Fried speaker comparison

Actually Trelja, I had the same thoughts about the "Radio Shack" quality crossover components and wiring in my pair of Beta Signatures and set about to upgrade those components. I changed the caps to some Solen polypropolene and upgraded the internal wiring to Teflon coated silver AudioMagic wire and you know what, the "music" that the stock signature series Beta's had was banished and in it's place was accuracy. Note my use of the word "music"...

That was my first foray into upgrading stock speakers and it did not bode well although later attempts with other speakers proved otherwise. Somehow, the stock budget component quality configuration of the Fried crossover components turned out to be the best although the Teflon coated silver wiring was a major leap forward in resolution as compared to the stock wiring.

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I have a pair of Q/3's now that have been in constant service for since 1988. I had the woofers re foamed and they sound like new to my old ears. I used to sell Fried's for a living and grew to really love the sound they reproduce. I agree with the guys above about the sweetness of the Betas and improvement that comes from adding a sub and crossing the Betas over at 80 or higher hertz. I am using a set of Bud's SM subs with Carolina Audio SM3s in my main system now and love it crossed over at 120 hz.
Back to the point the A/3 & Q/3 sound very, very similar in most situations. The A model has a bit lower bass response mostly due to the slightly larger cabinet than the Q. Fine products designed by a cool man (R.I.P. Bud). The C model monitors are awesome in any version you can find. I have owned and overhauled a few pairs. The crossovers are not much to speak about for parts quality, true. I had very good results rebuilding a set of crossovers in the C/3s model that I had matched with the o/4 sub. The rebuild was Cardas wires, Silver Saulder, & MIT caps bench tested to match each other, and removed the fuse. Bud liked the sound when I took them to his house to hear the mods and so did I. Let us know how happy you are with which ever pair you end up with.

I noticed the Q3s listed for sale here yesterday went in a jiffy. I considered pulling the trigger, but the opportunity was gone before I knew it.
-Bob

They were gone in a jiffy 'cuc old Schubert bout dropped his dentures when he saw them,just got back from mailing my MO at the Post Office.

Nmmusicman, it would not surprise me if your issue was in the wire you employed.

Several of us, including Bob (Rfogel8) have upgraded (and reengineered) Fried crossovers with stellar result. There are a lot of places you can go wrong in speaker when it comes to the crossover. Often, it's the intent in trying to upgrade too much (better coils with larger AWG/lower resistance that trow off the crossover points, harsher sounding capacitors and resistors, etc.) where things break down. Crossovers are jut one of those things one has to learn the hard way of trial and error and making a whole lot of "mistakes" along the journey.