My hifi is a disaster 1 problem at a time .

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Dr Bunsen Honeydew
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Re: My hifi is a disaster 1 problem at a time .

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

Because they are knowledgeless twonks, and most got caught up in the BBC bullshit. In reality all you need to do, if you choose bass/mid drivers correctly or dope them, is to protect the tweeter from low freq with a cap.

I can't help it if I am an unsung genius :mrgreen: though Joe Acroyd was doing it as well.

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Re: My hifi is a disaster 1 problem at a time .

Unread post by Daniel Quinn »

Well, it is as you say ; just so much more like music and less like hifi and its not as if the wharfedales had a complex corssover , 1st order and 5 compoents , but they were mounted on a pcb. :naughty:

However, the theory is now I have altered the flat frequency response of my speakers and they will be thus "less true" what ever that means , it just that I prefer what I hear :think:

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Dr Bunsen Honeydew
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Re: My hifi is a disaster 1 problem at a time .

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

Could be, but if you prefer it then *for you* it is correct. Don't let *experts* tell you what you should be hearing, that has polluted our industry for decades.

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Re: My hifi is a disaster 1 problem at a time .

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

How are your mods doing, time to give us an update.

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Re: My hifi is a disaster 1 problem at a time .

Unread post by Daniel Quinn »

Not much happened . My PT remains spring less and shall stay that way . It sounds better . The only downside was there was some microphony when you tap the top plate which wasn’t there before but its only really noticeable when wearing headphones .

Ive also changed what it stands on from granite block to 3 layers of 5mm loft insulation material.

Primarily , iI’ve been experimenting with the port . Bunging and unbunging . Apparently I bunged up one of the ports with my 7 year olds favourite T- shirt and he’d been looking for it for ages , he didn’t appreciate the reason. :lol:

The port issue was not initially straightforward because it can make it sound superficially dynamic with more bass , but after prolonged listening to them bunged up and then going back it is obvious it is no way near as good ported . With the bung in the music stops and starts better , individual instruments are separated and seem to have own dynamic contrast independent of others . What I mean by this is it doesn’t all go loud at the same time , if that makes sense . I think this latter point is primarily thanks to the hardwiring and minimal crossover , but bunging helps a little .

There is probably a little less bass , especially bass drum ommphhh , but I can live with that . As I only listen to rock music and other drums- hanging toms , snare have more snap and bite and this are more important , listen for instance to Phil Collins drums on foxtrot .

I’m still plagued by thoughts of what I have done to the frequency response , But on the rta analyser and a cheap microphone held at the seating position it looks okay and I cant really hear it . Before the mods i could not listen to the speakers because of memories of how my old speakers sounded in my old room . Not now.
I note that these speakers were designed by P J Comeau who as somewhat of reputation in speaker design , well Peter you are welcome to come to my house with a pair of standard diamonds 10.3 and compare them with mine as I am simply staggered that you have hampered their capabilities , what did you listen to when you made them ?

Next upgrade is to seal of the port permanently and replace the cheap bi-polar capacitor on the tweeter with an audiophile one I got from maplin for £10 each along with a new wire wound resistor .
Then its on to the cabinents . Extra bracing using cut to fit broom handles , bitumen pads and maybe steel plate . There remains however a conundrum . The speakers are floor standers but only the top part of the cabinent is used . The top 1/3 is sealed from the bottom 2/3 by a mdf partition which clearly also acts as bracing . What happens if i cut a whole the partition , this will of course triple the internal volume of the sealed box. Is there a general theory of expanding the size of a sealed box or is driver dependant , is this understood , does the size of the hole make a difference ? :think:

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Dr Bunsen Honeydew
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Re: My hifi is a disaster 1 problem at a time .

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

If you convert to an IB (infinite baffle / acoustic suspension) then you change the Q. Think of the air as a spring, with a port you slow the spring down. Now by opening up the remainder of the cabinet with the port blocked (you will have to ensure it is air tight as it probably isn't as it is only cosmetic) you change the Q again. The spring becomes looser and slower which will have similar effect on the music but the bass will go back lower. It is suck it and see, but as you know I hate ports, they nearly always FFF up the music. The only guy who got them right (to a degree) was Joe Akroyd (Royd).

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Re: My hifi is a disaster 1 problem at a time .

Unread post by Daniel Quinn »

Whilst Im sure i can take no credit for it , I note that Mr Comeau agrees with me as Wharfedale have removed the bloody port from thier latest incarnation of the Dimonds .Still got a PCB crossover and none soldered press tags though . :D

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Re: My hifi is a disaster 1 problem at a time .

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

It is cost saving for the pcb crossover and tags. They will be made in China now.

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Re: My hifi is a disaster 1 problem at a time .

Unread post by Daniel Quinn »

Well thanks to a lost wallet , I had a day of work yesterday and with the house empty of the 3 monkeys and pregnant partner from hell I managed to play with my hifi ,after spending 1/2 hour chasing a bleeding rabbit round the garden .[ I used to have a rock and roll life alas :D ]

I spent the day experimenting with speaker positioning . I much prefer them to be as far apart as possible , I see many a photo on other forums and think their two close together . So eventually I Settled with them 3 inches from the back wall , 2 feet from side wall and 1 feet either side of the bay window . [ There is a point to this post honest ]

Well I then experimented with what they stood on and the good old couple decouple debate . I find rigid coupling tends to aid dynamic contrasts [ stop start ] and placement of instruments in a soundstage but decoupling aids separation of the music instruments and allows them space . So I tried ,

No spikes , speaker plinth glued to granite and glued to floor
As above but granite separated from floor by screws and then blocks of end grain balsa
spiked to floor resting in Phillips screw heads and just spikes on the floor
no spikes plinth resting on blocks of 3inch polystyrene .

I preferred the no spikes resting on polystyrene , but it did lose some "attack" and soundstage sharpeness . Clearly they wobbled . I didn't want to glue the plinth to the polystrenet and the floor and this would lose some of the decoupling so I took two blocks of end grain balsa per speaker and hot glued [ well named it is too :D ] one end to the back of the speaker and hot glued the over to thick brick wall . One at the top of the speaker and one at the bottom .

This worked a treat , the difference wasn't nite and day , it was just better and more enjoyable that way .

My hif is beginning to be no longer a disaster and is now enjoyable , however it occurs to me that all I have done to make it listenable means I must be slight barmy and whilst I will be upgrading in the future , I just can't see the point in constant box swapping . I also don't think I can listen to a speaker with a crossover in it , but we shall see .

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Re: My hifi is a disaster 1 problem at a time .

Unread post by terrybooth »

Daniel Quinn wrote: spending 1/2 hour chasing a bleeding rabbit round the garden.
No shotgun then?
Pioneer PL71/DL103/ Phono2/HiFiPi/P90SA/TIS/CubixPro

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