CSS-Audio Audiophile vs Standard Crossover
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- Опубліковано 17 жов 2024
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5:39 CSS Built P215 w/Standard Crossover
6:36 Barnwood P215 w/Standard Crossover
8:40 CSS Built P215 w/Audiophile Crossover
In this video I compare the standard crossover in the CSS Audio P215 speaker kit with the audiophile grade version as well. I also compare a speaker i made with the professionally built one from CSS-Audio.
Not sure if anyone has made this comment already after all I am 2 years late to the party, but the reason you get more bass out of the ones you built is because they have the rubber feet on them. When you decuple a speaker (like by adding rubber feet) you will in turn affect the bass, just FYI. Also I liked the ones you built way better then the others. Thanks for the video.
Nothing shows the law of diminishing returns more than the HiFi world. Upgrades are always talked about with terms like "a little more"..."slightly..." But a lot of money isn't worth a small, almost imperceptible difference. Standard version good enough for me.
The charm of the old wood finish is incredible! They would go fine in a rustic environement with other wood furnitures. They also sound magnificent ! Thanks for the video!
The premium crossover has better transient response and quicker decay, most evident in the treble but also audible in the midrange. You're probably right about spending the extra money on Criton 2TB's though. That would be an interesting comparison.
The upgraded crossover seems to offer a little more clarity and sparkle on the top end. Bass seems a little cleaner too, perhaps?
I noticed the audiophile XO's really defined the sound of the cuckoo clock.
the premium one has more details for the instruments/backend but the standard was also no slouch
Could you have picked a better sample for comparing? Perhaps something with a voice singing for part of the sample?
I can see how someone would want the super crossovers but I can also see how someone would be happy with “Standard”. Very subjective and the decision could strictly be budget based. +$400 is a big difference.
Your speakers are extra sharp looking, Ara!
The first demo with the white speakers and the standard crossover sounded the best to me. The barnwood speakers with standard and even the high end crossovers sounded more bass heavy but not as clear. Of course this is through a UA-cam video so I’m sure in person there was a bigger difference but that it what it sounded like to me.
Thank you soooooo much for using a track that most of us usually listen to !!
Thanks for the video! This brings up two questions: how do these compare to the DIY speakers you built a few years ago, and second, do you have any intention of building DIY speakers from other groups? GR Research, DIYSG, Meniscus Audio, and more all have great kits that may or may not be even better than the ones you built here.
In any case, keep up the great work!
Do crossover parts quality really matter if the drivers are very good?
I'm sure there is a difference. Picking it up via a UA-cam video isn't really showing the upgrade very well. Either that, or CSS have already surpassed themselves with the standard speakers.
What you should do is DIY a better crossover. You could use a smaller gauge air core, the green resistors from parts express and a Jantzen cross cap on the tweeter bypassed with a Z cap or something similar. It would be probably $75 each.
I thought there was more clarity from top to bottom with the upgrade, was it worth the $400, maybe not I like the idea of building the next model up in the range, good luck with that: Interesting and well done video, thanks
I agree with this assessment. Could have more impact on different tracks.
Even on UA-cam you could hear a difference, live it should be easily discernable. Refinement is hard to quantify but if you can hear it....
I've upgraded crossovers for about 30 years. Cheap crossovers use electrolytic caps. Those degrade and smear the time base anyway. Replacing those junk caps with even 5% metal poly cleans the signal path measurably and significantly. The better quality components are much more neutral sounding. Some notable vintage speakers that were very expensive that used cheap crossovers". KEf 104.2, 105, 107 and yamaha NSM. They wake up considerably with re-cap.
Bet uv made a good profit from fitting vastly overpriced caps on crappy dated speakers that are not worth upgrading
Thanks for an interesting test!
However, it is very difficult to compare, and keep focus on the music, when you talk so much between the sound clips. Please talk before and after, and write on the screen when you change the crossovers and speakers.
Good video - thanks. I think the speaker positions would explain the extra bass you noticed
If you could only do one upgrade, which makes more of a difference, the better crossover or the better tweeter?
