justin_tx_16 Posted February 22, 2003 Share Posted February 22, 2003 C&S, yes, the idea is to keep it from moving. Where the weight is placed does not matter (on top of attached to the bottom). the larger teh speaker cabinet, the thinner the cabinet material, the more bracing is important. this is why some exotic speakers are made of marble, granite and other dense things. not only do they provide the weight to prevent movement across the floor, they don't bend. my uncle and i almost built some RF-5 clones out of some granite that we (my parents) had extra from our new kitchen (2-3 full slabs). but he moved back to the caymans before we got started. he even had access to a See-&-See machine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rowooo Posted February 22, 2003 Share Posted February 22, 2003 I know Colin at one time had paving stones on top of his Cornwalls and was happy with the results. I have always thought of placing some type of stone on top of my CF-2's but am not sure exactly what type and weight would be appropriate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Invidiosulus Posted February 22, 2003 Share Posted February 22, 2003 I had some 12" square paving stones that I used with my JBL L46 speakers before I got my Heresies. I had one underneath and one on top of each speaker with some vinyl strips between to protect against scratches. The bass did clear up a little bit when I did this, It was my impression that the bass was kind of muddy beforehand and that the speakers were kind of floating on the carpet. Peace, Josh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted February 23, 2003 Author Share Posted February 23, 2003 Any type of mass loading will be effective, and it doesn't really matter where you implement it. However, stacking things just looks tacky. Regarding my damping of the woofer basket, and Mark's approval of it - Kelly said: "Indeed, this is true, but not the cause of the harshness he is reporting. It will help in low end clarity at high volume.." Keep in mind that Klipsch takes the K-33 up to almost 700 Hz in the Cornwall. This is well into the midrange. The harshness and lack of coherency are a result of the lower and middle midrange becoming disconnected from the squawker output. Get out the rope caulk, damp the woofer, and then sling some solder by replacing the wonderfully oxidized dark green wire. Trust me on this. The improvement is substantial. You might even be tempted to toss those moondoggies and get an amp with some cojónes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike82 Posted February 23, 2003 Share Posted February 23, 2003 The wife was out of town this weekend, so I thought I'd give Dean's woofer tweak a try. But first I digress. When I bought my first pair of Klipsch Belles from Edster (my first horns, too), I noted he had rope caulked the squawker horn. (I had done this to a Denon DP3000 t-table I had back in the late 70s and got some significant improvement) After listening to the Belles at my place, I noticed the highs were a bit confused sounding. I went and rope caulked the tweeter horn which resolved that problem. I later scored some 85 Khorns from the original owner which were entirely stock. The wiring was really oxidized so I replaced it which improved the sound, most notably, in the bass region. I incrementally rope caulked the squawker horn- some improvement. Then the tweeter, big improvement. An ALK crossover also made significant improvement, especially with the ability to attenuate the squawker output to match my room's acoustics. Dean's woofer tweak made sense, so I picked up some Frost King rope caulk from Home Depot and went about the modification. I first cleaned the woofer's metal frame with some denatured alcohol to insure adhesion of the caulk and then applied it like Dean did. The job took about an hour and the cost , about $10.00 for 2 packs of caulk. How does it sound? Decent improvement. I didn't notice MORE bass or DEEPER bass, but improvement in tonality, timbre and definition. Theoretically, this tweak make sense. The woofer basket (K33E, in mine) is stamped metal and prone to vibration and resonance. The caulking will both dampen the vibration and lessen and probably shift the resonance (for you engineer types out there). The vibration can conceiveably impact the voice coil's operation and the resonance frqquencies may cause peaks in the bass output. Verdict: A tweak well worth the expense and time. Thanks, Dean, for sharing. Regards, Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mace Posted February 23, 2003 Share Posted February 23, 2003 Hi, I'm surprised in all this talk about mods that no one mentioned the nice screws which connect your speaker wire to the inside of the cabinet. It would seem if there were so much benefit to be gained by rewiring the insides that there would also be benefit to replacing the screw based terminals with some gold plated connectors. I haven't changed mine out yet but I was going to do this at some point, with some Cardas or run of the mill gold plated types (parts express). I will be getting some tape caulk soon and trying Dean's mod. As a rock and roller this may provide some improvement to an already awesome set o' speakers. The fact that it is reversable is most appealing. Mace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dflip Posted February 23, 2003 Share Posted February 23, 2003 Over the weekend, I went to Home Depot, picked up 7 strips of rope caulk and applied them to the woofer basket. I agree that it made a change, but not too dramatic. It seemed to provide more accurate bass, but also changed the midrange. The problem was the squawker now was too overpowering and needed to be tamed a little further. I had to add another inch of rope caulk to the squawker to reduce it's intensity to a more pleasant level. I now have about 2 1/2 - 3 inches of rope caulk applied between the magnet and the front of the horn. Now I have more accurate bass with a better punch, but also a midrange that produces detail without the fatigue that Cornwalls can provide. It sure beats my old Acurus solid state amp and preamp, not necessarily in detail, but certainly for hours of enjoyable listening. Any modification results in a change in sound, this can be either good or bad. Part of the joy of owning Cornwalls is this forum (great information and advice) and the ability to make changes until I get what I like, whatever that is. Moving the speakers a little closer or further from the wall can subtly change the end result (a balance between soundstage and increased bass response). I also put a pair of GE blackplate, triple mica 5751's in my Scott LK-72. It produced more prominate mids and soundstage with a little less bass. I didn't really notice any loss of power, as they are only 70% as efficient as