Gentle Fine-Tuning of Speakers Voicing

Imagine that your audio system  sounded perfect but once an amplifier was replaced, the sound turned to be a bit ‘too bright’.or, once you moved to a new apartment bass in the room is too loud. A swap of one resistor on the crossover can solve this and differently from most speakers, our modular open baffle design simply allows this.

Loudspeakers play the output of the audio system into our room, and no two audio systems nor two rooms are identical. We all are aware of the term ‘synergy’ between the speakers,  the gear, and room acoustics but while in most cases owners do achieve this synergy by a careful selection of gear, there are cases that a gentle modification (fine-tuning) of speakers’ voicing will bring the music and sonic experience to a point of extreme musical and emotional satisfaction. Most speakers do not allow this option of ‘fine tuning’, while in the case of our modular architecture this is doable, and the procedure is simple and rewarding…

In all our crossovers the critical components, capacitors and resistors, reside on screw terminals and therefore are swappable.

Capacitors have a noticeable impact on the sonic signature of the main drivers. Our stock capacitors are the popular Mundorf audiophile MCAP grade caps. Full body, smooth, and extremely musical caps however, owners are welcome to experiment other brands/types of capacitors and choose the ones that matches at best their sonic DNA.

Resistors are used mainly to balance the woofers with the main drivers and changing the value of one resistor in one step can take the main driver a bit to the back or to the front, making the sound a bit darker or brighter.

Since these cases are rare and very specific, we will be happy to guide you how to proceed…

 

Here is a real-life example:

Few weeks ago we had a customer, who knows a thing or two how instruments sound in real-life, who complained about too much bass in his room. A swap of one resistor was suggested, and here is what he wrote before nd thereafter. Customers profile is marked in bold at the bottom of the quote.

Before the change: 
“I’m only a few hours away from completing the 200 hour break-in period. I’m hearing far too much bass. The speakers are four feet from the front wall and as far out as practical in my 14-3/4′ x 15-1/4′ room.  They are 45″ from the sidewalls. The toe-in is set so the speakers ‘ null aims at the first sidewall reflection points. The speakers are aimed at my shoulders. There are floor to ceiling 6″ bass traps in 3 room corners. The fourth corner has a 5′ opening for French doors . Additionally, there are 2′ square x 6″ bass traps on the wall directly behind the speakers’ woofers. My listening is primarily to large scale classical and the jazz. What would you suggest to achieve the correct tonal balance?”
After the change: 
“The speakers sound wonderful! I changed out the green bottom resistor as you suggested in the crossover. I was looking for a large-scale sound for orchestral music and I’ve achieved it with the Duet 15’s.
The current set-up, along with the very slight toe-in yields the best timbre in my room. Instruments now all have the correct characteristic sound and the overall tonal balance sounds accurate to me for both jazz and classical music. My judgement comes from a lifetime in music, first as a musician and instrumental music teacher for 14 years, then as a District Manager for Steinway Musical Instruments, Inc for 34 years. I heard live music daily for many decades. 
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