Ruark Crusaders Crossovers

[Pepperamip]

Id like to refresh some of caps and resisters on my Ruark Crusader 2 crossovers.

Has anyone had any experience doing this with my exact model or similar. I know the drivers are notoriously difficult to remove (the gaskets seem to be glued in place!) Ive ordered some hook tools to get in behind the bolts but any other advice would be gratefully received.

You cant go in through the terminal panel either as something blocks its path after removing the screws.

They are getting on a bit now so I'm sure they'd benefit from a bit of TLC.

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[Floyddroid]

A tip. When removing the bass driver Take out the two bottom bolts first leaving the top two tight. This will allow the bottom of the driver to flick itself free or be freed with minimum effort. I know because i re-wired a pair many years ago.

[Pepperamip]

Thanks Roger, I'll bear that in mind. Had a quick go at it the other night and the bass driver did not want to budge at all.

I held a hair dryer over the surround to try and heat up the glue underneath but still had no joy in budging them. I really don't want to damage the veneer underneath.

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[Lawrence001]

Been there got the t-shirt. Never found a workable solution that didn't involve damage to the cabinet so if anyone has any suggestions I'd be most pleased to hear.

I wonder how they did it under warranty?

[Pepperamip]

Just thought I'd give an update on this. Found a vid of someone removing glued in woofers on their audio note speakers so tried the same technique.

They screwed in a large wood screw and levered it out with some grips over a strip of wood. This worked a treat on the crusaders.

Had to unscrew the rear terminal and give it a push from the back and then pulled the MDF board out with the crossover on through the woofer hole (a tight squeeze but got there)

Now I need to order some quality replacement caps / wire wound resistors. Any suggestions for top quality replacements would be gratefully received.

Just about to make a list of what I need now.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220220/219eec0c996a2f5c94f3fbc26afab937.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220220/99a6172c425e5741ef18222e4095eb47.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220220/8e1883718457a8fcf885cb53cf00f85a.jpg

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[sailor]

Hi Paul, nice speakers and well done on removing the drive units.

There is much you can do to improve the XOs but first a question. You mention 'top quality' replacement parts. This can get out of hand fast so some idea of what you are prepared to spend would help.

Some of the soldered joints are less than confidence inspiring. It is probably best to find a schematic online or by following each component, draw it out yourself. I would build on a new board using phenolic resin and having a schematic in front of you helps with positioning. Try avoid having to extend the leads to reach. A word of caution is you will probably find the mids appear to be connected the wrong way. What is often found is that the mids are connected electrically out of phase to keep them acoustically in phase.

In addition to better components is to also consider that wiring they used which is not only unnecessarily heavy but undesirable for mids and tweets. Replacing this with single solid core OCC wire is strongly recommended. 24AWG is perfect for tweeters and about 18/20 AWG for mids. 12/16 for bass.

From what I can see it looks like they are set up for tri-wiring. Are you doing this? Do you intend to? If you are happy just running a single pair of speaker cables then leave out the multiple dodgy terminals and the need for jumpers which are usually just brass and nickel with a sneeze of gold and run the XO off a pair of good quality speaker terminals. I would not bother with 3 sets of mediocre cables and enjoy the performance pick-up from using a single pair of cables that can come in at about the same price as 3 sets of cheaper ones.

I see electrolytics and sand cast resistors vying for the position of doing the most damage. Out they must go.

Will you be doing these mods yourself and how comfortable are you with soldering? A good solder joint should not need solder! I clean the bare wires with pure acetone, not the nail polish kind which contains oils, twist them tightly together using pliers and then apply solder which is just to maintain mechanical integrity and exclude oxygen. I recommend good old tin and lead solder for a quality joint. Include the speaker wire in the appropriate twist-up and preferably solder direct to the speaker tags. Avoid press-on fittings and connectors where possible.

https://www.partsconnexion.com/KLEI-86830.html Strongly recommended and on sale.

Mills are a safe bet for resistors and a big improvement over the ones you have. Use the 12 watters. There are better but I do not have sufficient experience with the likes of Duelund and Path to advise.

Caps: https://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Cap.html Everything from cheap to ridiculous but I think a cap like the Mundorf M Cap Supreme should be considered for series use and less costly ones for parallel caps. Clarity Caps are good value. If you want to splurge try a Miflex on your tweeter. I have not heard the Miflex but intend to. A mate whose ears I trust is going ape over them.

Inductors: The ones you have are fine but they need to be rearranged. I had a photo posted showing the correct orientation but can't find it. Have a look on the GR Research site and check how Danny does his. A ribbon foil coil for the tweeter is a nice touch. If you need to unwind a coil say half a turn to reach the next component it's fine and won't be noticed.

Phew, that was longer than I intended. Hope I haven't confused you. Your speakers will respond well to a better XO

[Pepperamip]

Wow thanks for the detailed response Charles.

I don't currently or intend to Tri wire them. In fact my current speaker wire is stripped to go through all three terminals at once (no jumpers required). If I could get those new terminals in without damaging the exiting boards I will seriously consider it but not sure this is possible?

