, and he finally got a pair of sweet sounding speakers.

One interesting thing about this setting method is that you can’t possibly use other standard value resistors in place of the original chain of resistor and in order to maintain accuracy the connecting wires of the tweeter will also have to moved intact into the cabinet.


I’m not expecting anyone to believe in what I said. I myself didn't believe it either when first heard about it. It is just my experience.


Edits: 11/17/11 11/17/11
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