Recently I changed the coils and caps in my speaker. My speaker is a DIY designed by the late Rick Craig in 2003. The speaker closely resembles Troels CNO 25. Drivers are Seas W18E and tweeter is Hiquphon OW-1. I rebuilt my speaker in 2018. I used Jantzen Air Core coils and Clarity Cap CSA caps. While I changed everything inside the speaker, the significant sounding changes were the coils and caps for the main W18 driver. I did the changes in stages, rather than all at once. This gave me the opportunity to assess each change.
The Clarity CSA was changed to Jantzen Silver-Z. This made a noticeable and significant change to all parameters of the sound quality. I heard this immediately after making the change. I should have just used Superior-Z's as they are the same cap as Silver-Z with just different leads and different prices.
The most significant change turned out to be when I changed the 15ga. Air Core coil for 16ga. Cross Coil. This was done on recommendation of an audio friend who highly recommended the Cross Coils.
Jantzen describes the Cross Coils as reducing distortion and increasing dynamic headroom. In terms of sound changes, well, that is a bit tricky. Jantzen also says that coils do not change sound like caps do. But the sound does change. And what I found is that now everything I play sounds like the greatest recording ever. I only play classical and jazz, and I am heavy with sacd discs.
With regards to classical music recordings, most serious classical listeners are well familiar with the sound of DGG recordings from the 80's and 90's as being somewhat mediocre. They were so mediocre that I stopped buying them, but I still have a few. With the Cross Coils now in the speaker, I find these once mediocre recordings to sound close to the best recordings ever. I never thought this possible.
While I realize that the above paragraph is worthless anecdotal evidence, nonetheless, it has been my experience. And all other recordings that I play, whether they be classical or jazz, cd or sacd, or even computer files, also sound better than I ever heard them before.
FWIW, the rest of my system in Marantz Ruby player and Orchard Audio Starkrimson Ultra amplifer. I use a Tortuga volume control and make my own cables from VHAudio wire. I set up my speakers using Sumiko-Master Set Procedure.
I highly recommend the Jantzen Cross Coils!!
I am writing this post mostly because there are no posts on forums about the Jantzen Cross Coils. Now there is one, and I give these coils the highest recommendation
The Clarity CSA was changed to Jantzen Silver-Z. This made a noticeable and significant change to all parameters of the sound quality. I heard this immediately after making the change. I should have just used Superior-Z's as they are the same cap as Silver-Z with just different leads and different prices.
The most significant change turned out to be when I changed the 15ga. Air Core coil for 16ga. Cross Coil. This was done on recommendation of an audio friend who highly recommended the Cross Coils.
Jantzen describes the Cross Coils as reducing distortion and increasing dynamic headroom. In terms of sound changes, well, that is a bit tricky. Jantzen also says that coils do not change sound like caps do. But the sound does change. And what I found is that now everything I play sounds like the greatest recording ever. I only play classical and jazz, and I am heavy with sacd discs.
With regards to classical music recordings, most serious classical listeners are well familiar with the sound of DGG recordings from the 80's and 90's as being somewhat mediocre. They were so mediocre that I stopped buying them, but I still have a few. With the Cross Coils now in the speaker, I find these once mediocre recordings to sound close to the best recordings ever. I never thought this possible.
While I realize that the above paragraph is worthless anecdotal evidence, nonetheless, it has been my experience. And all other recordings that I play, whether they be classical or jazz, cd or sacd, or even computer files, also sound better than I ever heard them before.
FWIW, the rest of my system in Marantz Ruby player and Orchard Audio Starkrimson Ultra amplifer. I use a Tortuga volume control and make my own cables from VHAudio wire. I set up my speakers using Sumiko-Master Set Procedure.
I highly recommend the Jantzen Cross Coils!!
I am writing this post mostly because there are no posts on forums about the Jantzen Cross Coils. Now there is one, and I give these coils the highest recommendation
Here is some brief follow up on my post.
Jantzen makes 2 lines of foil coils, Wax Coils and Cross Coils.
The Wax Coils are a bit more expensive than the Cross Coils. They both use the same 4N foil. The Wax Coil have some features that the Cross Coils do not, likely the source of the price difference. Perhaps the Wax Coils are better.
Nonetheless, either line of coil offers better performance than the Air Core coil.
Jantzen makes 2 lines of foil coils, Wax Coils and Cross Coils.
The Wax Coils are a bit more expensive than the Cross Coils. They both use the same 4N foil. The Wax Coil have some features that the Cross Coils do not, likely the source of the price difference. Perhaps the Wax Coils are better.
Nonetheless, either line of coil offers better performance than the Air Core coil.
It's not unusual to impregnate coils to prevent/reduce the turns from moving. As to whether it makes a difference in this case is hard to say without seeing evidence.
My advice, and it's kind of a theme if not a soap box, is to measure the system impedance before and after doing such work. Make sure that you don't inadvertantly drop the DCR in a coil which is parallel to the driver without considering compensating for it as in some rare cases it can lead to unexpectedly low impedance situations.
Not quite, the Jantzen coils are BAKED. There are several different kinds of enamel dippings for magnet wire. There is a double layer Solderon, single layer Solderon, and double layer bakeable enamels. This way the inner layer won't melt at the melting point of the outer layer. The magnet wire comes with this layer already attached.
To impregnate bond the coils is an after the wind process, usually dipped in/with Gortex, polyurethane, lacquer, etc.
At least this is how I understand it.
To impregnate bond the coils is an after the wind process, usually dipped in/with Gortex, polyurethane, lacquer, etc.
At least this is how I understand it.