View Full Version : Can you help me find out what the bits in this crossover are?
Hi excuse my curiosity, I want to find out the bits in this crossover? they are from my B&W silver signature SS30 speakers.
Any help would be appreicated. thanks
http://i1188.photobucket.com/albums/z408/sidmini/image1_zps1a73ef63.jpeg
Beobloke
26-03-2013, 12:54
The bits labelled 'L_' etc. are inductors, the bits labelled 'R_' are resistors and the bits labelled 'C_' are capacitors.
That's about it, really!
The resistors and capacitors will have their values on them but if you want to know the values for the inductors you'll need to contact B&W for the schematic or remove each one from the board and measure it.
Thanks BeoBloke much appreciated! but whats the white rectangle thing (like a tube of polos!)
Also another question would be could I clean any of these bits with deoxit d5 spray or would this cause problems?
It's a resistor - the only one in the circuit.
Soetimes the inductor values are printed on the end of them.
Component qualty is pretty good - only one air-core inductor is used and by the look of it that is for the tweeter. Polyproplene capacitors are used (not electrolytic) which is good.
_____________
You don't have to clean them with anything, it won't make the slightest difference.
Thanks YNWaN! is there anything here that can be improved with DIY with some new fresh parts? Do you think it will make a difference? apparently the wiring is silver and some of the caps look to be labelled silver..
Rare Bird
26-03-2013, 13:30
Those black caps are Ansars very good caps. I personally wouldnt bother touching them.
istari_knight
26-03-2013, 13:33
What he said ↑
They look to be well designed & well specced... Leave them alone.
I also think the caps are made by Ansar; they are branded specifically for B&W, hence they are labelled silver, as per the speaker, they aren't silver themselves.
In terms of improving it, it depends what you believe and what you can afford. In the greater scheme of things, the capacitors and coils are average. But you could easily spend over £100 on a single capacitor. The wire probably is silver, but the coils are copper. You can buy solid silver air cores inductors - get your gold card out!
HMMM..I think you guys have convinced me to keep the X-overs standard and OEM..unless of course I get massive gains!
I'm doing quite an extensive crossover upgrade on my Yamaha NS-1000M speakers now. I really don't think you will get very large gains by improving anything. It's well laid out, all nicely hard wired and component quality is good, if not excellent.
One thing, I thought before that the tweeter inductor was air-cored - but looking at it again I'm not sure it is.
What is very interesting is to see how the circuit board is compliantly mounted - presumably in an attempt to isolate it from vibration.
walpurgis
27-03-2013, 11:03
Speaker manufacturers do a lot of testing and listening to their products and generally get the balance right.
Much so called 'upgrading' can have a detrimental effect. Even changing a capacitor for another of similar value, but of what some may regard as higher quality or 'audiophile' quality, can audibly affect the sound and not necessarily to the better.
As has been said, probably best to leave them alone.
Speaker manufacturers do a lot of testing and listening to their products and generally get the balance right.
Much so called 'upgrading' can have a detrimental effect. Even changing a capacitor for another of similar value, but of what some may regard as higher quality or 'audiophile' quality, can audibly affect the sound and not necessarily to the better.
As has been said, probably best to leave them alone.
Not being into DIY, I've often wondered this myself - I know that the Ark was built by amateurs and the Titanic by professionals. so it doesn't always hold true that a manufacturer will get it right, (and of course will use budget components in budget kit) but I very rarely see anyone saying they've done a modification and it has made no difference, or worse... But then I rarely see anyone upgrade and not find it an improvement or a sidegrade (immediately after the event, at any rate...) Human nature, I guess.
Whilst the xover and component values may be honed in software and then tested by ear, the component cost will definitely drive the final product.
Why does the OP have film caps everywhere? Because they are better then elco's
Why do my xovers have elco's? Because fundamentally they will xover at the desired freq but at a fraction of the cost of using film caps
Can you improve these types of xovers by replacing the elco caps? Yes but you will introduce tolerance changes which may slightly effect the xover freq. The audio WILL be less restricted and In my experience the positive effect is not subtle.
I've yet to have an adverse reaction to swapping same value elco's with decent film caps in xovers.
Looking at the OP pics, I'd leave those alone as the changes I'd make are already part of the original design which is nice.
For the record, I hate elco's anywhere in the signal path! ;)
StanleyB
27-03-2013, 11:27
As a proud owner of a pair of NS1000M, I can say with absolute certainty that the NS1000M can do with a crossover upgrade.
The coils are fine. But the caps were made with old technology that did not have the same level of finesse as the more modern high quality types of equivalent value and properties. Taking into account that most caps are graded on a -20/+50% margin of error in their specs, you can do a better job by hand picking and measuring the caps so that you can match the Left and Right crossover performance as close as possible.
Of course, this might require that you buy 10 or so of the same value and then use an LCR meter to pick the closest matching ones out.
Makes sense - thanks Ian and Stan. Every day is a school day! ;)
APOLOGIES
I have been doing a bit of reading with regard to these speakers. Contrary to my earlier assertion, it would appear that all the crossover components are constructed from silver - the coils are wound with silver wire and the capacitors are also silver (though it's not clear if they use silver foil or if it is just the lead-out wires that are silver).
Mr Kipling
29-03-2013, 11:54
Are yours the 25th Anniversary Edition? They use silver (as it's the best conductor) from voice coils to connectors on the free-standing crossovers, which do look a little different to yours.
Hi mr Kipling ! My speakers are the silver signature 30 which are floor standing model of the 25 the crossovers are suspended at the bottom of the speaker with rubber mounts to reduce vibration.
Here are some pics http://i1188.photobucket.com/albums/z408/sidmini/ss30.jpg
http://i1188.photobucket.com/albums/z408/sidmini/photo3-4_zps7ddc2e12.jpg
Presumably you don't use them positioned as they are in that picture though?
YNWaN unfortunately this is the setup for now until I move house (1 months time), I know its not the perfect position with the cupboards in the way and the bed in front of it!
I have found some documents from when I purchased the speakers, can anyone share any light on the x-over components? cheers!
http://i1188.photobucket.com/albums/z408/sidmini/photo1-3_zpsb981c592.jpg
http://i1188.photobucket.com/albums/z408/sidmini/photo2-3_zps23fba6f5.jpg
http://i1188.photobucket.com/albums/z408/sidmini/photo4-3_zpsaa6b7ebf.jpg
http://i1188.photobucket.com/albums/z408/sidmini/photo3-4_zps1171e9ae.jpg
Shed some light in what sense - it's as was described before.
L1 (2.4 mH), L2 (10 mH if I'm reading it right) and L3 (can't read the value of this from your picture) are inductors.
C1 (4 uF), C2 (10 uF) and C3 (6 uF) are capacitors.
R1 is a resistor (4.7 Ohm 30W).
Edit: The L3 inductor looks to be a value of 0.1 mH, the 0.25 figure is the diameter of the wire used and then it says silver (which means it is silver wire) and PTFE (which is the insulation used). Therefore, it seems unlikely that the other two inductors are silver and are probably copper.
The PP after C1 probably stands for polypropylene, but I would be surprised if this C2 and C3 were not also polypropylene.
I appear to have answered my own question!
However which cap would you add the bypass cap onto?
C3 is in series, C2 is in parallel.
If you were to add a bypass cap it would usually be across C3.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.3 Copyright © 2026 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.