VMPS RM30 M to Series II Upgrade Project - COMPLETED! - and with pix

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G E

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Hello,

I have embarked on the upgrade from RM30 M to the Series II.  I have in hand the 10" passive radiators, 10uf caps (original Auricaps to match existing cross over), and I have fabricated the port plugs that will be fitted from the outside.  The Mega Woofer upgrade is 10-12 weeks lead time and I will evaluate performance with the original drivers before making the decision to upgrade.  I got the CDWG when they were originally introduced.

One of my RM30's lays on the floor of my listening room, disemboweled, while I wait for twelve $.10 parts that I need to proceed.  These are the female quick disconnects that plug on to the raw speaker terminals.  The Misco woofers, both standard 28 oz woofers and 40 oz versions have .205" connectors.  The ones you are likely to find in retail establishments are .250" and .187".  One could probably use a .250" but I want a snug and proper fit and don't want to revisit this connection once I have it put together.  There is only 18 thousandths of an inch difference between the .187 and .205 connector.  One might think about "making it fit", but that is how expensive mistakes get started.  So I wait and will do it right.  Ordered from Mouser some non-insulated ones like Brian used.  And some other stuff for other projects in progress.

I added the 10uf capacitor to the midrange cross over.  It went smoothly.  Lots of light helps and accessing through the bottom PR ports makes it easier as well.  I need a better glue gun.

The PR's have a rubber gasket that wrap around the edge and over the top where the screws mount.  They give the PR a diameter of 10.25" which doesn't quite fit the cut out.  I thought I would need to enlarge the opening but happily the gasket can be removed and it is a perfect fit.  The rubber ring doesn't appear to add any functionality except serving as a sealing gasket and making the top of the PR look prettier.  I spent some time on the DIY speaker forums and many spoke highly of 3M Strip-Caulk as a sealing gasket.  Never dries out and doesn't act like glue.  That material also was difficult to source locally, got lucky and found it at NAPA.

I have taken one short cut that may have averted trouble:  Rather than unsolder the connections from 10" active to internal speaker post and crossover, I elected to cut the wire from the quick disconnects on the speaker and wrap that exposed wire with two layers of electricians tape.  One would need a large solder tip and lots of heat to redo the post/coil connections correctly.  I decided to leave it lay.

I have been taking pictures and will document the upgrade process.  Hopefully my notes will make it easier for others who take it on.

Update with Pix 9-10-2015

The base is two sections - the frame attaches to the speaker cabinet and the floor section attaches to the frame.  4 screws are covered by floor protectors.






Close up of bottom PR ports.  If you look closely you will see pencil marks and additional holes drilled for bottom mounting the PR plugs.  I will seal the port plugs using 3M Strip Caulk product.





Side firing woofer is out





Here is a pic of the internal side of the speaker post and low frequency coils.  This is where the wire to the woofers connects.  You may be able to see the large cross section of wire and large amount of solder used to attach.  I decided to leave it as is.





I cut the wire from the quick disconnect for the 10" side firing woofer.  One has been wrapped, the other will be shortly.  I bent the wire stub the went to the disconnect and used an electricians plier to crimp it down.






I added my 10uf Auricap to the crossover stack.  A neighbor and fellow audiophile will loan me a better glue gun.  This is straightforward, match colors on leads, wrap wire on existing leads, use some rosin flux, solder.  I stripped off additional insulation to let me get a better wrap.  And the pick was taken prior to soldering.





Front woofers out.  I was anxious about this step as I know what an errant screw driver can do to a speaker cone.  I picked up a phillips driver that is used with a ratchet wrench.  It is short and much more easily controlled.  Much less drama and a happy outcome!  The gaskets sealing these drivers will be replace with the 3M Strip Caulk product.







And now, the rest of the story!



OK, my Mouser order arrived and here are the .205” female Quick Disconnects.  A perfect fit!




And here is the attachment for my ratchet wrench that aided considerably in the uninstalling and reinstalling of the drivers without mishap!







This is the active 10” woofer before I cut off the connections and a pic of the opening.  This is for the left speaker, similar to what I showed above for the right speaker.








Once all the woofers and PR's are out, remove the insulation and gain access to the crossovers.  Here are a couple pix of the mid-range stack after I added the 10uf Auricap to the left speaker.  I cleaned up some stray strands from some of the existing wiring.  I was careful not to disrupt anything!







