I was tired by default aluminium magnesium tweeters sound of my Focal Shape 65, because I like much more silk domes tweeters that are, imho, more delicate and defined.
So I searched for a silk tweeter that could be dimensionally compatible without modifying or damaging the MDF cabinet. It's was not easy to find a good compromise, because the helliptical holes already present on the box are really small, so there were not so many decent tweeters that could be minimslly compatible.
I therefore found Monacor DT-28N tweeters, they have the right response and the right gain that will not make you regret the originals with alu-mag inverted dome.
Furthermore they can work until 50W rms and they have the biggest neodimium magnet available for a tweeter of that dimensions.
I therefore excluded the mass of chinese bulk tweeters that could not warrant any decent results.
Now the treble sound of my loudspeakers is crystal clear as I wanted !
As they are linear starting from 2Khz, also the low portion of treble maybe well aligned with original speaker specifications.
However, this modify is non disruptive so you can restore original setup at anytime you want with a simple screwdriver.
Here the link for the 3d printable support on Thingiverse:
Focal Shape Alu Tweeter Upgrade to Monacor DT-28N Silk Dome by Asterion72 - Thingiverse
Enjoy it !
So I searched for a silk tweeter that could be dimensionally compatible without modifying or damaging the MDF cabinet. It's was not easy to find a good compromise, because the helliptical holes already present on the box are really small, so there were not so many decent tweeters that could be minimslly compatible.
I therefore found Monacor DT-28N tweeters, they have the right response and the right gain that will not make you regret the originals with alu-mag inverted dome.
Furthermore they can work until 50W rms and they have the biggest neodimium magnet available for a tweeter of that dimensions.
I therefore excluded the mass of chinese bulk tweeters that could not warrant any decent results.
Now the treble sound of my loudspeakers is crystal clear as I wanted !
As they are linear starting from 2Khz, also the low portion of treble maybe well aligned with original speaker specifications.
However, this modify is non disruptive so you can restore original setup at anytime you want with a simple screwdriver.
Here the link for the 3d printable support on Thingiverse:
Focal Shape Alu Tweeter Upgrade to Monacor DT-28N Silk Dome by Asterion72 - Thingiverse
Enjoy it !
Attachments
I'm Sorry, one part of the original text already present in Thingiverse is missing:
"As I don't have anything than my ears to test it, I cannot give any warranty about loudspeaker linearity, after modifying them"
But I can add one additional thing, I've already tried to mod my loudspeaker with 19mm Peerless tweeter and I was not satisfied, because there was a lack in some frequencies, if compared to original tweeters.
"As I don't have anything than my ears to test it, I cannot give any warranty about loudspeaker linearity, after modifying them"
But I can add one additional thing, I've already tried to mod my loudspeaker with 19mm Peerless tweeter and I was not satisfied, because there was a lack in some frequencies, if compared to original tweeters.
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Sure about it ? 😕
We are talking about Focal Shape that are active speakers with an integrated (adjustable) electronic crossover.
Furthermore DT-28N has same Rec. crossov. freq. (fmax.) 2,000 Hz as the original tweeters that for some reason are deaf at high frequencies, despite their specifications on paper.
They weren't never satisfying also keeping cross over @+3db, Monacor sounds as expected already with 0db gain.
Not all have same taste regarding treble, but if you aren't satisfied with them this could be a good compromise.
We are talking about Focal Shape that are active speakers with an integrated (adjustable) electronic crossover.
Furthermore DT-28N has same Rec. crossov. freq. (fmax.) 2,000 Hz as the original tweeters that for some reason are deaf at high frequencies, despite their specifications on paper.
They weren't never satisfying also keeping cross over @+3db, Monacor sounds as expected already with 0db gain.
Not all have same taste regarding treble, but if you aren't satisfied with them this could be a good compromise.
Great mod....and you obviously thought about it!
....different strokes for different folks though, and I think you took a drastic approach. The tweeters on my Focal Shape 40's are the best I have ever heard. Not a hint of sharpness, fatigue or sibilance, and all the reviews with testify to that.
For me they pass the CHVRCHES Lauren Mayberry test....quite severe! But it wasn't always that way and I would change my speakers regularly in an attempt to tame the treble. I subsequently learned it wasnt the tweeters that were at fault....turned out to be my system!
Once I was aware of this I tackled the problem from a different direction and cured the problem!
....different strokes for different folks though, and I think you took a drastic approach. The tweeters on my Focal Shape 40's are the best I have ever heard. Not a hint of sharpness, fatigue or sibilance, and all the reviews with testify to that.
For me they pass the CHVRCHES Lauren Mayberry test....quite severe! But it wasn't always that way and I would change my speakers regularly in an attempt to tame the treble. I subsequently learned it wasnt the tweeters that were at fault....turned out to be my system!
Once I was aware of this I tackled the problem from a different direction and cured the problem!
Hi, and thank you for your interest in my thread,
I have several DACs one is a Burson conductor and a pair of Teradak, one of them is a NOS Chameleon, In addition I have also a Pro-ject DAC and an old Audio Alchemy.
My Focal are connected to them through a "preamplifier" that is only a switch with a resistive attenuator, so I don't have a weak chain and nothing on it is giving me a bad sound, because I have several sources that are usually appreciated from other people.
