AR9LS to 9LSi crossover question

[Dave S.]

Hi, I am refurbishing a pair of 9LS speakers and would like to upgrade the crossovers to 9LSi. I am a novice as far as electronics go and have this question: Can the resistors required for the upgrade go inline just before the drivers or do they have to go as positioned in the schematic? It may seem a silly question but I am trying to do things as simply as possible. Thanks for any advice.

[Kuja]

I did the same upgrade to my 98LS speakers.

I did it the right way.

But I replaced all the old capacitors too, so I had to pull out the crossovers anyway.

While you are in there, I think that you should also replace the caps.

After I did this, the difference in sound was huge - I got a pair of completely different speakers.

Much better sounding.

Here's the link:

http://www.kujucev.com/ar98ls/ar98.htm

[Dave S.]

Nice job on the rebuild. I'm not that ambitious. I did a refoam on the woofers and lower midrange, new grill cloth, and refinished the cabinets. They were much rougher than yours appeared to be, but turned out very nicely. The reason I want to try the crossover mod inline at the driver terminals as opposed to at the crossover is I would like to compare and easily reverse it if I don't care for it. The speakers do sound nice, but I find the midrange slightly forward and a little dry on certain types of music. I love the bass response and the size of the image. IMO there is nothing like a big speaker. I have Allison Ones and Klipsch Forte II's (all bargain buys) and I consider the Allisons my reference. I feel these speakers are much better than they are generally regarded. I have however, never heard an AR-9, which seems to be the reference they are compared to.

[Dave S.]

I did the crossover upgrade to 9LSi. The midrange is smoother now with less bite. A very nice sounding speaker!