And now we are ready to begin reinstalling woofers and the new PR.  Here is a shot of the  cross section of the Analysis speaker cable seen as I was prepping for new connectors.  It really is oval! 





And further prep shots of cables including the jumpers.  For the right hand speaker I cut off sections of the wire originally supplying the 10” woofer.  I took great care to leave enough so that I could position the 6.5” woofers on the cabinet to make connections.  Brian had a single jumper between each pair of woofers because they were serially connected.  I now had two jumpers since I made the other pair from material from the the right speaker.  All four jumpers are close in length.











I wanted to have fresh seals for all of the woofers.  I decided to use 3M Strip Caulk which is highly recommended on several DIY speaker builder forums.  It is sticky as all get out but easy enough to work with.  It reminds me of some stuff I used to weather seal my outside satellite TV connections years ago.









Here is the before and after pix of the 6.5” woofers with fresh gasket. 








So it comes time to install the 6.5 “ woofers.  The pic below shows how I wired them for the right speaker and it fit fine.  Just need to be sure the jumpers going to the bottom woofer don't get pinched by the frame. 






But for the left speaker, this wiring harness did not fit without pressing the terminals so far back and away from the hole edge that I was concerned with shorting to the speaker frame.  I guess the cabinets were constructed slightly differently.

So I had to go an alternate route.  I had to refab the connections:

For the wires supplying the upper woofer – I cut off the quick disconnect terminals and prepped the cable similar as I had previously.  I then cut off the quick disconnects from one end of a jumper and prepped it.  So each cable had two groups of strands.

I tightly twisted together a strand group from a supply line and a jumper and checked the combined strands fit the barrel of the quick disconnect.  Rosin flux was applied and soldered it to the quick disconnect.

The remaining strands were tightly wrapped around the exposed wire coming out the bottom of the quick disconnect and soldered.  I then wrapped these exposed wires with electricians tape.  I extended the tape a couple inches down the insulation to make sure they could not be pulled apart.  This needs to be done for the “+” and “-” terminals.

So for my left hand speaker, instead of quick disconnects on all four upper woofer terminals, I only have connections to the terminals pointing  downward, with the soldered jumpers going to the bottom woofer. 

I regrettably did not take pictures of this although I intended to.  I may do a mock up and photograph that and add it to the story.  But again, my other cabinet did not present this issue.

The caulk strips I added to the speaker frame blocks the mounting hole.  In order to align these with the mounting holes in the cabinet, I used yellow tape with a line pointing to the hole.  I did this for two holes each speaker.  I used fresh 1-1/4” coarse thread dry wall screws like Brian had in original construction.






I then re-stuffed the insulation.

Now, on to the installation of the new PR!

The PR's come with a rubber ring gasket that not only seals the bottom of the PR frame with the cabinet, but also wraps around the edge and top providing a finished look.  Unfortunately this means it won't fit the cut out, at least in my version of the cabinet.  This rubber ring easily comes off and it then fits perfectly









Before installing the PR's I needed to check screw clearance with the added capacitors and other elements of the cross over.  Both right and left speakers presented challenges:









I used the rubber ring to help me determine best new hole alignment.  I marked the critical placement by the crossover components and then used the PR itself as a template to mark the new screw placement.  I then drilled small pilot holes at these locations.

Rather than use the coarse thread drywall screws like I did for the woofers, I decided to use 1” constructions screws with Pan style head – these are flat bottom screw heads.  I had planned to use these with washers but they were too large to fit inside the frame of the PR.





For the left speaker I needed to cut one screw short - the one that is quite close to one of the coils and pot.  It only needs to be slightly longer than the material it screws into.





Before I installed the PR, I had tapped the frame and heard a distinct ring.  So I used some 3M strip Caulk and treated the frame to tame resonance.  I covered the goo with heavy duty aluminum foil so insulation wouldn't get stuck all over it.






