Guest russwollman Posted October 14, 2004 Report Share Posted October 14, 2004 Pretty amazing results. I found an improved soundstage, less harshness and stridency, more delicate reproduction, and the speakers do seem to disappear.Let's hear it for Pete, who was enormously helpful to the point where I was even able to fabricate this magic box.Now, I have to create a second one for my second system!This is a sllick trick in every respect. You'll get an awful lot from very little. Do try this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest russwollman Posted October 14, 2004 Report Share Posted October 14, 2004 A bit more information: if you already have a soldering iron, solder, and some 24 gauge wire, all you'll spend for this is about $11 for the resistors and caps, unless you buy the chassis/box from Radio Shark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete B Posted October 14, 2004 Report Share Posted October 14, 2004 Thanks Russ, I can't get over it either, usually I keep wanting to improve a design but this is so good I could just leave it. I'm still shaking my head not expecting Advents could ever sound this good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ken Perkins Posted October 26, 2004 Report Share Posted October 26, 2004 I got the circuit built and put it in my tape loop this past Thursday and have been listening to it for a few days now. Overall, I kind of like it, although I didn't at first. It seem to suck alot of gain away until I upped the volume control a bit to compensate. It's kind of like a good loudness control or a subtle tone control. Since my preamp has neither, it's kind of nice to have and if I don't want it I can just hit the "tap mon" button.The overall sound seems to loose some "air" or presence at first and the background is less black or transparent. A lift of the volume control restores some of this. The thing I like about it ALOT is it gives the lowend a little bit more "grunt" (for lack of a better word) than before. I get no indication that the woofer is being overdriven, by the way. As for any treble boost, I can't say that I hear any so it must be very subtle compared to the lowend lift.I may eventually try the other version to go between my preamp and amp to free up my tape monitor, which I have a vintage Marantz Model 26 receiver connected to for the tuner and an extra phono input. For now, I'm going to keep listening. Others should try it for the heck of it because it's dirt cheap to try and should work with any "bookshelf" type speaker that doesn't have baffle step compensated for in their crossovers. I simply wired the parts between two phono plugs with a short piece of bell wire wrapped around the whole thing for a shield, attached at the load end. Dead quiet and works perfect! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest russwollman Posted October 26, 2004 Report Share Posted October 26, 2004 The biggest improvement I noticed was a much smoother treble delivery, especially at high levels. Big choral works, such as a recording of Berlioz' La Marseillaise ( an amazing performance with the Baltimore Symphony, Telarc CD-80164), were annoying at satisfying levels. But this little circuit renders the sound sweet and listenable. And of course, the best thing is, it's easy to have or not have the effect, whereas a crossover change is unhandy to undo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete B Posted October 29, 2004 Report Share Posted October 29, 2004 Thanks to both of you for trying it. I'm used to listening to systems with baffle step compensations so it sounds right to me, the speakers also disappear in a way I never thought Advents could. I always thought that there was something right about the Advents but also something wrong. I now see that he did a good job on the crossover in terms of a smooth transition between drivers but of course without baffle step compensation (BSC). The lack of BSC was what was not quite right. We should note that this system has the 16 uF "increase" cap which gives the system less of a dark and laid back character.Ken, I remember you saying that you did some work acoustically to help with the baffle loss, so you might need a bit less compensation. You could experiment with placement height and it's really worth trying them at least a few feet out into the room so that they have a chance to image and disappear. I'm thinking of making a table with component values for BSC in 1 dB steps, one could build a version with DIP switches to allow adjustment. I'll try to get to it, but I still have to get to the refoaming. Your right it should offer a significant improvement for most large bookshelf systems that lack BSC.Russ, I'd say your observations are right on in the sweetness at higher playback levels since the circuit offers attenuation in the BBC dip area which is noted for exactly what you describe. I find that it just sounds right, even vocals sound much more real and convincing with good recordings. There are a lot of bad recordings out there so we have to watch out for this.Thanks again, hope a few others try it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest molecules Posted October 31, 2004 Report Share Posted October 31, 2004 I'm tempted to try this, as I always thought Advent's biggest weakness is that they don't disappear. I am a little confused because I read that modern speakers disappear because of their slimer profile vs. the wider boxes of vintage speakers. But your mod is to create a bigger baffle ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete B Posted October 31, 2004 Report Share Posted October 31, 2004 Hi, yes there was a trend with KEF 105s, B&W 801s, Vandersteen, and many others where the enclosure stepped down in size to help imaging and I also thought to help the system disappear. But there are many other audiophile designs that disappear and do not use stepped enclosures, Thiel, Dunlavy, JMLAB, really most others. I believe the stepped enclosure helps with imaging but most important for the speaker to disappear is an accurate frequency response that offers a convincing illusion to the ear-brain of the real thing being in the room. The mod is to correct the frequency response of a smaller baffle while still allowing the smaller baffle to provide more of a point source at least in the drivers lower frequency range.Your comment suggests another mod, the tweeter could be put in a small enclosure on top of the Advent box as was done with the B&W801 for example. Turning the box upside down would also bring the woofer closer to the tweeter since the woofer is very close to the bottom. I don't know if this will offer any significant improvement in imaging but it's easy to try.Hope you try the BSC, like to hear your comments!>I'm tempted to try this, as I always thought Advent's biggest>weakness is that they don't disappear. I am a little confused>because I read that modern speakers disappear because of their>slimer profile vs. the wider boxes of vintage speakers. But>your mod is to create a bigger baffle ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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