Diva Xover upgraded

[Zardoz]

Well, I went ahead and bit the bullet, and rebuilt the Xovers to my Diva’s. The only thing I can say is WOW!!!! I literally have an entirely new album collection. This is not a subtle upgrade. There is so much more to hear in the mix than I ever thought possible. For the last 10 years or so I have had what I thought was a pretty high level audiophile system, but this takes it to a level that I didn’t even know existed. I have heard Wilson MAXX speakers with Levinson electronic at a dealer that didn’t even come close to this.

Not only is there just more of everything there, but also subtle inflection of voices, and instruments, are now clearly apparent, when they weren’t even hinted at before. There are more layers, depth, and width. As clear as they were previously, it’s like the voices and instruments were all smeared together so that you sometimes couldn’t tell if you were listening to more than one instrument. Now you can follow each instrument or voice without strain or confusion. This in absolutely no way means that they have become hyper detailed and lost the music. On the contrary, there is just more to the music. The balance didn’t change between the instruments and voice, but you can hear them all appropriately without adding volume or critical diagnosis.

The sound is smoother (less harshness) and more refined, and I never before thought that they had sounded harsh. Albums that I did not previously care for, because of poor recording or (what I previously thought) poor music, now are wonderful to hear. You can still tell it’s not the best recording, but it’s so much better that it becomes enjoyable to listen to, like most live events. Ever been to a live event of good music and didn’t enjoy the music? Even when it was a genre that was not really you? That’s what it’s like now with my Diva’s.

I want to especially thank Jon for all of his help, answering my many questions and helping with parts. Jon, you really made this a lot easier for me to do, and get right, and believe me, I was really concerned with doing it wrong.

If any of you are even remotely considering a Xover rebuild…do it, and do it right away. If the other models are improved as much as mine, you have no idea what you are missing.

[JarreYuri]

That sounds great!

What parts did You use?

[Zardoz]

I used Clarity ESA caps with Mundorf Supreme .01 uF bypass caps, Goertz film inductors, some kind of ceramic resistors, silver coated copper wire, and Cardas silver solder. I also used Cardas gold/rhodium speaker posts. To help with isolation and vibration, I glued MDF to the top and bottom of the inside of the Xover boxes. The schematics were found on the Maggie site, but Jon may have posted them here somewhere. There are a couple of small errors in the Maggie site schematics, but Jon helped me sort through them. I don't know if he has updated them here or not.

[dasign]

Hello Zardoz,

Happy to hear that your Xover upgrade was a success. Did you replace internal wiring? If so, by what?

Dasign

[Zardoz]

As these are original ribbons, I figure I will have to replace them at some point, and due to advice from Jon that it could be a bit of a job, I left the internal wiring. On the Diva's they are just the "pig tails" anyway and they looked in good shape (wire jackets are clear and no signs of oxidation), so that's a job for another day. I do plan to replace or clean the spades on them as soon as I have some free time. The spades do look a bit bad, so I'm sure I can improve them, just ran out of time before my holiday travels started.