And here it is installed







Time to install the bottom PR plugs.  I made these out of ¾ inch plywood and painted them black to match my cabinets. Before I removed the base of the cabinets I used a pencil to outline the inside of the frame.  I also measured the dimensions of this interior space. I drilled holes in each corner of the square plug and then corresponding pilot holes in the cabinet bottom.  BTW, the holes in the plug should be large enough to let the screw pass through unimpeded.  THE PILOT HOLES NEED TO BE SIZED APPROPRIATELY FOR THE SCREW YOU WILL USE.  You can always drill the pilot holes bigger, it's lots more work if you drill them too large.  I used 1-5/8” coarse thread drywall screws.







I used more of the 3M Strip Caulk product to achieve an airtight connection.  One probably doesn't need to use quite this much.









And here are the port plugs installed.  I used a screw driver to get the plugs in place and then I installed the frame of the base to make sure clearances were OK.  Then I removed the frame base and used a phillips driver in my drill to drive the screws home.







And it is finally done. 


This is an involved project – if you decide to pursue it, you now have an inkling of what you are getting into. 

I have only listened to a couple elpee sides but the low end is definitely enhanced.  And the glorious mid range remains intact.

« Last Edit: 28 Sep 2015, 04:10 pm by G E »

Stimpy

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Re: VMPS RM30 M to Series II Upgrade Project Started
« Reply #1 on: 10 Sep 2015, 03:57 pm »
The Mega Woofer upgrade is 10-12 weeks lead time...

Is that from Misco?  Any issues with them with direct ordering?  Details please!

I have been taking pictures and will document the upgrade process.  Hopefully my notes will make it easier for others who take it on.

I look forward to pictures, and additional comments, as the mods progress!  Plus, any before and after comparisons, concerning stock and megawoofers.

Thanks!    :D

G E

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Re: VMPS RM30 M to Series II Upgrade Project Started
« Reply #2 on: 10 Sep 2015, 06:06 pm »
Is that from Misco?  Any issues with them with direct ordering?  Details please!

I look forward to pictures, and additional comments, as the mods progress!  Plus, any before and after comparisons, concerning stock and megawoofers.

Thanks!    :D

I contacted Misco via email and got a response after a few days.  They quoted price ($56.29 each, qty=4 +shipping) and a 10-12 week lead time.  I haven't ordered them yet so can offer no feedback on that part of the process.

In one of the threads in the VMPS forum, someone had asked Brian if it was a worthy upgrade to go from 28oz to 40oz Mega Woofers.  His response was, "not really".  So I will listen to the Series II update with 28oz woofs to start.  I can always move up if needed.

Stimpy

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Re: VMPS RM30 M to Series II Upgrade Project Started
« Reply #3 on: 10 Sep 2015, 10:23 pm »
I contacted Misco via email and got a response after a few days.  They quoted price ($56.29 each, qty=4 +shipping) and a 10-12 week lead time.  I haven't ordered them yet so can offer no feedback on that part of the process.

Well, at least you got a response from Misco.  I emailed about pricing, and never heard a peep!  Plus, that's a pretty good price on the woofers.  Misco does seem to build a good product.  So, I hope they work out, if you order them.

DFaulds

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Re: VMPS RM30 M to Series II Upgrade Project Started
« Reply #4 on: 11 Sep 2015, 10:27 am »
Well, at least you got a response from Misco.  I emailed about pricing, and never heard a peep!  Plus, that's a pretty good price on the woofers.  Misco does seem to build a good product.  So, I hope they work out, if you order them.

I've contacted Misco at least three times asking about pricing for 10 of those and never got a reply.  Considering it's a custom order, that is a reasonable price.

G E

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So I have spent a few evenings with the Series II upgrade and it has transformed the listening experience!

I still am using the 28 oz mega woofers.

Initially I used 5 of the washers to load the PR and upper bass sounded a little chesty. I removed one from each and now have four per. That made a significant improvement.

More thoughts as I continue my listening sessions.

