Ascent crossover schematic?

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mjon

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I'm thinking about adding a bypass of the passive crossover on my Ascent speakers. Best would be if it's possible to just add an extra pair of terminals which are bypassed and keep the original terminals and crossover connection but first I would like to see the crossover schematic to see whether it's possible or not.

Has anyone here done that kind of procedure on Ascent? I've seen threads about Quest by I guess Ascent could be a bit different. Can anyone help?

/Magnus

btw, my first post so hello everybody!!! :rocker:
 
Hi Magnus,

First :welcome: to the board.

Always good to have another brave person willing to mod their speakers for higher performance. You’re on the right track with a crossover bypass.

Please tell us what crossover you plan to deploy.

To your question, I don’t have detail schematics of the Ascent, but most ML speakers follow a similar topology as what’s already been posted. And if doing a bypass, specific crossover element values are not important.

What you want to do (and I’m speculating, so take this with that caution):
You could add new terminals to the speaker (dual input) and add a whole new wiring harness.

The woofer is simple, just go straight to the corresponding woofer terminals after disconnecting the woofer from existing x-over.

For the ESL feed, you will need to clip the exiting leads to the step-up transformer and connect them to the input terminal for the high frequencies.
This Positive lead should have a 0.5 to 1 Ohm resistance in series (rated at 60w) in it to not only protect the amp from too low impedance, but also to provide the transformer with the right Rdes loading (this value affects high frequencies above 10Khz). If your amp can take it, a direct drive is possible as well with better HF response, but be very, very careful, as few amps can do this.

Another note, the passive crossover will typically invert phase between panel and woofer, so go ahead and measure actual phase of the panel vs. woofer. If inverted, then just invert the wires to the woofer to match.

Read my SL3XC thread for more details, much of it should be applicable to your situation.
 
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Hi Magnus,

Good luck,

Agree with JonFo the Positive lead should have a 0.5 to 1 Ohm resistance in series to protect the amp from too low impedance especially SS amp, but using Tube amp as done mine for the ESL does'nt need the series resistor and till now found no problem.
 
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