[murphy11]

Hi Danny,

I have a pair of ninja modded minis and am happy with them but am wondering if they would benefit from any additional tweaks. Wondering if no res or a similar material would be a relatively easy\affordable tweak.

[Danny Richie]

No Rez will tighten up the bass response and clean up the lower vocal region.

[murphy11]

I realize it's an older speaker, but do you know if it would be an easy or difficult to do that mod?

[Danny Richie]

I realize it's an older speaker, but do you know if it would be an easy or difficult to do that mod?

The hardest part is removing all of the old felt that they glued in. The rest is real easy.

[persisting1]

I realize it's an older speaker, but do you know if it would be an easy or difficult to do that mod?

You might want to add the No Rez since the Stratas were know to have felt blocking the ports. Might be worth taking out the amps and checking. While you have it open, add the No Rez.

[emac]

While the No Rez is a good bang-for-the-buck mod, the other one to consider is adding bypass caps, like Sonicap Platinums.  They make a clear improvement as well. 

[murphy11]

Thanks guys! I have zero soldering skills (Don't even know if they are needed) so I would have no idea how to do the sonicap upgrade. Emac, funny thing is I googled skiing ninja mini to see if it was already included in Sean's upgrade and I came across one of your posts from last year where you said it was not. Too bad you are not in Philly or I would be creative and bribe you to upgrade mine.

Out of curiousity, I might take the amp (I think that is what is needed) off tomorrow and see if I can figure out if felt or other crap is blocking the port. That would give a look to judge whether I think I could do the no res mod. Thanks for everyone's feedback - really appreciated!

[murphy11]

Hmmm, just looked at the back. If I had problems with felt or crap blocking ports would I take out the woofer or amp or both. Might be a easy possible improvement before deciding whether to do no res.

[Danny Richie]

Hmmm, just looked at the back. If I had problems with felt or crap blocking ports would I take out the woofer or amp or both. Might be a easy possible improvement before deciding whether to do no res.

Take the woofer out and look inside. Don't worry. It goes in and out real easy.

[Murphy12]

This is a pic down the port. Not sure it can be seen but it does look like there is dark blue/grey felt blocking 90% of the very back of the port.  EDIT: The felt lines the front inside of the speaker and just extends all the way to bottom of the speaker. It just so happens you can see the felt if you look down the port but there is an opening I can feel when I put my hand inside.

[Murphy12]

This is a pic of the woofer on the back of the mini. Notice the screws and holes don't seem to hold the woofer in place. When screwed in, the screws don't grab a metal ring that seems like it should be around the edge of the woofer. There IS a metal ring around the woofers on the front of the speaker but not the back - doesn't seem right   Kind of wish I had not seen that.

[Murphy12]

This is a pic of what would be just above and inside of the woofer inside the cabinet. No felt on most of the surface.

[Murphy12]

This shows the bottom inside of the speaker which would be under the woofer. Also is where there is a gap leading to the woofer port. The felt can easily come off almost every surface inside the cabinet by hand if I chose to do that. 

[Murphy12]

Now that I've seen everything, what do you guys think? Seems like the front inside wall of the cabinet is covered fairly well, but you can see a fair amount of particle board inside the cabinet. Might be a doable project but not sure if the felt inside looks bad, about right\normal etc. Also I only took out the woofer from one speaker but not the other.

I gently peeled the rubber surround of the woofer away to be able to get a couple of fingers inside the woofer to pull it out of the cabinet. There was nothing else to grab onto to be able to get it out. Not sure how great of a seal will be made when putting it back because of no ring. I'm going to leave it as-is unassembled until I get some feedback from you guys.

[Danny Richie]

Now that I've seen everything, what do you guys think? Seems like the front inside wall of the cabinet is covered fairly well, but you can see a fair amount of particle board inside the cabinet. Might be a doable project but not sure if the felt inside looks bad, about right\normal etc. Also I only took out the woofer from one speaker but not the other.

I gently peeled the rubber surround of the woofer away to be able to get a couple of fingers inside the woofer to pull it out of the cabinet. There was nothing else to grab onto to be able to get it out. Not sure how great of a seal will be made when putting it back because of no ring. I'm going to leave it as-is unassembled until I get some feedback from you guys.

The felt slows down the airflow in the box (very slightly), and makes the box act a little bigger. It does nothing for resonance control. The No Rez with dampen the cabinet walls and take away resonances.

Like I said, typically the hardest thing about the No Rez install on those is pealing out the old felt. If it comes out easily and cleanly then it will be very easy.

I don't know what to tell you about the woofer sealing. Plumbers putty is pretty cheap and works well to seal woofers when surfaces are a little rough.

[murphy11]

Thanks, would one sheet be enough for a pair of minis?

[Danny Richie]

Thanks, would one sheet be enough for a pair of minis?

Good question. I think you will need two sheets.

[murphy11]

HI Danny\All,

$100 for the norez is enough money that it's making me think whether that is the best use of funds. I will probably order 2 sheets at some point but it may not be my first purchase.

My system is comprised of an Onix A60 Integrated, Win7 laptop with Pandora or Slacker, Dragonfly DAC and Skiing Ninja modded Onix minis. I added some simple room treatments (not made exactly the way others do) I used ceiling tiles rated similar to OC703 and made 4" thick panels in the back corners and 2" thick panels at reflection points. I do not have much media so pretty much 100% of my listening will be streaming Pandora while working from home.

Now that I am thinking about how to make everything better, I realize I don't understand how to objectively set the crossover. Maybe my next project should be measuring the room? I will probably post in the acoustics forum to see if they have specific recommendations on what is needed and for how to do it. Objectively, I set the amp in a way that sounds 'right' to me but I'd love to objectively what that looks like on a graph.

Thoughts?

Mark

[emac]

Thanks guys! I have zero soldering skills (Don't even know if they are needed) so I would have no idea how to do the sonicap upgrade. Emac, funny thing is I googled skiing ninja mini to see if it was already included in Sean's upgrade and I came across one of your posts from last year where you said it was not. Too bad you are not in Philly or I would be creative and bribe you to upgrade mine.

I seem to remember adding the Platinums to be a pain in the neck because, at least where I put them, the crossovers were not easy to get to or to see clearly.  So, not a simple mod to do like the X-Omni's or O-3's where the crossovers are easily accessible.   

[murphy11]

That is definitely out of the question for me then because I have zero soldering skills. I'm taking a step back for now and am reconsidering tweaks in layers. I think I need to measure my system first and make adjustments to phase, crossover, placement first and have started a thread in the acoustics circle to get advice. After I get that figured out and tweaked I will circle back and consider the next upgrade\tweak.