Speaker Mods

[pucho812]

HI everybody. :guinness: for starters I want to thank everyone in the DIY forum. I have been learning alot in my short time here. :grin: Anyone ever do any speaker mods? I recently did a mod to a pair of KRK st-6s passive monitor. I got them mainly cause I needed cheap Nearfields
that would add a second opinion on the monitor side. I took out the soft dome tweeter.and in it's place stuck in a ribbon tweeter. I know nothing to fancy but I was quite suprised at how much better it sounded Plus the silver/gray colored woof matched so well with the ribbon. The ribbon tweeters were from fountek and only cost me 81.00 american. Which was about the price of each speaker. here is a link with info on the ribbon tweeter I used.
http://speakercity.com/Fountek/Fountek.shtml
In the end I got a good looking good sounded, A DAM KRK!!!!
pics sooon to follow

 

[ebartlet]

Speaking of mods, has anyone tried building their own speakers, particulaly electrostatics? I've seen several plans on the net. The drivers don't look difficult, but an amplifier that is a good match is another story...

 

[Marik]

[quote author="ebartlet"]Speaking of mods, has anyone tried building their own speakers, particulaly electrostatics? I've seen several plans on the net. The drivers don't look difficult, but an amplifier that is a good match is another story...[/quote]

Yes I built electrostatics from scratch. To feed them I made a direct coupled transformerless amp on 845 tubes. The whole thing was way too big, inefficient, but the sound was incredible, except the fact that image was kinda little confused.

Since then I met my... now already wife, so they had to go...

 

[ebartlet]

Yes I built electrostatics from scratch. To feed them I made a direct coupled transformerless amp on 845 tubes. The whole thing was way too big, inefficient, but the sound was incredible, except the fact that image was kinda little confused.

What was the problem with imaging?

 

[Marik]

Since electrostatics have much bigger area of sound radiation, they are neither point, nor line source, so with some music it is hard to really understand exact instrument positioning, and soundstage becomes kinda clustered. Of course, they have some other very nice qualities, which IMO to some degree offset this drawback. The only electrostatics I know of don't have this issue, is a Quad ESL63, where special concentric arrangement makes them work more as a point source. Needless to say, the image is superb, but their grill and dust covers are another issue. With those removed, they can sound absolutely outstanding. I wish I had a chance to hear them direct coupled. Once I used to service 63's and ESL57s.

 

[Kev]

[quote author="pucho812"] The ribbon tweeters were from fountek and only cost me 81.00 american. Which was about the price of each speaker. here is a link with info on the ribbon tweeter I used.[/quote]
... that ribbon does look interesting and also looks like it would be quite easy to fit into a passive circuit.
I look forward to hearing more about your mod.

 

[pucho812]

Kev,
The mods already done. I just need to post the pictures which I havn't done yet. It has totally opened up the sound of my speakers and has madebetter mixes for me. totally cool I think plus I get to say it's a dam KRK. :green:

 

[nacho459]

Wow, they sell those at Speaker City! that's my source for grill cloth and guitar speaker cabinet hardware.

hmm maybe I'll do a little upgrading to my $15 KLM "home theater" surround speakers I got a Best Buy. :wink:

 

[pucho812]

Nacho

Wow, they sell those at Speaker City! that's my source for grill cloth and guitar speaker cabinet hardware.

Yes thats where I got them. But they go fast according to speaker city.