Packing 'em in like sardines

Just a quickie.....;

Is it OK to have components touching each other in a speaker crossover? I have finally gotten around to buying new caps for the xovers for my Tannoys and I reckon I can squeeze the xover board back in the original 'coffin' if I fit the new caps snugly next to each other. They might also touch the exisiting coils and/or resistors, but I could probably avoid this..

The new caps are much bigger than the originals, and I have seen on the web that people usually either remount the whole lot on a new board or not attempt to fit it all back in the original box.

 

Well having ruminated and cogitated about this for about 18 months I'm too impatient to wait for a definitive answer, and whacked the new capacitors in this evening .

I'm not going to win any diy awards for the neatest soldering o), but a quick test on both crossovers seems to indicate some sort of success (i.e. the speaker worked with them in), albeit with the back off the cab so couldn't make any subjective judgements about improvement in sound. In the end I still couldn't quite fit them back in the original boxes mad: arse!!) so I'll just bolt the boards to the lids and that should be fine....it's not as if you can see them when they're in the cabs anyhoo.

When I put everything back together tomorrow I'll see if they sound any better with new caps instead of 40 year old caps!

 

Just don't cram inductors near each other. Everything else is fine.

 

if you can prevent things vibrating against each other .....ie hot melt glue to hold the components down ......messy but effective silicone sealant

 

Well all seems to be well, the caps are sitting faily snugly against each other and don't seem to be vibrating or rattling against each other as far as I can tell.

First impressions are good, and I'm feeling pretty chuffed that I finally overcame my concerns about my ability to complete this successfully - I was worried that I might bugger up a nice pair of vintage speakers, but it was easier to do than I expected.

Right, my soldering iron is still warm, what's next?

 

well...I've some nice titainium tubing - fancy making an mtb frame for me..?

 

Hell yes, now that's what I call a challenge! Of course, I'm not sure I'd personally be prepared to ride it down a steep hill held together with solder, but if you're that much of a thrill junkie....