Good question. I’d go with the tweeter. I think there is more bang for the buck.
Great speaker build! Thanks for taking the time to share the extra demos and comparisons. I think for the money your barn wood speakers are far better.
Just my 2 pennies. ;-)
Great job on building your speakers. I also prefer the set you built.
Are the drivers closer together on yours?
Never mind, your holes are just slightly large.
Difference is in position of speakers...it is not the same in this situation if speakers is inside or outside
I liked the review and your others. Are they the best on UA-cam? Of course not lol. But who cares? Some of these people commenting apparently don’t have anything better to do than be critical of someone putting themselves and this info out there. Something the snarky ones aren’t brave enough to do. Keep it up. Thanks for the video.
Let us have a smile here please. Me with 50% hearing loss over the mid to high range, my 2" 3W little Divoom (full spectrum) and your mic, I truly hear better sound with the basic cheap crossover. The bass is not good for me, just a "dup", not a drum. I watched a few other video reviews on that speakers and it does need a bass woofer added according to most reviews. It does make sense to have the bass separate to the mid and treble, as bass in any way does not really have "direction". I like the track that you used for the review, it got a nice range in sounds. Years ago when I could still hear properly, the first thing we played was some trumpet and/or guitar music to listen for clarity. Bass was not really that important to us in the 80's. We liked to hear the words clearly and sing along.
I'd much rather spend $350 to upgrade the drivers than upgrade the crossover. I am a firm believer using in better crossover components when possible, but not for 50% of the price of the speakers. That's just nonsense.
The crossover is built to the driver. Upgrade the driver? Sure. Then get ready to engineer a crossover.
@@flyingjeff1984 Its a kit, so that crossover upgrade money should be spent on a kit with better drivers. As someone who has designed and built his own speakers, I've made the mistake of buying overpriced crossover components and conducted some blind listening tests. Matching component pairs and proper placement on the circuit board makes a more significant audible difference than the quality of the components themselves. For example, capacitors have can vary between 1-5% of their rated capacitance. Measuring and matching them so each speaker's crossovers are identical as possible is the true audiophile upgrade.
As I understand it, these bookshelf speakers don't play mid frequencies?
lol. of course they do
Could be the recording. I haven't quite understood what we suppose to hear is this track.
The difference would be down to the aircore vs the ferrite inductors
The biggest differences one would most likely hear between those crossovers, would be with improved soundstage, 3d image within the soundstage, and 'air' around the individual instruments.
I am not sure the full impact of those differences would be noticeable with the way you have them set up. I would have loved to hear your impressions with them set up on stands, out more into the room. They are too close to the wall behind them and furntiture.
I've heard these speakers set up correctly (I helped a friend build a pair), and their image and soundstage is quite impressive.
I’ve heard the standard version has amazing imaging and soundstage as well. Or is that the ones you’re talking about? I’m wanting a pair myself (which is why I’m on an old video commenting right now lol) and trying to figure out which to go with. It seems the standard ones are quite impressive according to the comments though.
What I heard could be mostly duplicated with an EQ and would be much less $.
That looks like a $100 upgrade. Just a money maker i think.
Hard to tell over a recording but the bass is cleaner on the more expensive cross-over.
The upgraded x over is night and day better. Separation and tonality are vastly improved resolution is also evident through the entire frequency range. It’s costly but it’s better
Sounds like yours has deeper bass. Let me say this My home is 1903 and the ceiling the walls are solid wood no sheetrock and carpet and Ive had this system at lake house and another newer house and the old solid wood house sounds way way way better so your old wood may have merit!
You should router your front baffle like CSS did, plus the sides. One of the reasons LS50s sound so airy is because of their rounded baffles. You are also essentially making your baffles narrower ( a good thing for best sound) by reducing the flat surface that the drivers bounce off. The less bounce off the baffle and the more direct sound coming at you, the better. Ideally you want rounded boxes like the Kef Blades but those are difficult and expensive to build. Router the baffles and touch up the stained finish and it's a small price to pay for better sound.
