Recap N2600 Crossover or Leave Alone

[Aufwuchs]

I recently picked up an 030 system in C36 cabinets. I am planning to keep these speakers long-term and was wondering if these crossovers benefit from recapping. I have done this on AR-5' and EV horns and have gotten great results, but I can't find any threads on the internet about doing this to N2600's. Would these benefit, or is the consensus to leave them alone? I have considered buying a second pair of N2600 or N2400 to experiment with and leave the originals stock.

Advice?

[Zilch]

Build from scratch. It's all of four parts plus terminals once you eliminate the switches:

http://www.jblproservice.com/pdf/Network%20Schematics/N2600.pdf

$20 apiece, maybe? :dont-know

[Aufwuchs]

That would be easy enough. I could leave it external and attach to the 4 HF/LF terminals on the back of the existing crossovers?

[Zilch]

You must disconnect the existing crossovers entirely. I would remove them and put them safely away for potential reinstallation upon later resale, as desired.

It's easy enough to make new input terminal plates to substitute for the originals with better terminals, mounting the new crossovers inside the cabinets, or, as you suggest, external terminals connected directly to the drivers themselves, though I consider that somewhat of a hazardous practice as I've occasionally gotten the connections wrong.... :p

[JBLOG]

Hi Aufwuchs,

I've done just that. Remove the original 2600 and put them on a shelf for prosperity and build a N2400 (no tapped inductors) with updated parts. I built mine on a piece of MDF and attached via the existing crossover cutout on the back of the cabinet. The new updated N2400 x-over sounds sooo much better than the old stock 2600. Much more detail and clarity. Do a search on this forum, Baron030 has documented a n2400 recap.

Enjoy,
:)

[Aufwuchs]

Thanks to both of you for the ideas and the pictures. Just replacing the entire assembly looks like a much more elegant idea than what I had in mind. It does look like I can get all of the parts I need from madisound for about 40 bucks total (good guess Zilch). Looks like a nice low tech project....just my speed.

[Aufwuchs]

One quick question.....it appears that both you and Baron030 used two 3uf caps in paralles rather than one 6uf. Is there a reason for this?

[Zilch]

Here's the N2400 schematic, then, if you want to build those, instead, as suggested by JBLOG:

http://www.jblproservice.com/pdf/Network%20Schematics/N2400.pdf

[JBLOG]

I seem to recall that Baron was bypassing his caps.

I stumbled onto a sweet sale on caps; most of the caps were sold out so I had to parallel those that were left....:applaud:

[Aufwuchs]

Ah, very reasonable.

Thanks for the schematic link.

This should be fun. I have been amazed in the past at the benefit of new caps.

[toddalin]

While you are in there, you may want to install HIGH QUALITY by-pass caps (e.g., Theta AudioCaps) piggyback to the shown caps. These really seem to add definition and sizzle. Because the values are so small, these are an affordable improvement (about $4-5 each and you would need two per speaker, but could even get away with one per speaker (on the tweeter side).

Even my L112s are equipped with by-pass caps (though not Theta!) right from JBL.

[toddalin]

One quick question.....it appears that both you and Baron030 used two 3uf caps in paralles rather than one 6uf. Is there a reason for this?

This usually comes down to availability..., and economics. But there are some who say that smaller caps can react faster and think that there could be a sonic advantage using several smaller caps to make up larger values.

[Baron030]

One quick question.....it appears that both you and Baron030 used two 3uf caps in parallels rather than one 6uf. Is there a reason for this?


The only reason why I used two 3.0uf caps instead of just a single 6.0 uF cap is that Parts Express does not carry Solen capacitors in a 6.0 uF size. So, to create the required 6.0 uF value, I used two 3.0 uF caps wired in parallel. Alternatively, I could have used two 12 uF caps in wired in series to get the same 6.0 uF value.
And actually there would be one of the side benefit of using two 12 uF caps is wired in series and that would be the possibility of adapting the N2400 circuit in include charge coupling on the caps.
Otherwise, there is no real benefit in using more then just one cap to get the required 6.0 uF value, except for maybe the small 0.01uF bypass cap.

Oh, and the only reason why I used an I-Bar iron core coil in my own N2400 rebuild was so that it would fit inside the N2400 case. Actually, a heavy gauge air core coil would perform better. But, in any case, upgrading from the original small 20 gauge iron core coil made the biggest overall improvement in how the crossover sounded, particularly at higher volume levels.

Baron030 :)

[Aufwuchs]

Thanks again for the advice. I ordered my parts and am dusting off the soldering iron.