the 12AX7's. I moved the Telefunken 12AX7's to the phono stage. With damping the woofer, the 5751's are more restrained, but provide lots of detail and very easy to listen to. The Telefunken's sound even better in the phono stage. The bass is more prominate and the highs sing more pleasantly than my GE 12AX7's. The Rega Planar 3 sounds like it will be played a lot more frequently now that I have a way to bring some depth to sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny dB Posted February 23, 2003 Share Posted February 23, 2003 OK, I'm a little confused... Where do I apply the rope caulk? At the base below the mounting screws as Dean has done or where the magnet meets the basket? Should I use some Dynamat on the baskets and horns? I have some left over from my car audio days. Oh by the way this would be on my K-horns. Also, what's a good speaker wire to use to re-wire them that won't split my skull? (financially speaking) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted February 24, 2003 Author Share Posted February 24, 2003 I don't get the "7 strips" bit. The basket is cut up like a pie -- and there are 8 slices! I also caulked around the base of the magnet. See the picture at the beginning of the thread. With my ears -- the improvement was significant. This is quite something -- as I am very hard of hearing. Believe it or not -- I am starting to believe terminal strips are sonically superior to binding posts. There is simply less metal for the current to pass through. The only thing I did was clean them exceptionally well with alcohol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike stehr Posted February 24, 2003 Share Posted February 24, 2003 Then why not just toss the terminal strips, and solder the wire right to the crossover. Toss the terminal block on the crossover, and solder direct to the crossover parts. The solder right to the drivers. Then dump the screw terminals on the amp, and solder direct to the favored output tap. That should sound better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbflash Posted February 24, 2003 Share Posted February 24, 2003 I built stands for my Lascala's. I built a platform and filled it full of sand. Made a huge difference. Had plenty of bass. The bass was tight. I am going to be building a smaller version for my Heresy's. Danny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobLikesTubes Posted February 24, 2003 Share Posted February 24, 2003 I found a couple of lead-filled stands in surplus in my office. These stands measure 22" wide and 14" deep. They are designed for servers to keep them off the floor , and reduce vibrations. They weigh about 15lbs each, are rated to hold up to 250lbs, and seem to be working very niicely on my recently aquired Cornwalls. BIG inprovement in bass/mid-bass response. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dflip Posted February 24, 2003 Share Posted February 24, 2003 I went to Home Depot, picked up 7 strips of rope caulk and applied them to the woofer basket. Dean: The seven strips were seven packages of rope caulk. At least, that is how Home Depot sells them in Canada, $2.49 each. About 8 strands per package that are 22-24" long. The rope caulk was applied to the woofer as per Dean's picture. The extra rope caulk was placed on the throat of the squawker adjoining the magnet and running 2 1/2 - 3" along the throat. At least this is what it took for my combination of equipment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted March 8, 2003 Author Share Posted March 8, 2003 Bumped for mOOn -- who wants to know more about damping. Rope caulk on the sqauwker -- round and round she goes, where she stops, only the mOOn knows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted September 2, 2003 Author Share Posted September 2, 2003 Now bumped for Tbabb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike82 Posted September 3, 2003 Share Posted September 3, 2003 Nice info on tweaking the cabinet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clipped and Shorn Posted September 3, 2003 Share Posted September 3, 2003 Travelling at or near the speed of light you meet yourself from more than 7 months ago. Welcome back. Good to see you again. I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED IN FUTURE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobile homeless Posted September 3, 2003 Share Posted September 3, 2003 It's a horrifying shock for some. C&S, tell your brother we are starting to get swell from Fabian. 10ft by tomorrow perhaps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clipped and Shorn Posted September 3, 2003 Share Posted September 3, 2003 You got a good board for that? I will mention it to him. btw, In a recent trip to SoCal I caught the premiere of Dana Brown's newest film : "Step Into Liquid". I highly recommend catching this if it comes to your neighborhood. He is a chip off the old block, and there is a cameo of his dad Bruce of Endless Summer fame, also lots of good human interest vignettes and some amazing "tow in" surfing of waves in excess of 66' (!!). Also some other state of the art shots of hydroplane boards that literally surf several feet above the water!. Great stuff and a nice music track as well. No special effects, it is all real. C&S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hurdy_gurdyman Posted September 3, 2003 Share Posted September 3, 2003 Hi everyone, I'm new here, but found this interesting thread and wanted to contribute. I recently picked up a pair of heresy 1's. I also did the basket and horn damping thing,only I used plummers petty. This is a very worth while tweek and clean things up a lot. The main reason for my post is concerning the claim of great bass with the back off. I also own a pair of EV fullrange wolverine drivers in an open baffle. You need to hear open baffle bass once to appriciate this. Bass is super clean! No boxiness of any kind. The Klipsch with the back off has esentially become an open baffle. Besides having less box sound, an even bigger reason for clean bass is the radiation pattern. A normal box has an omni-directional bass pattern, with bass going in all directions equally. This excites a lot of room modes, thus causing response problems like boominess. An open backed, or dipole, speaker has a figure 8 pattern. This has energy going only to the front and back, with almost nothing going off to the sides. There are far less room modes being excited. The bass will, therefore, sound much cleaner, but won't go as deep. Hope I've been able to help a bit with this contribution. BTW, I love the tweeked heresy's. Going to a music fest tomorrow and won't be back till Sunday night. Will log in again then. Later, Dave, hurdy_gurdyman http://www.geocities/the_hurdy_gurdyman/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.