You don't want "more bass" from cabinet resonance though. It doesn't sound natural and muddies the sound. Musical instruments like guitars and pianos are built with wood that resonates perfectly for that distance sound. Speakers need to play all frequencies, thus the sound needs to come from the drivers intended to play those frequencies. If I don't isolate my speakers from the wooden floor system, my floor acts like a big subwoofer that fills the room with (bloated and muddy) really crappy bass. Free subwoofers (floor systems, bookshelves, or anything that resonates) aren't worth the money (even if they cost nothing for more bass), because muddy bass sounds like ass.
I don't understand why anyone would want to build speaker boxes out of (resonating) wood. Use MDF and veneer it. CSS uses MDF, but that doesn't mean you can't make the cabinets better by doubling the thickness. Rap your knuckles on the side of the box. That will tell you how much resonance the box will have. You can also use a small blue tooth speaker and place it on certain material and notice if the bass gets stronger. If the bass gets stronger throw that shit out and find some inert material. If a wooden table can make the bass much stronger on a tiny 1-3 watt blue tooth speaker, imagine the speaker box resonance with a 100+ watts driver. Good speaker don't need fake bass.
These do not sound well at all. I think they maybe sick
I am sorry , but the speakers are not set up properly, they need a good stand, and the room…. Well, let’s put it this way, you are way better off treating the room and setting up the speakers properly than spending money on the upgrades. Cheers.
nowhere near a good comparison, far too much talking between takes, and moving around and up close to one speaker and not the others where the recorder should have been fixed. Those Jantzen components are fantastic, I use the Jantzen Silver Cap with Jantzen inductors in my home speakers. Personally, I thought the first test was brighter, and the Jantzen crossovers were more balanced across the spectrum, in my opinion.
Audiophile Crossover / snake oil
only the DCR changes, only for this reason that it sounds different
It's not snake oil, which insinuates that there's no improvement. There's definitely an improvement. Whether it's worth the money is the question.
WOW! Just for fun, I listened to this through my bookshelf speakers. I could DEFINITELY hear the different when you hooked up the audiophile crossover. Oh wait, does that mean that my $300/pair Polk Audio speakers produce sound and clarity as accurately as your $2600/pair speakers!!!! LOL, you audiophiles just like to spend money off a sales pitch and brag about it! (P.s., To anyone responding to this video: If this "sounded like crap" on your home speakers, then you have crappy speakers!!!) Lots of fun reading the comments. Keep producing these entertaining (if not earth shattering) videos!
Why did you spend $300 on Polk. You could have spent $100 on Sony or Dayton or used NHT or RSL
@@joeygonzo Aesthetics, the cherry finish cabinets match my furniture really well.
Polk lol
@@intenttoinjure My point is made.....Thank you!
The standard crossover sounds better
Lower SPL, your bass is better sounding, it has body wile the audiophile was lifeless and dull. Bass sounds like a cardboard box.
Those cap types cud b purchased from Ali Express for 20 30 GBP...... £50 tops including inductors.. Rip off Western mark ups
can't tell you talk to much and move the mic around so much
Super helpful comment! Thanks for you wisdom!
Нужен слепой тест.
They all sound awful, wheres the mid range? its all muddy dark bass and very forward highs, very unbalanced. im hoping this is down to your recording or the fact you've put them against a wall. The price is around 2600 dollars for the white one with high end crossover it must be better than this!
You do realize that there is no possible way you can hear what these speakers sound like, since they’re playing in his room, recorded on his mics, compressed via youtube, and played back on whatever you’re using to listen? You do realize that, right?
First u need to learn something about speaker setup before wasting hundreds of $$$. If you keep speakers at the wall it makes No sense at all.
And sound comparison on UA-cam? lol
yes your speaker set-up could be better, start by putting your monitors on isoacoustics aperta for a start it will make a huuuuge difference, or something to decouple them, good luck
Speakers closer to the wall can actually help even out bass response in certain cases. So it actually can make sense at all
With the crossover plan you can find a good compromiss. In germany we have tschenscher coil factory and audyn Q6 caps. Not more than +150€
This demonstration without measurements is moot.
no dfference ...they sound like krap