Eliminating spade connectors, upgrading bits, soldering all of it in

@sns Why people defer to OEM’s for so many products is beyond me, people just assume manufacturers have their best interests in mind, this especially in higher priced goods. Maybe they have, maybe they haven’t, I can only offer that one should look under the hood, educate yourself on what is quality and what isn’t. 

imo, 90% of the mainstream folks out there play it safe, and it makes really good sense for them if they are not hands-on nor want to explore or understand the benefits of upgrades, or how to explain it all.

BTW, I formerly designed and built (as a side hobby) hand built one-off custom cars, some vintage race theme cars - along with several friends. Putting a Coyote in a vintage 60s Mustang, or an LS in a ’59 Corvette is something none of us would have done in the past, and now its common (as we all see now days). What’s shocking is my buddy sold his all orginal GT390 FE 1967 Mustang for $90k, top $, and yet the all new restomodded version of the same car with a Coyote all updated with Coyote, modern suspension, brakes, fetching $280k now. 

Different strokes for different folks and wealthy buyers who can buy a fully modernized version, some of this does cross over to audio gear. One pair of my monoblock tube amps all updated now with new Nichicon Power Caps and Mundorf Silver-Gold EVO caps sounds quite amazing compared to its original self that was built to a price-point by the manufacturer, quote, "to keep price down". Yep, gotta draw the line somewhere, and that makes sense to get customers to pay for and buy your products. A starting point for some, not the end game perhaps.  

Modders and DIY folks are cut from a different cloth, as we well know. That’s okay, and whatever makes people feel safe, or better - good for them. :) 

When, a statement is started with "Respectfully" it usually means no respect.  That's fine.  Like most of us here, been around with this audio thing for decades.  maybe I should have said in my experience I have never seen anyone that has spent tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars on audio equipment that would do this DIY mod.  Your equipment value, warranty, resale, would be gone.  To me, many people would just get better equipment vs do this.  Speaker alone are thousands. I have about 75K invested and that is pennies compared to many of the systems on this forum.  Would you guys really do this vs just getting better stuff?

kymanor1 Would you guys really do this vs just getting better stuff?

If I spent $75k on a pair of speakers, i’d be asking the original design engineer for those speakers "what upgrades are available" first (if any) and see what they might share first, privately, 1:1.  If none, then maybe your speakers already have all the smart upgrades, listen, enjoy and be happy with them as-is.  

When you speak more with the design engineers of a product, in most cases what gets designed and readied for mainstream production lines is available in a particular configuration for specific reasons, functionally, financially, and to optimized assembly time requirements, in most cases. 

Now lets say you speak a bit more with that same design engineer of those $75k speakers, and get to know them more, ask them this, "if you could upgrade these speakers", and with "no cost constraints", ask them "what would you change or upgrade to make them sound better".   See if there is anything else, more, or better they might happen to mention.  IF they say "nothing more", maybe they are maxed out now as much as can be.  Worth the ask - if interested and motivated to find out additional intel on them, if they are willing to share.  Base Production Line versions of a product are not always equal to Custom/Signature/Upgraded versions that get offered later on, or not in all cases with some product lines.  Can be fun to ask :) 

Why wouldn't you get better stuff? First off,  more expensive equipment doesn't necessarily get you better sound.  Gaining greater resolution/transparency is only part of the equation, even more important to me is voicing and/or obtaining a particular presentation I desire. I run all low wattage SET and push pull tube amps and DHT preamps,  relatively simple circuits and low parts count. These type amps and pre's are fertile ground for custom builds, I can build my own, have one built to spec, and I can modify custom builds. Low wattage amps don't generally cost an arm and a leg. Quality transformers and power supplies are what sets great sounding SET, DHT components from the ordinary, one doesn't have to spend loads of money to get real quality here.

Custom streamers are another area I dabble in, I've learned much about streaming from the experts over at Audiophilestyle forum. Only the highest quality streamers such as Taiko and Wadax best the custom streamers we build, companies like Pink Faun, JCAT and others provide us with the components that challenge and/or best some pretty expensive off the shelf streamers.

Dear @decooney  :: I really appreciated an audiophile and MUSIC lover as you that look for a better quality system level performance to stay truer to the recording. 

As you I made several tweaks on my system speakers and electronics, next " something " of those tweaks:

" My speakers: are " heavy " tweaked to do that: first it has " three hands " ( internally ) of a insulation/antivibrational treatment ( like a white paint. I can't remember the ingredients. ) from Acoustical Magic Company ( it works marvelous ) inside all the box.

