Opera Quinta - phase

[simpsonjp]

I have a set of Opera Quinta Loudspeakers (2 1/2 way) which have never sounded quite right to me. Well last night a very good friend of mine brought over a device called Galaxy Audio "Cricket" - S/T phase checker. The right speaker showed the tweeter in phase, the top mid/bass unit in phase, but the second and third woofer out of phase. In left speaker showed the tweeter in phase, but the mid/bass and the second and third woofers were out of phase. My questions is which one is right or is either one of these right. My friend says I should rewire all of the speakers to be in phase. I do know some speaker manufactures will wire the tweeter out of phase with the woofer.
Thanks,
Jeff

[speaker dave]

Originally Posted by simpsonjp

My questions is which one is right or is either one of these right. My friend says I should rewire all of the speakers to be in phase. I do know some speaker manufactures will wire the tweeter out of phase with the woofer.
Thanks,
Jeff

First off, don't rewire all units to be in phase. As a part of speaker design the designers would have found the best polarity for the various sections based on depth and delay of the units and crossover slopes that worked best. Of course the two systems should be similarly connected.

Sounds like the polarities of the mid units are questionable. A better test for confirming if the left/right speakers are truly different is to place them face to face with the drivers as close as possible (I am assuming drivers all in a line) and then feed mono pink noise or FM interstation hiss into both units while one system is connected out of phase This means normal connections for one system and red to black and black to red for the second system. You should get a great deal of cancelation across the frequency band when doing this. (Flip the second system back to normal and see the difference.)

If your mids are not both connected the same then you will get poor cancelation with all midrange for the first wiring case and all bass and treble but no midrange for the second wiring case. You should do this test before anything else as the polarity testers can sometimes be erratic.

If you do find the mids are differently connected you will need to investigate inside to see if you can sleuth out which is right and which is wrong. Look at wire color codes and markings on the boards.

Generally, between two systems with different connections you will notice one has an integrated sound on pink noise and the one with misconnections will sound a little phasey and more "split up".

Good Luck,
David S.

[simpsonjp]

Hi Dave,

Thanks so much for the reply. I had typed up everything I have done in the last 12 hours to solve the problem and lost it all when I discovered that being a new member I can't post a quick reply.

So here's what I've discovered. The left mid/woofer is out of phase with the right mid/woofer for sure.

I removed the left mid/woofer and all I can see is two sets of wires coming from the lower part of the enclosure through holes which are sealed with one set going to the mid/woofer and other to the tweeter.

The set of wires going to the mid/woofer have the striped wire soldered to the negative speaker terminal and the solid color wire going to the positive speaker terminal.

I'm going to stop here for now and get some rest before I venture on. Thank you very much for the much needed reply.

Jeff

[simpsonjp]

For those interested on the outcome of this post. The left Mid/Bass Woofer per the manufacture was out of phase. I rewired the Mid/Bass Woofer re-assembled the Opera. I waited till my brother came by several days later to audition the rewired Opera. My brother and I were floored, Wow, Wow is all he could say. I think I will keep the Opera Quinta's. For awhile atleast!

Thanks,

Jeff