Marvel Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 I just took delivery of a pair of Quicksilver Mid Monos today and will give them a spin tonight. They should have been delivered here first, so I could check them out for you. [*-)] I would love to try out some of the Quicksilver models.Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erik2A3 Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 Having built a number of cabinets using new drivers, one aspect of break-in with which I concur has to do with the mechanical breaking-in of dynamic drivers with flexible surrounds, spiders, etc. Those parts of a driver do loosen up with some use, which can be expedited by playing music with reasonable bass at a reasonable volume level (we seem to have different ideas about what reasonable is). Working often with audio electronics, I honestly have never been one who worried very much about things like 'wire break in,' but have noticed marked differences with drivers. I've owned certain very expensive single driver systems that needed nearly I,000 hours for frequency response to sound more balanced and equally distributed, top to bottom. For me (which certainly doesn't make me right) it's been much less of an amplifier-related issue than one of butyl rubber, foam, or pleated accordion fabric surrounds that became more supple over time, and thereby better able to reproduce lower notes that hadn't come through as well -- and subsequently leading, as you seem to be experiencing, to a decidedly harsh, though highly detailed presentation. If your drivers are already thoroughly broken in, please consider this response null and void! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shakeydeal Posted October 4, 2013 Author Share Posted October 4, 2013 I installed the Quicksilver monos last night, and what an improvement. Night and day doesn't accurately describe the difference. I am not hearing ANYTHING that I don't like about these speakers. Even though I believe the Quickies are better sounding on their own, being able to use the 8 ohm tap (The VTL has only ONE tap, 6 ohm) was beneficial too. No more sharpness in the midrange, only glorious music. Thanks for all the responses, but I am a happy camper now. Shakey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddeus Smith Posted October 4, 2013 Share Posted October 4, 2013 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shakeydeal Posted October 4, 2013 Author Share Posted October 4, 2013 Pics will be added this weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cradeldorf Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 I bought some cornscala D's about a month ago and I thought they sounded horrible. I messed with them night and day for 4 weeks. Luckily I stumbled upon something that happend to cure all of their problems. There was steel in the audio path. Both the screws on the terminal strips and the tabs that go from the crossover to the the terminal connectors were steel. I replaced the screws with brass ones and wired the crossover directly / bypassing the the terminals and now they sound insanely awesome.!!! I've included a picture to help illustrate what I'm saying. I'm not so sure about the screws but I replaced them anyways just to be sure, but the terminal strips were clearly steel that a magnet stuck to with great ease. Steel makes for a horrible metal for a signal to pass through and has almost 11 times the amount of resistance compared to copper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shakeydeal Posted October 23, 2013 Author Share Posted October 23, 2013 Thanks for that input cradledorf. Did you have to solder the connections after replacing the terminal strip? I can't remember how they were connected. Shakey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philly0116 Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 Man I hope you can get those bad boys to work for you! It looks like the general consensus is just give your ears time to adjust! You are listening to a Cornwall and a La Scala in one box! Keep us posted! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philly0116 Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 I bought some cornscala D's about a month ago and I thought they sounded horrible. I messed with them night and day for 4 weeks. Luckily I stumbled upon something that happend to cure all of their problems. There was steel in the audio path. Both the screws on the terminal strips and the tabs that go from the crossover to the the terminal connectors were steel. I replaced the screws with brass ones and wired the crossover directly / bypassing the the terminals and now they sound insanely awesome.!!! I've included a picture to help illustrate what I'm saying. I'm not so sure about the screws but I replaced them anyways just to be sure, but the terminal strips were clearly steel that a magnet stuck to with great ease. Steel makes for a horrible metal for a signal to pass through and has almost 11 times the amount of resistance compared to copper. Great thinking! Man, did you pass this info along to Bob? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustang guy Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 I bought some cornscala D's about a month ago and I thought they sounded horrible. I messed with them night and day for 4 weeks. Luckily I stumbled upon something that happend to cure all of their problems. There was steel in the audio path. Both the screws on the terminal strips and the tabs that go from the crossover to the the terminal connectors were steel. I replaced the screws with brass ones and wired the crossover directly / bypassing the the terminals and now they sound insanely awesome.!!! I've included a picture to help illustrate what I'm saying. I'm not so sure about the screws but I replaced them anyways just to be sure, but the terminal strips were clearly steel that a magnet stuck to with great ease. Steel makes for a horrible metal for a signal to pass through and has almost 11 times the amount of resistance compared to copper. Interesting. You made me look up the electrical conductivity of metals yet again. What I found is: Brass IACS (% of copper conductivity) Admiralty Brass 24.00 Admiralty Metal (Annealed) 24.60 Aluminum Brass (Annealed) 23.00 Cartridge (Annealed) 28.00 High Strength Yellow 12.00 Leaded Naval (Annealed) 26.00 Leaded Semi Red 18.00 Leaded Yellow 25.00 Low (Annealed) 32.00 Low Leaded (Annealed) 26.00 Naval (Annealed) 26.00 Red (Annealed) 37.00 Yellow (Annealed) 27.00 Aluminum Brass (Annealed) 23.00 Steel IACS (% of copper conductivity) Steel, Cast 10.70 Steel, High Alloy 2.90 Steel, 304 Stainless 2.50 Steel, 304 Stainless 2.50 Steel, 347 Stainless 2.40 Zircaloy - 2.40 Steel, 316 Stainless 2.30 To summarize, most steel has a conductivity of under 3% of the copper wire you are connecting to it. Although brass is 10 times better, it is still about 1/4th as conductive as the speaker wire. I don't recall any threads discussing this, so I think I may start one using this post as it's start. Unless there are some physics I don't know about, this is going to impact current flow in a negative way. I will post this thread in the technical questions forum. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BEC Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 I bought some cornscala D's about a month ago and I thought they sounded horrible. I messed with them night and day for 4 weeks. Luckily I stumbled upon something that happend to cure all of their problems. There was steel in the audio path. Both the screws on the terminal strips and the tabs that go from the crossover to the the terminal connectors were steel. I replaced the screws with brass ones and wired the crossover directly / bypassing the the terminals and now they sound insanely awesome.!!! I've included a picture to help illustrate what I'm saying. I'm not so sure about the screws but I replaced them anyways just to be sure, but the terminal strips were clearly steel that a magnet stuck to with great ease. Steel makes for a horrible metal for a signal to pass through and has almost 11 times the amount of resistance compared to copper. http://www.newark.com/cinch/10-141/terminal-block-barrier-10pos-14awg/dp/28F719 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shakeydeal Posted October 23, 2013 Author Share Posted October 23, 2013 Aha, so it's nickel and brass, not steel? So I wonder what prompted the improvement that cradeldorf reports? Shakey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 I use a different terminal strip but like the Cinch version, the screws are magnetic, so I'm assuming they're steel. The plating on just about all variations of these things is nickel and brass. However, nickel is magnetic. This is kind of interesting, but I don't see how we can go from "terrible" to amazing sound just by removing the magnetic element at the terminal strip. Think about the level of magnetism involved with the inductors and the voice coils. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cradeldorf Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 (edited) I use a different terminal strip but like the Cinch version, the screws are magnetic, so I'm assuming they're steel. The plating on just about all variations of these things is nickel and brass. However, nickel is magnetic. This is kind of interesting, but I don't see how we can go from "terrible" to amazing sound just by removing the magnetic element at the terminal strip. Think about the level of magnetism involved with the inductors and the voice coils. If nickel is magnetic then why can't I pick up a nickel with a magnet? (Or do you mean conductive?) I used a neodymium magnet and it stuck to the strips coming off the backs of the terminals extremely well. As far as the level of magnetism in the inductors I'm not sure it's the same as passing a signal directly through the steel. I have not contacted Bob But I see i no longer have to as I see he's seen my post. I'll try to find the page I saw about the conductivity of steel. ( http://www.ramelectronics.net/understanding-av-cables.aspx ) I think I remember when I read it that it had something to do with the steel adding ill effects to the signal. I can assure you it's not imaginary and the speakers do sound way better. I sure hope my hearing hasn't degraded to the point that I think the original sound of them was good. Like I said I'm not real sure the terninal strip screws made the difference. I think it was those metal strips on the back of the hook up terminals. (See Picture) Funny thing to add, I was all the way to the point of sticking 4" fostex's in place of the horns in the cabinets. After twiddeling with crossover setups I settled on what I thought sounded pretty good. When I discovered the problem with the steel in the Bobs crossovers I changed one speaker back to it's original setup and hooked it up. I was very close sounding to the other speaker with the fostex with the homemade cobbled together crossover in it. I went back to open baffles, can't beat the sound. Edited November 6, 2013 by cradeldorf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BEC Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 I use a different terminal strip but like the Cinch version, the screws are magnetic, so I'm assuming they're steel. The plating on just about all variations of these things is nickel and brass. However, nickel is magnetic. This is kind of interesting, but I don't see how we can go from "terrible" to amazing sound just by removing the magnetic element at the terminal strip. Think about the level of magnetism involved with the inductors and the voice coils. The screws are steel plated with nickel over copper flash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cradeldorf Posted October 25, 2013 Share Posted October 25, 2013 (edited) Today I swapped out the crites woofers for my Eminence Alpha's and left the backs off the cabinets. Cringe all you want and call me crazy, It's my system and I like the way they sound. It's better. Edited October 25, 2013 by cradeldorf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted October 25, 2013 Share Posted October 25, 2013 A nickel (coin) is mostly copper, which is not magnetic. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevenbarnes1 Posted November 2, 2013 Share Posted November 2, 2013 A 1964 & earlier nickel is mostly silver, & worth a lot more than a nickel !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted November 2, 2013 Share Posted November 2, 2013 A 1964 & earlier nickel is mostly silver, & worth a lot more than a nickel !! No, they have been 75% copper and 25% nickel all along. Quarters are another matter entirely, and they were of high silver content before '64. I had about 40 pounds of them but cashed them in a couple years ago. I think they were worth about $17-18 each. Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevenbarnes1 Posted November 5, 2013 Share Posted November 5, 2013 I stand (actually laying down) corrected !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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