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parlophone1

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Posts posted by parlophone1

  1. I had a fortune (or misfortune) to hear a few very good setups very early in my hi-fi life.

    They were DIY projects by a knowledgeable people. Heard all the things you are describing above. Speakers were not driven by very expensive amplifications, but a good one.

    After that, all other stuff (i.e. speakers worth less than $50.000) just do not sound that good.

     

  2. A blonde and a redhead have a ranch.

    They have just lost their bull.

    The women need to buy another, but only have $500. The redhead tells the blonde, "I will go to the market and see if I can find one for under that amount. If I can, I will send you a telegram." She goes to the market and finds one for $499.

    Having only one dollar left, she goes to the telegraph office and finds out that it costs one dollar per word. She is stumped on how to tell the blonde to bring the truck and trailer.

    Finally, she tells the telegraph operator to send the word "comfortable."

    Skeptical, the operator asks, "How will she know to come with the trailer from just that word?"

    The redhead replies, "She's a blonde so she reads slow: 'Come for ta bull.'"

    • Like 1
  3. On 11/4/2018 at 11:16 PM, joessportster said:

    Well the same speakers in the same room with the exact same source and now nothing seems to come from the drivers. This took place when I stopped pointing the full range (TOP) driver twords the listening position.  Angling that driver up completely changed how I hear the music coming from the system.

     

    The best and really true to the reality soundstage I have ever heard came from speakers that have one set of drivers pointing at the listener and the other set of drivers firing up into the ceiling.

    That is of course not a new concept, in my younger days I first saw it in old Castle Harlech/Howard speakers.

     

  4. I am not using it for Heresies, but try a rubber mat that are usually used to place under the laundry washing machines, dishwashers etc.

    It is mostly made of special raw rubber pieces pressed together. It is very tough.

    I found that to be a better material regarding translating of vibrations to the surfaces beneath. After all that is what these are designed for.

  5. Yes, this was light car with relatively tall chassis, easily disturbed by the wind on the road at higher speeds. I drove one.

    But having a Fiat background, many people were tuning them. These usually meant swapping in better Lancia engine, sport suspension, roll bar cages etc.  That way they were decent rally cars.

  6. I hear you.

    Could be my hearing, not excluding that yet. But another pair of ears familiar with how the speakers sounded confirmed what I hear now.

    Until running some additional targeted tests (which I am unaware of except the one ChrisA mentioned above) I tend to believe its not the tweeters. I will investigate further. 

    I had the speakers hooked up to a new push-pull tube amp rated 2x100W for a couple of years now. This should by any standards be enough. Additionally,  I never play loud. My volume knob never passed 12 o'clock position, most of the time being at 8-9 o'clock position. They worked fairly good all that time, certainly better than after I messed with crossover.

    Yesterday I cleaned the fuse contacts with isopropyl alcohol and replaced 1,25A fuses with new 0,5A fuses. My ears say nothing much changed. However, lower rated fuses should be safer for tweeters.

    So, without further testing I tend to blame myself and my work on crossovers.

  7. That is also my opinion.

    I could have tried to clean up the fuse contacts and see if there would be any change. I don't know if it would be possible for me to find the AGC 1 1/4 fuses (metal thread in glass).

    However, I will follow the advice of the owners of the speakers and install 0,75A - 1A fuse instead of 1,25 as specified by Infinity. The originals seem to cause too many burn out tweeters.

  8. I finally found the time to take out the tweeters from the speaker boxes. Unhooked the wires an measured both drivers with ohm meter. One driver measures 3,8 ohms and the other 3,3 ohms. The later always had a bit more his when turntable preamp was on. This one also has a wire clips a bit more loose than the other driver. 

    These measurements are in line with some comments on other forums indicating that drivers should be OK.

     Regardless of this I will try to find new fuses for the tweeters as this could be the next possible cause for tweeter performing badly. 

     

  9. 5 hours ago, BEC said:

    It can read good for resistance and still have other problems that keep it from working right. 

     

    Can you point out these problems or maybe provide some links explaining that?

    I am very interested to know more.

  10. I guess you found out by now that good phono preamp is essential if you want to play LPs.

    I was in a similar situation when starting this route. My Onkyo TX8050 has built in phono preamp, but I suppose that was the weakest link in that receiver.  After plugin in a solid phono preamp things change considerably for the better.