It is internally hard wired with Silver Oval by Analysis Plus cable and KCAG by Kimber Kable. 

I take out the crossover ( now is external ) and change all the parts: resistors ( Powertron by Vishay. ), all silver air core solid ribbon ( 5.5 cms. of pure silver. Almost 2kg. of silver in the bigest one. ) Alpha-Core inductors , WIMA FKP 1 caps  in the crossover, the speakers cables goes soldered directly to the crossover parts. This speaker crossover is tri-hard-wired from the  amps output to the 3-way crossover parts and speaker drivers. 

In reality are three separate/stand alone crossovers: one for the tweeter, one for the midrange and the other for the woofer, all these hard-wired directly to the amps ( no connectors. )

I'm only not biamp my system ( with the subs. ) but these ADS main/satellite speakers are true tri-wired in hard-wire directly from the amps to each crossover parts in the three way speaker design all the way down to the amplifier output.

I change the internal damping glass fiber by 10kg ( each one ) of long hair 100% virgin wool and change the fabric cloth of the grille for a " transparent one ".

Both speakers have at the rear-center the Antiresonant Vibration System by MICROSCAN model TM-8 that works from 20hz to 1.5Khz.

Back external tweeters:

These ones was a spare tweeters from a Dalquihst DQM-9 that I owned and already sold.

These tweeters are 1" silk dome ( same efficiency that the front ones ) and are connected in phase with the front ones and works with his own crossover at around 5k and up and have, too, an off/on switch. 

Subwoofers: These two self powered subwoofers are in front of the main speakers and in side firing position.

It crossover at 78Hz. I do some tweaks in the circuit for a better quality sound reproduction and I changed the internal wiring that connects the woofer to the internal amplifier ( 50-60cm ), the original is a very bad zip cord one that I changed with Kimber Kable KCAG that I soldered directly to the woofers and directly to the amplifiers: with no connectors in between.

The power cord comes from Analysis Plus and is soldered directly to the inside subwoofer switch on/off with out no single connector kind ( at both sides/ends of the power cord ) and the IC cable is the Silver Oval by Analysis Plus too.

I change too the internal electrical power wires that goes from the subwoofer switch on/off to the Subs amplifier, I'm using KCAG by Kimber Kable.

NOTE: I'm not using the subwoofer internal high pass crossover or an external electronic crossover to send the signal to the ADS L 2030.

The crossover function happens inside the two modified Levinson 20.6 mono-blocks at its input through a WIMA FKP1 cap and a single nude 0.001%  Vishay 2575 resistor.

In this way the signal from the preamp goes normally ( pure and clean ) to the 20.6s and to the loudspeaker with out any additional electronic stage or cables/connectors and the signal was taken directly from the Essential 3160 by the Velodynes.

I modified the original Levinson circuitry where the signal at the input only " see " one tiny value WIMA FKP1 cap ( crossover. ).

I made it other amps internal modifications.  

The amplifiers power cords are hard wired KCAG silver wires by Kimber Kable all down the amplifiers circuit boards with no single connector of any kind between both ends of the power cords.

I change too some internal critical place cabling using now KCAG by Kimber Kable. 

I use two independent 30amp dedicated electrical line and the power cords go conected directly to the electrical box ( no power connector/plugs ). 

These electrical power lines has ( each one ) two 3.6Kw full regulators to mantain 120v. with RFI/EMI supresors and surge protection with additional 90db of noise supresor.

All these power cord goes directly soldered inside the electronics audio items ( amps, preamps, subs, etc, etc. ) with no male/female connectors in between.  All system power cords are pure silver KCAG by Kimber Kable ( no cooper wire down there and anywhere. )

The electrical power " signal " goes straight from the electrical power source " box " to the audio item power supply with out any single " obstacle " that can " disturb " it.

I by-passed all the internal fuses in the electronics that comes with any single audio item/device in the system .  The best fuse is NO fuse at all. 

The audio signal that goes from the Essential 3180 to the Levinson amplifiers goes directly soldered to the Levinson input boards, so there is no RCA or XLR connector in the audio signal here that can degrade in anyway the audio signal integrity..

Part of my philosophy is that : " less is more " trying to add and lost the less. ""

Congratulations for your success.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,

R.