As many of you know I have been trying for several months to use the Seas nextel (w18nx001)drivers as a replacement for the corroded mag (w18e001) drivers in my small Thors. The nextel drivers sound good and although they do some things in the midrange that make them sound excellent with voices and guitars they lack the bass and exacting clarity of the original mag drivers. Out of frustration I decided to change one of the drivers back to the mag driver. the bass filled out and gained about 5 db and the clarity improved and the soundstage and even the imaging seem to be slightly improved. Of course I do not trust myself so I have to ask. why? the bass should have been reduced the nextels are more sensitive. did I create a 2 1/2 way speaker?. what is the penalty? it is no longer a true mtm design or is it? attached are a comparison of measurements the positions are slightly different so the room modes may be different the other is the xsim showing the drivers.
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No nothing against active eq. I have been exploring that. I have to wait a few months to spend anymore on my hobby. Are you thinking the minidsp route? 3 way?
My wife thinks I am nuts as the nextel speakers sound really good I feel like I am whining here, If I never had the thors I would be happy they are likely the second best speakers I have owned. And the upper midrange is likely better than the mag drivers.
The mag drivers just have a weight in the bass and improvement in clarity that is hard to explain but I think they sound better even the way they are setup right now with the mismatched drivers. I have not listened for very long and may change my mind once I listen more. Then again if the nextels crossover was correct the bass may get close to the mag drivers and maybe active would do that for me.
I listen to classical music sometimes and the thors were the only speaker I ever owned that could put different instruments next to each other playing the exact same note in separate space, B&W 802M 's could not do it even with better electronics, still whining,
I still know almost nothing about speaker building and I have spent the last few months learning, Now I know enough to know the difference between the two drivers. and I may have made a different decision about changing them. I know still whining.
My wife thinks I am nuts as the nextel speakers sound really good I feel like I am whining here, If I never had the thors I would be happy they are likely the second best speakers I have owned. And the upper midrange is likely better than the mag drivers.
The mag drivers just have a weight in the bass and improvement in clarity that is hard to explain but I think they sound better even the way they are setup right now with the mismatched drivers. I have not listened for very long and may change my mind once I listen more. Then again if the nextels crossover was correct the bass may get close to the mag drivers and maybe active would do that for me.
I listen to classical music sometimes and the thors were the only speaker I ever owned that could put different instruments next to each other playing the exact same note in separate space, B&W 802M 's could not do it even with better electronics, still whining,
I still know almost nothing about speaker building and I have spent the last few months learning, Now I know enough to know the difference between the two drivers. and I may have made a different decision about changing them. I know still whining.
I will look into that - I see some people are using a pc with a better sound card as an active eq. but the sound card is almost as expensive as the minidsp. I use an old macbook as my music server and even using I tunes eq it does help but it is limited to both channels and the frequencies are set. Is the active eq the same as an active crossover does it go between the preamp and the amp for each driver?
I used to get a lot of value out of one of these *. It helped me refine crossovers and compensate for recordings or whatever. It had some PEQ and memory settings.
You don't need a great sound card to get that off the ground. Start with the one you're using now, and try some software.
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It is a circuit that receives line level signal. When the potentiometer is set in the center position, frequency and phase response remain flat. It can amplify/attenuate up to 12dB. I will report back once it is operational, and this will take some time.
Just wanted to thank you on the eq idea I did use the apo eq it made a big difference added a baffle step and added a little to the bass to mimic the mag drivers and the sound is much better, I was able by moving the speakers around to get a little natural baffle step using the side walls. Sounds very good now thanks again maybe as good as the mag drivers now.
I did go back to the nextel drivers. -I have been using the apo eq now and have to say the sound and measurements are really good. So now I am not sure if a minidsp type crossover or a equalizer is the best solution. right now my windows laptop with digital eq sounds better than the old macbook without eq. it is obvious that getting the frequency near exactly correct does seem to impact everything else. is there a downside to putting in a 31 band eq between the amp and preamp. some even have balanced connections. avshop has the Art 31 band for $219 that would be cheaper than the minidsphd even without the extra amp. will the newer equalizers add noise? Years ago I had a soundcraftsman eq and that added noise once I got better speakers that was the first component to go. The reason I am asking is for the other sources the sacd player and of course the turntable.
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