Member
Joined 2019
Evening all
Has anyone done a successful crossover upgrade for the ProAC Response DT8 floorstanders as yet? :Looking for cap/resistor/inductor upgrades. I love the speakers but cannot resist the urge to upgrade/fiddle.
Rest of the system:
Thorens TD MKII heavily modified plinth and suspension, Handmade tonearm, Goldring E3 cartridge.
Cambridge Audio SM6 Streamer
Roksan Kandy KA1 MKIII Integrated Amplifier
Home-made interconnects and speaker cables to TNT Audio designs
Other speakers Custom built 105litre ported cabinets housing Tannoy 10" DC Drivers (HPD295A) and Batpure Supertweeter (these are fabulous but SWMBO has strictly banned them when we move to our new place in August!)
Music tastes Rock, Jazz, female and male vocals. I like it loud.
Has anyone done a successful crossover upgrade for the ProAC Response DT8 floorstanders as yet? :Looking for cap/resistor/inductor upgrades. I love the speakers but cannot resist the urge to upgrade/fiddle.
Rest of the system:
Thorens TD MKII heavily modified plinth and suspension, Handmade tonearm, Goldring E3 cartridge.
Cambridge Audio SM6 Streamer
Roksan Kandy KA1 MKIII Integrated Amplifier
Home-made interconnects and speaker cables to TNT Audio designs
Other speakers Custom built 105litre ported cabinets housing Tannoy 10" DC Drivers (HPD295A) and Batpure Supertweeter (these are fabulous but SWMBO has strictly banned them when we move to our new place in August!)
Music tastes Rock, Jazz, female and male vocals. I like it loud.
An equaliser can be a good way to learn what should be and what can't be fixed on a speaker in it's current state.
Despite what boutique caps and coils sellers want to let you think, simply changing a component with another one with the same value won't change anything in a speaker. This has been demonstrated. The contrary is only a psychological effect. If you think that your speaker has something that can be improved FR wise, then what Allen said is a good place to start.
Ralf
Member
Joined 2019
Thanks, @AllenB and @giralfino for the input. I am aware of the potential for "Snake Oil" with all this stuff from the producers of audio parts. Having said that I have experienced some fairly large improvements with crossover changes before, but then aging the crossovers were 40-years old so may just be bringing components back to original spec.
Aint that the truth! I just recently added roon to the mix and with it comes a really cool EQ, playing around with it drew immediate attention to what needed to happen in fine tuning the XO. 😎
Member
Joined 2019
I have Roon also, a great system. I have not tried to mess about with the various EQs it has but may have a go later today, could be a cheap way to improve the sound?
If you already have roon then you have nothing to lose except time!
make sure you run your system for a good hour before tweaking (so everything is warmed/loosened up) and park yourself in the most used listening position and tweak away! Be careful not to clip the signal by adding too much gain.
cool thing is with multiple curves you can have one for soft, loud, in between, sitting, moving around……im not sure how many curves one is allowed but you get the point. Im still figuring out exactly what does what but looking at the curve i ended up with, it immediately brought to my attention that my mid driver was too hot…..added some more series resistance on the midrange and fixed that issue!
make sure you run your system for a good hour before tweaking (so everything is warmed/loosened up) and park yourself in the most used listening position and tweak away! Be careful not to clip the signal by adding too much gain.
cool thing is with multiple curves you can have one for soft, loud, in between, sitting, moving around……im not sure how many curves one is allowed but you get the point. Im still figuring out exactly what does what but looking at the curve i ended up with, it immediately brought to my attention that my mid driver was too hot…..added some more series resistance on the midrange and fixed that issue!
You can't fix everything with EQ but for those things you can, I wouldn't call it a cheap way to improve the sound, I'd call it necessary.
Member
Joined 2019
Big changes to the system:
All I have left from the original system below are the Tannoys (currently in storage at my old house and for sale if anyone wants them at £1200). Everything else has been sold and replaced.
Original System
Thorens TD150 MKII heavily modified plinth and suspension, Handmade tonearm, Goldring E3 cartridge.
Cambridge Audio SM6 Streamer
Roksan Kandy KA1 MKIII Integrated Amplifier
Home-made interconnects and speaker cables to TNT Audio designs
ProaC DT 8's
Other speakers, Custom built 105-litre ported cabinets housing Tannoy 10" DC Drivers (HPD295A) and Batpure supertweeter.