  11. No I did not test the tweeter.

    How do I do that, sorry I am a newb regarding these issues?

     

    But I will mention a few things that seem relevant to me: I did not take out the tweeter. It is a panel-driver with strong magnets which I was afraid to touch cause I might have problems to put them together again. As these were Ok before, I had no reason to mess with them. I was careful working on the crossover so I can only say I did my best to avoid issues like shortages. I have touched one wire with the soldering iron but it did not come through the pastic to the wire, just a cosmetic issue. However, I put the electrical tape over it. The job on other speaker went smoothly and both tweeters seem to sound equal to my ears.

    The tweeter is connected to a fuse 1,25 A that is located outside on the crossover. Doesn't it help? Ok, some people advise to replace those with 0,75 or 1 A, but that is not relevant now.

     

    I only checked mid-driver and woofer detached from wires with the ohm-meter. They seem to measure ok, if they did not I would think twice regarding recapping.

  12. An update:

    I have recapped speakers.

    It took a while because I have very limited free time. I also sealed the inside of speaker boxes and braced them.

    It turned out that one capacitor for mid-range has already been changed because the originals are yellow as I noticed in second speaker when opened.

     

    Cross_Untuched4.jpg

     

    Opted for Mundorf MCap Evo capacitors (aluminum) because of price and availability, and Mills MRA 12 watts resistors. All components are within or better than factory specifications, except I used 12 microF resistor for mid-range driver instead of 12,5.

     

    Cross_Untuched.jpg

     

    Soldering was done with amateur soldering station (58 watts). It was tedious job for me since last time I have been soldering was more decades ago. And the job had to be done inside the box as could not take the crossover out. Been careful and tried to execute clean solder joints. The most difficult part was to join three wires going from the speaker drivers together with capacitor wire on a speaker terminal. In such a tight space I once burned my finger and once touched the speaker wire. Happy that were all the injuries.

    😃

     

    I used new gasket when installing back mid-drivers. Gaskets for woofers were good, so no need to change them. When doing all that I also changed old clip-on speaker terminals for more modern screw type gold-plated terminals (had spares from old Mission speakers).

     

    Assembled it and hooked it all up yesterday evening for initial listening. Frankly, I expected more dramatic change. The improvements are subtle.

     

    Good thing is that mids are now more articulate than before, but still weak to my ears. The character of the mid driver did not changed. It seems that they were designed that way.

    The bas is a bit tighter. Highs showed the least change. If I have to pick out something I would say that they lost some of their mellowness and liquidity and remained detailed but more “technical”. Rumors are this is due to the nature of Mundorfs.

    Anyway, I do not believe in burning in the capacitors but I will give the speakers more time for listening.

     

     

    Cros_Untuched_Braced2.jpg

     

     

    Time is now for some cosmetic changes on the edges of veneer and may be new grills.

     

    IMG_20180107_123733.jpg

     

     

     

  13. Experimented with just a touch of diffusion on the ceiling.

    It helped but have to mention that it was very reflective room, one glass wall, other parallel one empty concrete.

    A combination of absorption at the first reflection points, but only diffusion on the ceiling.  It is worth a try.

    • Like 1
  14. E

    3 hours ago, Emile said:

    Haha ... if you are on "salt water" like me in Florida, NOTHING "lasts." Even "outdoor" speakers  ... max 3 years :( 

     

    Exactly.

     

    A friend of mine got whole bunch of professional KV2 speakers for reparation. Speakers were installed on the  beach by the sea for big rave parties.

    They lasted about 3 or 4 years and after that they need maintenance.

  15. 5 hours ago, garyrc said:

    That's when colleagues gave me the bulletin on the new element that had been discovered, Administratium, which had a very dense nucleus, surrounded by morons.  

     

    I can imagine these morons can often get excited out of their orbit and away from nucleus ☺️

    • Like 1
    • Haha 1
  16. Few of my buddies that work in IT sector modified the seats from sports cars, usually from ones they are familiar with and know those chairs fit them nicely. Usually these seats have all sorts of adjustment options, so you should be good to go.

    Attach the car seat to a generic adjustable chair base and enjoy.

     

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