I don't have personally nothing against Alu tweeters I but i prefer the silk dome sound, the highs are softer, smoother and more natural.
(As I said previously my modify is non disruptive so you can restore original setup at anytime you want with a simple screwdriver)
The only thing I can suggest is to try it if you want to try a different treble "flavour" but, if you are satisfied with original tweeter, personally I don't have anything against them.
As I don't use my speaker for studio works but only for listening to music, I don't pretend that they are better than original and neither that this mod could fit for all the ears, the important thing is that they are working fine for my purposes.
Maybe that in the future I will roll back, just to compare them again, but right now I'm still very satisfied.
Have a good day
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I like most of the things of my Focal Shapes, they answer very well to transients and they have a really good extension at low frequencies so I would not change them with other speakers. It's difficult if not impossible to find another system with these qualities but, unfortunately, I prefer silk 😇
When I had PC I found that was responsible for much of the harshness in my system. Linear power supply greatly improved this ....but even more, a dedicated transport virtually eliminated.
By the way, are you concerned with how hot Shape amp gets?
By the way, are you concerned with how hot Shape amp gets?
Dacs are not powered by pc and have their dedicated linear power supply. Pc has a Gold certified 750W Corsair.
Yah ..I had dedicated PC for audio made, fanless. I put a linear power supply on the PC and it made a huge difference. Biggest difference though was ditching it and Windows.
Anyway, to each his own.....enjoy!
Anyway, to each his own.....enjoy!
A linear power supply with all this current for Pc may not easy to find, but it gives me only digital signal from usb so I'm not particularly worried about it, I'm sure that it's not feeding dacs with wrong values. It's different instead if you Dac is powered by PC.
What DAC are you currently using ?
Regarding the amp(s) they get hot only during hot season (like the last week) but as usually I don't push them too much, for the most of the time a keep them at less 5% of their power and only occasionally I push them more but doing this I never go over 50% of their capability. They are AB class amps so warming is normal, specially if kept under a certain threshold.
Agree...it will be hard to find LPS to power big PC. Your assumption that noise from the PC does not get into the digital stream I have found not to be the case. Ditching the PC for a dedicated transport with LPS was a big revelation.
.....but I have now taken to the extreme and eliminated the transport. I have found using my SMSL M500 MK2 DAC direct into my Focals gives the best sound yet. My phone connects to the DAC using Bluetooth LDAC protocol and eliminates all power supplies and cables.
I fitted a fan to my speakers.....stays nice and cool now!
.....but I have now taken to the extreme and eliminated the transport. I have found using my SMSL M500 MK2 DAC direct into my Focals gives the best sound yet. My phone connects to the DAC using Bluetooth LDAC protocol and eliminates all power supplies and cables.
I fitted a fan to my speakers.....stays nice and cool now!
This is my solution:
To avoid noise from pc that is usually a "ground loop noise, my speakers are now both disconnected from ground but I kept ground connection for pc.
It's a common problem with all amplificated studio monitors that can be eliminated only using balanced cables with dacs that have balanced output.
But as the Dacs that I own are unbalanced, I'm successfully using this workaround (Iusually prefer unbalanced signal too, it's seems to be less manipulated).
The second thing that is helping me is the passive preamp that attenuating the signal reduce further the noise, also if it a compromise, because it reduce also the strenght of DAC signal. Some white noise is still present, also if it's tolerable.
To return to your system, you gave me some good suggestions.
As LDAC protocol can stream lossless audio that is identical in quality to (or slightly higher than) Audio CD, I'm really interested to the solution that you are currently using in your chain, maybe that LDAC through BT could resolve a lot of issues, reducing noise definitevely.
SMSL M500 MK2 DAC supports LDAC it natively ? As you have connected it directly to speaker, are you using balanced cables ?
If not, are you using some RCA attenuators ?
Let me know !
Yes. I wanted to explore bluetooth and bought a BT5 transmitter that supported LDAC. This needed usual LPS (I uses temple Audio Supercaps supply) and a good lead. I used tablet to stream both from flac files stored on board and YouTube Music. Sound surprisingly matched my Limetree streamer.
I then decided to buy a DAC with built in BT.....the SMSL M400 first, then M500 mk2 more recent. This was a big upgrade over my BT receiver.
Now I use dedicated phone, and discovered some sounded good, some bad. I must have tried about half a dozen.....only cheap Chinese stuff. The Xiaomi sounded worse, Umidigi best! So dont think the most expensive phones sound better. My son has flagship Pixel, and the sound is terrible! He bought Umidigi now.....
Balanced cables to Shapes, unbalanced to subs.
I then decided to buy a DAC with built in BT.....the SMSL M400 first, then M500 mk2 more recent. This was a big upgrade over my BT receiver.
Now I use dedicated phone, and discovered some sounded good, some bad. I must have tried about half a dozen.....only cheap Chinese stuff. The Xiaomi sounded worse, Umidigi best! So dont think the most expensive phones sound better. My son has flagship Pixel, and the sound is terrible! He bought Umidigi now.....
Balanced cables to Shapes, unbalanced to subs.
May be that a FIIO BTA30 PRO could cover several needs ? (also connected to a pc)
Passing through BT could be expensive but warrants the best electrical isolation, especially from a desktop pc (I prefer to avoid phones)