Post by Bigman80 on Mar 20, 2021 12:19:45 GMT
Hi all,
I know we already have a Crossover thread on the go wotih Jamies(Karma67) but i think i am going to be going about mine in a sufficiently different way that makes another thread worthwile.
My chief advisor on this process is Angus, so any technical nouse or nuggets of wisdom found in this thread can be attributed to him.
He really should join up.....nudge nudge (I know youre reading this lol)
So, a few weeks back and Angus and i have pretty much scoured the Earth for a set of speakers that will replace the NS1000M. Pretty much anything we have seen or investigated has yeilded nothing that is affordable nor easy to get here in the UK. The German designers seem to have a very solid grip of what makes a good speaker, but anyone other than the main dealers are refusing to deal with us in the UK after Brexit. We had a guy (Torsten) in Germany who was willing to do some postage for me IFwe found anything.
A set of Heco Celan GT 502 nearly made it here, but ultimately the seller decided to sell them locally.
Further searches and enquiries to Quadral Orkan VIII's have been totally ignored and in truth, i have had enough of looking.
The Yamahas dont do anything wrong in general, so after lengthy discussions and with a rock solid offer of support....it's time to turn my attentions to improving the Yams.
The universal approach here seems to be to take the crossovers out of the box and house them externally. Replacing the caps and inductors like-for-like, with better quality components.
After Angus had done his wizardey, he came up with some very legitimate reasons to partly abandon that approach and go for something a little more modern. I'll get to that shortly.
During his shenanigans online, Angus found a really interesting thread from a guy who has already modded his XO's and recorded his findings.
See Here:
My experience with loudspeakers is mainly with various types of electrostatics for some 30 years. Since three years I have used a pair of NS-1000M. Over a six month period I replaced all the components in the filter. This was done in a stepwise fashion so that each change could be evaluated.
Step 1, all the capacitors in the top/mid range were changed to SCR MP. This resulted in much clearer mid/top as well as well as challenging the quality of the equipment being used.
Step 2, the L-pads were cleaned with the EML Contact Cleaner. This gave a distinct unveiling over the whole register. This is so easy to do and should be done by everyone. It only takes 15 minutes to do.
Step 3, the tweeter and midrange coils were replaced with OFC air coils. This gave a much wanted airiness and spaciousness as well as a better decay mode of the signal in the mid/top.
Step 4, the woofer coil was also replaced. This was done rather late and the result came as a big surprise. This change resulted in several things. The low register became very open. The mid range cleaned up even more than before. The decay mode improved, as perceived, over the whole register. I believe that this have to with that the woofer can be heard a bit up in the mid range as pointed out by "Kouiky". The whole speaker became much more coherent and the registers blended much better.
Step 5, a ring magnet was added to the woofer. This was suggested by a friend of mine that is an acoustical engineer and a very clever person with open ears and an opened mind, so sadly rare with engineers in my experience. This resulted in something all NS-1000 owners are looking for. The woofer all of a sudden became more powerful and presented the low register with a lot of energy and control. The start and stop of this unit was also very much improved.
I have decided to start at "Step 5" and throw a magnet onto the rear of the speaker. Angus found a suibtable one and it's on the way.
This seems to be a free swing IMO. For £20, i could either hear a beneficial effect, or i could in fact (to Quote from elsewhere) "alter the sound but the risk of throwing phase alignment"
If it doesnt work out, it's cost £20 and probably 30 minutes of my time in adding them. Who knows.
Next on the agenda was to figure out how i could meet the idea of having most of the benefits of external XO's, but without having all the extra boxes, wiring and connections.
I decided on a "back-pack" type of thing. A flanged box that will house the XO for the speaker, but having it fixed to the external rear wall of the cab. The Plan is to blank off the original hole for the existing XO and run the wiring from the drivers through little grommeted holes into the new externally mounted flanged box.
Concerns have been raised about the cabinet vibration making into the externally attached box, but as far as i can see, it will be an improvement over the original, so i'll be happy enough. I am also not mad keen on on the extra wiring and boxes associated with Ex-XO's etc, so i will make a bit of a sacrifce there.
Looking at the XO more specifically, Angus and i went on a little crusade to pick out the right caps for the job, which we have. We had a plan in mind, but then things took a little turn. It was suggested to me that i'd be just as well buying the kit from the Troels Gravesen PDF. He did a big investigation into the XO's of these classic speakers and made a few very small tweeks. So, having done some research, thats what i am going to do. Once the new XO's are in place, if i still like what oit does in a few months of listening, i will then aquire the caps Angus identified as our personal faves, and fit them.
I have also managed to track down some wire that i will be using on the speakers to do the internal wiring. It's OCC stuff, so it should be sufficient.