I'm confident with a soldering iron so will be undertaking this refresh myself.

However I don't think I'm fully confident enough to start the x/o from scratch and knowing the screw threads on the x/o boards line up perfectly with the screw holes on the back of the cabs is pushing me to recycle the old boards.

The suggestion of cleaning all contact points prior to twisting and soldering is a good one and I will follow that.

I was hoping to keep the new parts list under £150 (for both speakers) so the suggestions you have made re the caps and resistors seem to fit in with my budget.

The mills wire wounds on hifi collective are £5 a pop does this sound about right (I need 10 of them!)

I'll keep this thread updated as noticed there isn't much info available online about Crusader Crossovers (probably because they aren't the easiest to get to and of course they're age)

Thanks again for your thorough advice.

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[walpurgis]

My tips. If you are inexperienced, don't make any changes you can't undo and keep a photographic record as you go along. If you have a multimeter, check the load at the speaker terminals after any alterations before connecting an amplifier, just in case you have created a short. If you don't have a meter, get one, they start around a fiver.

[Pepperamip]

Thanks Geoff

Yes I have a cheapo meter and although inexperienced in rebuilding crossovers I've refreshed the caps on a couple of previous speakers.

Totally agree with the don't do anything that can't be reversed and I will test before reconnecting drivers.

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[sailor]

Like they say: a 'moving' picture is worth a thousand words.

Here are a couple of videos that you may find helpful.

https://gr-research.com/224373-2/

This link takes you to a bunch of videos, all of them interesting and informative and sometimes shocking, like $8000 speakers with $20 in crossover parts!

Once the page opens scroll down till you find 'Do parts matter' and 'Desktop Mini .. wire like a pro'

Look carefully at the way the coils are positioned on Danny's XOs, many expensive speakers totally ignore this. Done this way the crosstalk is minimised and the improvement is worthwhile.

Lots here to entertain and amuse.

Good luck and keep us updated.

[Pepperamip]

Took a look at them vids and they are eye opening. I know how much a crossover impacts sound quality in a speaker but he explains the whys and how's of each component really well.

I think I'll put the two smaller inducters on their side at 90 degrees to the bigger two if they are easily unglued from the board.

All parts are now ordered from Hifi-collective (Tony at Humblehomeamadehifi didn't have the parts I needed so pointed me in the direction I was already looking in anyway) He did offer some good advice too so well worth a look if you are in the market for some components or crossover rebuilds.

More pics to follow once the bits arrive!

[Pepperamip]

Evening all, parts have arrived (next day - excellent service).

I've stripped one board leaving the inductors in place with the other left for guidance.

Mocked up how I think it should all go on the board and unless I start moving inductors I think this is the layout I will have to stick with. Didn't anticipate the 16uf cap being so big!

I've twisted wires and will start soldering tomorrow night. Left (bottom) two mills resistors just laid on board for my benefit.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220223/418e40e2bbf3b4a17b1194e20edc1e3f.jpg

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[Pepperamip]

Everything now soldered into place.

I was able to reheat the old glue and supplement this with some fresh hot glue to get everything stuck down to the board nicely. It wasn't possible to use cable ties as the back of board is seen on the back of the cabs.

As the board are upright inside the cabs I've put a screw - wrapped in heat shrink - behind the two biggest and heaviest caps (16uf & 72uf) in case the glue gives out at some point in the future.

Now to find some time to get them back inside the speakers!https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220225/046bdf66025cef5ff295d0909d9ad644.jpg

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[Pepperamip]

A couple more pics....https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220225/bdf60540c95d48eae5d42dab9916dbf2.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220225/e1e7afa854b93e82d9dcea168709b0ed.jpg

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[walpurgis]

You might find plastic saddle clips handy for holding the larger caps in place.

[Pepperamip]

Thanks Geoff if ever do another I'll bare them in mind.

Both speakers are now back together and sounding good at low volumes so far. I'll wait for a more suitable time of day to push them a little harder!

I replaced the wires to all three units with suitable ofc substitute giving plenty of slack for the crossover to be taken out in future without the wires to the mid and tweet being cut (as I had to getting them out) I also used some non adhesive gasket tape so the drive units can be taken out much more easily if they ever need to be again.

Getting the board back in was a tight squeeze with the sheer physical size of the 16uf cap. Some fettling required but got there in the end.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220227/f37357203afc6e7043c4c84a716e78fa.jpg

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[andyrlb]

Very nice Paul . Do you remember the values of the caps ?


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[Pepperamip]

Hi Andy,

Here's what I ordered from Hifi Collective.

I also added two 72uf electrolytics to this as I accidentally left them off the original order.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20231230/9a8d5834fbe97e6a3a1e14337fc54f3a.jpg

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[andyrlb]

Thanks mate.
Wishing you a great new year


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[Pepperamip]

Yeah same to you mate. It's not as difficult as it may seem and you'll love the results.

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[andyrlb]

I’ll probably just do the caps and cables tbh , I remember spending hundreds on coils etc for my Tannoys and I couldn’t hear any improvement if I’m honest.


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