System Now
Roon running on IBM mini PC, remote control on IPad
Cambridge Audio 851D DAC running balanced cables to;
Advantage S2 Pre-Amp - Class A pre-amp running balanced cables to;
Advantage S150 Power Amp - Pure Class A 150wpc beast that doubles as a room heater
ProAc DT8s - Bi-wired from Amp with Chord Rumour X speaker cables
The pre-amp is hooked up to an Audiolab DC PowerBlock power conditioner
The synergy in the system is amazing. The Cambridge is very detailed if a touch bright, with tight, deep bass, Amps have a typical Class A silky delivery (Think Sugden A21 Signature) but with immense dynamic capabilities (1800VA transformer and 120000mF reservoir capacitors). The power amp can deliver up to 51 Amps. I have only run the system at very high volumes once and the power and control on display was impressive (and far too loud for comfort). The drums on Phil Collins in the Air Tonight sounded like an Earthquake!
Normal 70-80Db listening range has been resumed and the soundstage, weight, tonality, and clarity are outstanding. All-day listening is easy with only the worst recordings ever sounding harsh.
Plans
The listening room is a tad reverberant at the moment with RT60 measured at 0.9 seconds which is making the sound slightly lively. So, some DIY room treatment is needed at some stage soon (depending on the SWMBO acceptance factor). Currently, a big cushion behind my head tames this (makes me think the reverb is largely from the wall around 8 feet behind me). The room is well furnished with soft stuff but quite large (6.4m x 5.0m and open plan to two other rooms not far off the same size to the rear and one side. The other side is a huge window with no curtains (SWMBO approval is very high for some heavy curtains!).
I was considering sending the Cambridge to a local guy called Ear Audio for an upgrade to the clock, signal caps and op amps which I am led to believe will take it to the next level, but it all hangs together so well at the moment that I am loathe to let it go for 2-weeks and a couple of hundred quid!
I had the Amp circuits checked out when I bought it and all is in within original spec (dates to around 2008 vintage I think) so leaving well alone.
Sorry for the long post and any comments gratefully received.
Sandy
All I have left from the original system below are the Tannoys (currently in storage at my old house and for sale if anyone wants them at £1200). Everything else has been sold and replaced.
Original System
Thorens TD150 MKII heavily modified plinth and suspension, Handmade tonearm, Goldring E3 cartridge.
Cambridge Audio SM6 Streamer
Roksan Kandy KA1 MKIII Integrated Amplifier
Home-made interconnects and speaker cables to TNT Audio designs
ProaC DT 8's
Other speakers, Custom built 105-litre ported cabinets housing Tannoy 10" DC Drivers (HPD295A) and Batpure supertweeter.
System Now
Roon running on IBM mini PC, remote control on IPad
Cambridge Audio 851D DAC running balanced cables to;
Advantage S2 Pre-Amp - Class A pre-amp running balanced cables to;
Advantage S150 Power Amp - Pure Class A 150wpc beast that doubles as a room heater
ProAc DT8s - Bi-wired from Amp with Chord Rumour X speaker cables
The pre-amp is hooked up to an Audiolab DC PowerBlock power conditioner
The synergy in the system is amazing. The Cambridge is very detailed if a touch bright, with tight, deep bass, Amps have a typical Class A silky delivery (Think Sugden A21 Signature) but with immense dynamic capabilities (1800VA transformer and 120000mF reservoir capacitors). The power amp can deliver up to 51 Amps. I have only run the system at very high volumes once and the power and control on display was impressive (and far too loud for comfort). The drums on Phil Collins in the Air Tonight sounded like an Earthquake!
Normal 70-80Db listening range has been resumed and the soundstage, weight, tonality, and clarity are outstanding. All-day listening is easy with only the worst recordings ever sounding harsh.
Plans
The listening room is a tad reverberant at the moment with RT60 measured at 0.9 seconds which is making the sound slightly lively. So, some DIY room treatment is needed at some stage soon (depending on the SWMBO acceptance factor). Currently, a big cushion behind my head tames this (makes me think the reverb is largely from the wall around 8 feet behind me). The room is well furnished with soft stuff but quite large (6.4m x 5.0m and open plan to two other rooms not far off the same size to the rear and one side. The other side is a huge window with no curtains (SWMBO approval is very high for some heavy curtains!).
I was considering sending the Cambridge to a local guy called Ear Audio for an upgrade to the clock, signal caps and op amps which I am led to believe will take it to the next level, but it all hangs together so well at the moment that I am loathe to let it go for 2-weeks and a couple of hundred quid!
I had the Amp circuits checked out when I bought it and all is in within original spec (dates to around 2008 vintage I think) so leaving well alone.
Sorry for the long post and any comments gratefully received.
Sandy
Member
Joined 2019
Member
Joined 2019
OK, read the article:
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...er-use-a-16uf-cap-that-is-really-18uf.387658/
And commented to ask if there was ever a resulting crossover design out of this?
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...er-use-a-16uf-cap-that-is-really-18uf.387658/
And commented to ask if there was ever a resulting crossover design out of this?