So now we have a plan and i am awaiting an email from Jantzen about prices etc....exciting stuff!
I know we already have a Crossover thread on the go wotih Jamies(Karma67) but i think i am going to be going about mine in a sufficiently different way that makes another thread worthwile.
My chief advisor on this process is Angus, so any technical nouse or nuggets of wisdom found in this thread can be attributed to him.
He really should join up.....nudge nudge (I know youre reading this lol)
So, a few weeks back and Angus and i have pretty much scoured the Earth for a set of speakers that will replace the NS1000M. Pretty much anything we have seen or investigated has yeilded nothing that is affordable nor easy to get here in the UK. The German designers seem to have a very solid grip of what makes a good speaker, but anyone other than the main dealers are refusing to deal with us in the UK after Brexit. We had a guy (Torsten) in Germany who was willing to do some postage for me IFwe found anything.
A set of Heco Celan GT 502 nearly made it here, but ultimately the seller decided to sell them locally.
Further searches and enquiries to Quadral Orkan VIII's have been totally ignored and in truth, i have had enough of looking.
The Yamahas dont do anything wrong in general, so after lengthy discussions and with a rock solid offer of support....it's time to turn my attentions to improving the Yams.
The universal approach here seems to be to take the crossovers out of the box and house them externally. Replacing the caps and inductors like-for-like, with better quality components.
After Angus had done his wizardey, he came up with some very legitimate reasons to partly abandon that approach and go for something a little more modern. I'll get to that shortly.
During his shenanigans online, Angus found a really interesting thread from a guy who has already modded his XO's and recorded his findings.
See Here:
My experience with loudspeakers is mainly with various types of electrostatics for some 30 years. Since three years I have used a pair of NS-1000M. Over a six month period I replaced all the components in the filter. This was done in a stepwise fashion so that each change could be evaluated.
Step 1, all the capacitors in the top/mid range were changed to SCR MP. This resulted in much clearer mid/top as well as well as challenging the quality of the equipment being used.
Step 2, the L-pads were cleaned with the EML Contact Cleaner. This gave a distinct unveiling over the whole register. This is so easy to do and should be done by everyone. It only takes 15 minutes to do.
Step 3, the tweeter and midrange coils were replaced with OFC air coils. This gave a much wanted airiness and spaciousness as well as a better decay mode of the signal in the mid/top.
Step 4, the woofer coil was also replaced. This was done rather late and the result came as a big surprise. This change resulted in several things. The low register became very open. The mid range cleaned up even more than before. The decay mode improved, as perceived, over the whole register. I believe that this have to with that the woofer can be heard a bit up in the mid range as pointed out by "Kouiky". The whole speaker became much more coherent and the registers blended much better.
Step 5, a ring magnet was added to the woofer. This was suggested by a friend of mine that is an acoustical engineer and a very clever person with open ears and an opened mind, so sadly rare with engineers in my experience. This resulted in something all NS-1000 owners are looking for. The woofer all of a sudden became more powerful and presented the low register with a lot of energy and control. The start and stop of this unit was also very much improved.
I have decided to start at "Step 5" and throw a magnet onto the rear of the speaker. Angus found a suibtable one and it's on the way.
This seems to be a free swing IMO. For £20, i could either hear a beneficial effect, or i could in fact (to Quote from elsewhere) "alter the sound but the risk of throwing phase alignment"
If it doesnt work out, it's cost £20 and probably 30 minutes of my time in adding them. Who knows.
Next on the agenda was to figure out how i could meet the idea of having most of the benefits of external XO's, but without having all the extra boxes, wiring and connections.
I decided on a "back-pack" type of thing. A flanged box that will house the XO for the speaker, but having it fixed to the external rear wall of the cab. The Plan is to blank off the original hole for the existing XO and run the wiring from the drivers through little grommeted holes into the new externally mounted flanged box.
Concerns have been raised about the cabinet vibration making into the externally attached box, but as far as i can see, it will be an improvement over the original, so i'll be happy enough. I am also not mad keen on on the extra wiring and boxes associated with Ex-XO's etc, so i will make a bit of a sacrifce there.
Looking at the XO more specifically, Angus and i went on a little crusade to pick out the right caps for the job, which we have. We had a plan in mind, but then things took a little turn. It was suggested to me that i'd be just as well buying the kit from the Troels Gravesen PDF. He did a big investigation into the XO's of these classic speakers and made a few very small tweeks. So, having done some research, thats what i am going to do. Once the new XO's are in place, if i still like what oit does in a few months of listening, i will then aquire the caps Angus identified as our personal faves, and fit them.
I have also managed to track down some wire that i will be using on the speakers to do the internal wiring. It's OCC stuff, so it should be sufficient.
So now we have a plan and i am awaiting an email from Jantzen about prices etc....exciting stuff!
