Help with Wilmslow Audio Forte

[RogerLancaster]

Hi

Does anyone have experience of Wilmslow Audio crossovers and specifically the Wilmslow Audio Forte speakers. I have recently purchased, and rebuilt a pair of these speakers and whilst they are ok, they don’t sound to me anywhere near their potential (considering the drivers) and are a bit fatiguing to listen to – especially at anything over moderate volume.

The Forte is a 50 litre 3 way design using the following drivers:
Treble: Seas T25CF-002 Millennium
Midrange: ATC SM75-150
Bass: Scan-speak 25w8565-01

Crossover points:
500Hz
4kHz

The crossovers are designed by WA as part of the Forte kit, and to my relatively inexperienced eye look fairly basic for a 3 way design - containing Hovland caps in treble, SCR caps for bass and inductors only. There are no resistors in the crossover, padding on the drivers or sound equalisation that I can see.

When I stripped them down I was surprised at how little damping materials were used in the cabinet – Id say maybe 60% of the internal surface area was covered with bitumen backed acoustic foam panels – the rest was plain MDF. Before I rebuilt them they sounded a little boomy to me so when rebuilding them I added a small internal cross brace and heavy duty ‘deadsheet’ bitumen panels to most of the internal surfaces and reinserted the existing acoustic foam panels.

The cabinets are definitely better damped now, but to my ears the drivers still don’t sound optimised. With the drivers above these speakers should sound excellent, however whilst they are very clear the sound to me is a bit fatiguing and considering there are 10’’ bass speakers and 50l cabinets the bass sounds a little recessed at times compared with the midd / treble which sound a little too promient (especially compared with my other commercial speakers (Peak Consult Princess and AVI active ADM9.1).

I emailed Wilmslow Audio and asked about driver matching and how baffle diffraction loss (or baffle step) compensation was implemented and they said it was through the values of the capacitors and inductors.

I would be grateful for any views or tips as to what I can do to improve these speakers? Im fairly new to all this.

[RogerLancaster]

Can anyone help with this - Id be really grateful for any ideas

[Charles Darwin]

Never used one but it is my understanding that the ATC mid needs a fairly complex xover to work at its best. IIRC it needs some eq and steep filter slopes, though to my mind 24dB passive filters are probably not the best idea.

May be someone can chime in who has actually used them with a passive xo as I could easily be wrong.

[RogerLancaster]

Thanks for your comment, the wilmslow crossovers look quite basic, no resistors. I'll post a schematic when I can scan it in.

[RogerLancaster]

Bump

[fatmarley]

Unless someone comes up with a good crossover for these speakers, your best bet would be to measure them and design a new crossover - Or stick them on ebay.

[pinkmouse]

Originally Posted by RogerLancaster

Bump

Scanned the schematic yet?

[dublin78]

Take them back to Wilmslow Audio. Neil??? should be able to suggest some crossover changes to tweak the sound to your taste.

Failing that, ship them off to Troels, or some other experienced designer, for them to make you a bespoke crossover (not cheap inc shipping).

Or, you could buy a Berhinger DCX2496, and a 7.1 reciever and go active. In fact this would be the best way to find out whether you can get a nice sound out of the cabs (I am sure that you can). Buy second hand units of ebay, then flog them afterwards. You would likely not loose any money. One of the Pioneer recievers, the 912 (I forget the other model letters) was touted as being a giant killer when used for audio, so this should not be a bottleneck in term of quality. Many would say that the Behringer unit needs some modifications, but for a speaker sound tweaking experiment (finding a right balance) it should be fine. If you are on a DIY website, you should be able to bypass the crossover easily enough.

Let us know how you get on.

[dublin78]

Reciever: $200 rcvr beats $11k separates

Active XO: BEHRINGER: DCX2496

[RogerLancaster]

Originally Posted by pinkmouse

Scanned the schematic yet?

Hi Ive posted a photo of the crossover schematic here:

P1030455 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Any thoughs as to the suitability of this crossover for the drivers Ive listed and whether members concur that there is no baffle correction or driver spl matching would be appreciated, also any quick tips to improve them.

Thanks again, really appreciate any help!

Roger