Bob Stark

GE,
     Having done the same procedure in a slightly different way with a similar result, I agree that the low end to lower mids are transformed and much more balanced top to bottom.   I will tell you the advantage of going to the 40 ounce woofers.  I did this in both the 626R's and RM30's with the same desired result.  The bass would no longer bottom out as it did prior on extremely strong and deep bass content.  There wasn't any tone difference.  Is it worth it?  I'd say a big yes, but I like Marcus Miller, Stanley Clarke, Victor Wooten, Jaco Pastorius, Brian Bromberg, among others.  It also depends on how much volume you like to play stuff at.  The woofers can be play at louder volume with no nasties.  I like to feel the musicians are in the room with me and live sounding without killing my ears.  The procedure for upgrading is surely much easier than adding that 10" passive.  In my case, I had to add 3/4" MDF which I cut out the circle for the PR and glued to the underside of the prior 10" cutout.  It required 8 clamps to get done properly on each speaker--PITA.  It came out fine in the end and the MDF gave me a strong object to screw the passive to.  The way it was before allowed the screw about 2 turns of bite it was so thin.

Good job on the pics and work,
Bob

John Casler

Greg,

What a GREAT post and project.

I am sure any RM30 owner looking to do the same will find it invaluable.

Keep an ear on the PR, and after a few hundred hours of deep bass if the surround loosens up a bit (although as you know they are plenty stiff) you might think about adding another washer, or even "putty" to the inside of the screw on cup.

Glad you found the difference worth all the work (or was it fun?) in getting there.

By the way, those 10" actives you removed could be hot items for RM40 owners who need 10" active drivers.

G E

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I have Mega Woofers in hand and will attempt their installation in the not too distant future.

My speakers sound stupid good with the standard 28 oz magnet. I'm hoping it gets even stupider wonderful.

Some new speaker cables have made a significant difference   5 days on the cable cooker and the sound is transmogrified beyond anything to date.  I'll put them on the cooker for 3 more 5 day stretches and hear where that takes me. 400 hours is the magic number.

Speakers cables are Morrow Elite Grand Reference.

Cooker is the Hagerman FryKleener Pro.

Pics and dialog forthcoming.

sfrounds

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In your pictures, it looks like you have taken the 6.5 inch (6.5 ohm) drivers that were wired in series and rewired them in parallel. Do you know if they are wired in parallel, and that was part of the upgrade instructions.  Thanks, Steve

G E

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In your pictures, it looks like you have taken the 6.5 inch (6.5 ohm) drivers that were wired in series and rewired them in parallel. Do you know if they are wired in parallel, and that was part of the upgrade instructions.  Thanks, Steve

Originally,the 6.5 woofers were wired serially.  For the Series II upgrade they are wired in parallel. This is per Brian's instructions which are posted in on he Stickies section of this forum. There are two sets of instructions to review

G E

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Well I finally screwed up the nerve to open up my RM30's and swap up to MegaWoofers with the 40 oz magnets.  I dreaded going near the woofers with a pointy tool. But all worked out happily and I am finished with the entire Series II upgrade.

The Megawoofers provide bass and lower midrange support for much better foundation to the music. A great test was Michael Jackson's song Thriller. It's a dense production, slick and over processed and it always gives me a thrill. An anemic bottom end robs this music of its drive and swagger. I was blown away. A most significant improvement!  My Bryston 28's really let these babies swing!

A note about the woofer swap. I used the 3M automotive sealer strip product as gasket material. It does a great job sealing. BUt it is sticky as all get out. Especially if joined surfaces are both painted. I had to use a pry bar to get the port plugs out. Then I could reach inside and push the woofers out. They stuck pretty good too, but nothing like the port plugs.   And yes, I used fresh sealant strips again. Just not as much.


GeorgeAb

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Thanks for the taking the time to put this together.   It definitely helped knowing what you are getting into.   Completely this today.   It is all fairly straightforward.   I did have the .205" spades in hand from another project.  I appropriated the low side wire going from the inductor to the 10" driver, and used that end for the one additional jumper to have the two 6.5" drivers in parallel.   I was able to use the gasket that came with CSS APR-10 by cutting the gasket allowing its use.   

I put this off as I was quite happy with the bass response of the RM30M's.   However, after spending an hour with the Series II, this is a significant upgrade.  Does not lose the natural sounding low end, but with more bass impact at reasonable volume levels.   I will need more time and more music to really evaluate, but so far this is really sounding good.  I took your lead on the 5 washers and am going to stay pat for awhile, but I may need another washer.  Still using the original woofers, but have ordered the 40oz LLC62W-8A woofers.   

Regalma

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Anyone do the series II upgrade on speakers with OXOs? That's what I have. I assume that the crossover mods would be the same, just easier to access. It would seem to simplify the process.