| Columns Retired Columns & Blogs |
April 30, 2012 - 9:05pm
#1
Modifying speakers question.
| Loudspeakers Amplification Digital Sources | |
Analog Sources Accessories Featured | |
Music Columns Retired Columns | |
Show Reports | |
Features Latest News Community | |
Resources Subscriptions |
© 2024 StereophileAVTech Media Americas Inc., USA
All rights reserved
Likely be hard to find a mid bass driver that integrates better than the one Paradigm uses. They do have a large R & D facility and much background in such matters.
If you do proceed let us no how it turns out.
Not only would it be hard to find a new driver that integrates better (for lack of predictable parameters and due to the larger diameter affecting dispersion) but the crossover would have to be completely redesigned for the new driver and cabinet. A better approach, if you are looking for more/better low end would be to convert the speaker to a 3way by integrating a 10"-12" woofer. This would entail minimal changes in the 40 itself. Of course, a suitable small subwoofer would do the job, too.
Kal
Thanks for the idea Kal. I will consider it.
I fell in love with the Paradigms before I bougth them, based on the info on the Paradigm web site. I was looking to replace some factory renewed Bose series IV 301's I paid about 200 bucks for at a Bose outlet store.
The Paradigm dealer was kind enough to let me bring the 301's in and do a comparison to the Studio 40's. The Bose high and mid range paper cones were just as good, if not better than the Paradigms. The salesman was astonished. The only flaw in the 301's is the bass, due I suspect to the light plastic composit enclosure. Its really bad, hence the 200 dollar price tag.
The Studio 40's bass did out shine the Bose by far, so I bought them. But after some time spent listening to them I had to admit that what was coming out of the 40's was not a Rock sound, just not enough bass.
I did something bizzare. I added a second preamp ahead of my integrated amp. All the sources feed into the 1st pre-amp, which feeds into the pre-amp aux1 input of my Marantz Integrated PM7200. This allowed me to max the bass and treble controls of both pre-amps giving me..more bass. Pretty good. Almost perfect. But not the Rock sound. Really awesome for newer digital recordings like Dave Koz, Saxaphonic, or Johnny Lang, Wander This World. I could have lived with this.
Add a Paradigm Sub 15 and PBK-1 EQ calibration. Even better bass. Great for watching movies too, but too much adjusting the sub for different sources and still not the true Rock sound. And I have to have the family leave the house so I can listen to it. Gotta love this stuff.
So, still pursueing the perfect Rock speaker, and I enjoy the experimenting. Let you know how it turns out.
Know what you mean about subs ishgood. I've tried a gaggle of them including Velodyne with there five programmable presets. It seems like there's no end to messing with the controls. After years of tring I finally ended up with true full range speakers.
The difficulty of trying to get this to work halfway decently is way beyond the expertise of anyone but an experienced speaker design engineer.
THe most likely result will be a lot of wasted time and money and the destruction of a good set of speakers.
I would suggest that you invest in a good subwoofer; that is the obvious way to get what you want.
I suggest the Rythmic FV12 or Polk PSW505.
Well, since I am a DIY myself, I have and do tend to think in various modifications of lots of things, almost always "outside the box". I ussually can better the design limitations which were often price and marketing driven... so I tend to disagree in priciple to the above post. Now he is entirely right in that you do need to do the engineering. I tend to think if someone else can engineer something than I can too... just have to learn what I need to. I also do not have the mfr engineer's limitations... I'm only building one, so over engineering and the last penny of costs are not factors as they are for a manuafacturer who will be building a few 100,000 or them or whatever.
That being said... one does need to do their homework... reasearch what your current drivers need, and what it takes for a cabinet to meet them. In my humble opinion... the number of drivers is important... the more the better IF they are all matched and the cabinets and crossovers are mated. Remember... just becuase your 6" driver can go down to certain frequencies... doesn't mean it has to. Its not likely its that efficient at the low frequencies anyway... (everything is a tradeoff). Let another larger driver do it and adjust where the crossover sends the information. Like the one said... without knowing more... I'd consider using your current drivers, research what they can do.. mate them to a 3rd driver for extened base and replace the crossover to marry them. You may have to redesign a cabinet. Also IMHO, do not overlook cabinet effects... that is critical too. In this price range you may want to consider trading in and getting a new set of true 3 or 4 ways if its not the challange of it that attracts you to DIY. You may have the same money invested at the end. I understand the money driver too though in DIY... I save myself alot of money that way, but not everything lends itself to it. I would suggest further reaserch on the money end of it in this case.
Dave
A Steven Wright one-liner comes to mind,
"I bought a new digital camera. Its so good you don't even need it."
Makes me laugh. Kind of applies to my current system.
Yes Ill have to research speaker building. There are a lot of helpful books and web sites. I work with industrial amps and instrumentation. Looking fwd to getting into audio.
And yes im in it for the DIY factor.
There are three crossover circuits in the Studio 40's , one for each driver. Each contains an inductor, capacitor and resistor. Obviously the one for the tweeter has the comonents arranged in a high pass configuration, the mid and bass components are in low pass configurations. Their literature says the mid rolls off at 2kHz and the bass at 500Hz.
As a quick test I bought some cheap ready made sub boxes, and two 10" "replacement woofers". I removed the bass drivers from the studio 40's and connected the sub boxes and drove them with the bass crossover in the '40's. They sounded kind of flat and not loud enough, but something exciting was there. The rock sound. I think Im on the right track.
Im sure the crossover components are the highest quality, but I dont see anything magic on them. The quality of the sound must be due to the proprietary Paradigm drivers and their cabinet. The cabinet is made of MDF, ported, and has some batting and a baffle that drops down behind the tweeter and the mid driver.
So, I think its worth pursueing a stand alone 4th driver, built with a higher end driver and the right crossover.
Onward.
Sounds like a Rythmik subwoofer to me...