Any electronic modders here at Audiogon?

+1 4krow

Seriously. Especially when it comes to users trading amps and cables to try to get the tonal qualities they want, nothing beats your own speakers and crossovers.

Every day I listen to the best sounding loudspeakers in the world. Not because they are better than any one else's but because they sound exactly like what I want. It is the difference between going to a restaurant and ordering food, and cooking yourself and having it come out just right for you.

Except perhaps room acoustics.

Between the speakers and the room acoustics, I have more than enough to tinker with, adjust, and make right. If I don't like the tonal balance, or whatever I change the crossover, or the room damping. Done.

My biggest obstacle really is affording an apartment with a room conducive to proper speaker placement. :)


Best,


E

...and thanks for the morale support, guys. *S*

I'll be the first to admit that they're not 'perfect', but for a 'work in progress' they're coming along.  Every iteration is showing improvement which is half of the satisfaction for me.  The balance is owning something that has sprung from my own efforts that is beginning to replicate the speakers I heard long ago....perhaps not in the same approach as the originals, but per my thoughts on 'improving the breed', if you will.

One goal is to not have them fry @ 201 watts...the nemesis of the originals.  I'm getting there... ;)

Some good thoughts here.

I agree, a good desoldering station and a good soldering station should be your first investments. I would add a good Fluke multimeter to that. And a word of caution: beware of teflon! When teflon gets hot, 260 C, it begins to decompose into some of the meanest chemicals known. I use a fume hood with exhaust, as well as gloves and a respirator. If you get near teflon, you might want to do likewise.

I know that some of the local John Waynes hereabouts don't give no hoots about HF (hydrogen fluouride), but that's their problem, not mine.

I suggest that you don't mess with high voltage until you learn about it. Everything over 1 KV is qualitatively different from everything under 1 KV.

If you want to get started, joey, there is a wonderful resource, The Art of Electronics by Horowitz and Hill. Lots of stuff you will never find elsewhere, like characteristics of capacitors - they were talking about this stuff in the 80's ! Lots of practical advice and circuits analyzed.

From there it's an obvious step to DIY. The big advantage is not that your equipment will have the best circuit topology, but that you can compensate by using the best components. For much less than the price of top class used, you can have top class that you made yourself. And since you are building everything yourself, you can build in resistor comparisons like 'bigkidz' did, and like I did. By the way, nude Vishay is hands down the best, though costly.

Another thing you can do is design the system as a whole. For example, my Quad ESL's have protection circuits that cut in at 7 KV. So i designed my amps and replaced the step-up transformers to produce a maximum of 4 KV. This allowed me to remove the ESL's protection circuits for a clear improvement in sound.

As you build more and more, you will start to notice other people's mistakes. Even some of the top dogs can make them. There is nothing more satisfying than making your very own!

If you go down the DIY road, you will need a little test equipment. Buy old stuff from HP or Tek; just make sure they are still working. Good quality, low price.

Above all - have fun. And stay safe.