New op amps, good idea?


I have recently acquired an old crossover which was highly rated in its day (early 1990's). I know technology has improved dramatically since then in many regards but assuming I want to keep and potentially improve this particular one rather than buy a newer version of it (not available), is it worth sending it to a trusted local electronics shop who specializes in such things and asking him to upgrade the op amps with newer/faster/better...? I realize I am not helping its resale and will probably hurt it but if that's not a big concern... I've been told it was a great unit in its day but that it may be considered less transparent than today's similar offerings...
My technician assured me it was not going to be a lot of money (perhaps $100-$200 or so ) and that he was quite confident he could make a noticeable improvement in its performance...If I decide to let him take it what should I be knowledgeable about in order to speak with him intelligently about the work?? Would there be any other mods he could do "while he's at it" that would be reasonably cost effective and sonically helpful as well? Any input would be appreciated as my technical knowledge in all this is limited.... Thanks in advance for any and all opinions. Regards,
lissnr

Showing 2 responses by lissnr

Great information so far and exactly why these forums are so helpful and appreciated. Yes, it is an Apogee Dax, but not the one pictured with my previous Mini Grands. I have Duetta Signatures now and the one we're discussing is an original Dax 1.
For those of you understandably unfamiliar with Apogee speakers there were 2 models of Dedicated Active (electronic) Crossovers (DA?X?) (actually 3 were supposedly developed but only #'s 1 and 2 really hit the market) which were designed to "divert around" the passive crossover components built into the speaker and act as true control centers of the woofer and midrange/tweeters as well as facilities for matching gain of different amplfier outputs when running the speakers bi-amplified (a REQUIREMENT when utilizing the Dax).This 'specialization' for only a specific few of the Apogee models is what makes it such a lure to those model owners. Over the years the Dax 1 [in the old Apogee forums] began as 'the cat's meow' for an admirably long time but with the advent of newer crossover designs by other companies (though none were ever specifically designed for any one particular brand or speaker model to the extent that the Dax's were for Apogee), other crossovers began to replace the now-aging Dax's... I myself have been using an excellent example of exactly what I'm saying: I've been the very happy owner of an NHT model X2 active crossover which is currently doing duty splitting my full range preamp output at 50hz into my Rel subwoofer and then [through the use of an 'rca splitter' on the high output jacks], sending the remaining signal to a dedicated woofer amp and a dedicated mid/tweeter amp into the [bi-wired] passive crossovers....(note there is no control for matching separate amp outputs but I've been fortunate that there seems to be a good balance overall).
The Dax 1 will add tremendous flexibility and I feel will make a worthy addition IF I can get it to today's high standards of transparency, dynamics, and all the other assets sought after in a well designed quality crossover...
Thank you for all your thoughts and suggestions so far, as I said, these are exactly the discussion points I need to have with the technician... Now all I have to do is figure out where I draw the line on the law of diminishing returns when it comes to deciding the $$$ expenditure on this. Certainly, I do realize I'm pretty much marrying this unit and I have no problem with that idea at all IF it turns out to be as good as I hope.... For the record, while not one to throw dollar figures around on these forums I will say that the unit originally retailed for $4K and that I have an 8/10 condition which I paid just under 25 cents on the dollar for... Which leads to the question inspired by Bombaywalla's excellent list of specifics above (thank you!): how much should / could having all/most of the above cost????? This hobby is relentless.... Thanks again ,everyone.
Thanks for all the additional input. I think the power supply will be targeted as well as the bridge rectifier, caps and resistors, as per Bombaywalla's great advice (really nice Scinnies by the way and the Cat/Symphonic must make an outstanding combination... very nice rig). I'm looking fwd to getting this into the shop soon and will post results asap.