[malcolmsmith]

I am considering having my 938s re-wired and fitted with better binding posts. The dealer who recommends this would use Kimber 8TC/4TC cable and reckons it would bring about a significant improvement. I know the dealer very well so I pay much attention to his comments.
Has anyone re-wired their 938s and with what results?
Any thoughts/comments regarding this gratefully received.

[Dracule1]

Hi Malcolm,

I've experience with internal silver wiring for speakers, but not 938s specifically.  People find silver to be brittle sounding, but really depends on who makes the silver wire.  Silver wiring done right will bring a relaxed sound with paradoxically more detail, more air, and better soundstaging and imaging.  However, I found silver wire not to have the body of good copper wire.  For example, a tenor sax will have less body with silver than copper.  At least that's my impression from my limited experience.  I think, for copper wire, the purity seems to be important.  Vampire wire sells wires made of Ohno Continuous Cast (OCC) copper that is suppose to be the most pure copper wire you can get.  I think there is a speaker manufacturer (Ellis Audio?) here who really likes them.  Danny of GR Research really likes the JPS Labs wire (some sort of copper alloy?) as upgrade for his speakers.  All in all, I do think the 938s will benefit from better wire, but I think upgrading the caps (possibly most worthwhile), inductors, and resistors in the 938s may have a bigger impact than the wire.

For binding posts, I would go with pure copper binding posts from Cardas.  They're usually plated in gold or rhodium, with gold giving a more warm sound and rhodium more detailed sound, according to this one guy who has been doing this sort of thing for a long time.  Other options are Cable Pods from Eichman (bullet plug fame) and the very expensive Bocchino binding posts (beautifully made), but may be overkill.  The brass binding posts in the 938s are not what I would have chosen if I were to build a custom pair of speakers.  The standard metal jumpers that come with the 938s are, I believe, brass and sound horrible compared to a proper jumper that I had custom made with silver.

[malcolmsmith]

I have gone ahead and had the "innards" of the 938s upgraded and what an increase in sound quality has resulted.The soundstage is so much more open,there is so much more depth and detail throughout the frequency range. The bass has got noticably better-you feel it as well as hear it,though it is in no way overpowering.It is a magnitude better in all areas and worth every penny. The cost was around 800 pounds,work done by Russ Andrews(they were delighted by the results too).
Now to tell you what has been done. Well the only items remaining are the speakers and speaker cabinets!First the speaker binding posts have been replaced.The crossover has been replaced by a much simpler design using high quality Kimber capacitors-arrived at by measurement and listening this stage takes some time. The wiring from the crossover to the speakers is Kimber 8TC for the bass units and 4TC for the mid and tweeter.(the crossover and cable that were origanally fitted were really of quite poor quality the speaker cable being no thicker than bell wire). The other thing done was to remove the damping-bits of foam padding and replace with proper acoustic pads and acoustic wool.
 Any one of these improvements I'm sure would provide a big improvement in the overall sound,but together- Breathtaking!   

[gogg]

Congratulations!

I'm glad to hear someone did it.
I tried to do that but can't copy the crossover couse it's submerged in hard plastic.
Do you have old crossover or the schematics?

[malcolmsmith]

The original crossover covered in glue and attached to the binding poste were completely removed and an entirely new much simplified crossover was fitted. Russ Andrews believes that the simpler the crossover the better the sound-I took his word and have no regrets. I do not have any plans etc. of the new crossover.

[RCduck7]

The original crossover covered in glue and attached to the binding poste were completely removed and an entirely new much simplified crossover was fitted. Russ Andrews believes that the simpler the crossover the better the sound-I took his word and have no regrets. I do not have any plans etc. of the new crossover.

Hi, i'm very intrested in this.
where can i get this simplified crossover? Is it easy to fit?

[malcolmsmith]

The hi-fi firm who did all the work for me are based in England,near the Lake District.They do a mail order service as well as work at their base. So if you live in U.K. you have a choice.( As I understand it, the re-wiring was Kimber 8TC and 4TC and the crossover capacitors were Kimber Kaps.) Their e mail address is www.russandrews.com. and telephone U.K. is 0845 345 1550.International
tel is +44 1539 797300. The guy who co-ordinated all the work was John. He is a most helpful person.

[RCduck7]

The hi-fi firm who did all the work for me are based in England,near the Lake District.They do a mail order service as well as work at their base. So if you live in U.K. you have a choice.( As I understand it, the re-wiring was Kimber 8TC and 4TC and the crossover capacitors were Kimber Kaps.) Their e mail address is www.russandrews.com. and telephone U.K. is 0845 345 1550.International
tel is +44 1539 797300. The guy who co-ordinated all the work was John. He is a most helpful person.

Sorry for the late reply...
I will email Russ Andrews, i am from belgium and will see if i can work something out as DIY job.
I always thought the 938's sounded a bit to soft compared to my 906, still a better speaker then the 906 but maybe a bit to polite.
A straightforward crossover might help a bit.

[RCduck7]

The hi-fi firm who did all the work for me are based in England,near the Lake District.They do a mail order service as well as work at their base. So if you live in U.K. you have a choice.( As I understand it, the re-wiring was Kimber 8TC and 4TC and the crossover capacitors were Kimber Kaps.) Their e mail address is www.russandrews.com. and telephone U.K. is 0845 345 1550.International
tel is +44 1539 797300. The guy who co-ordinated all the work was John. He is a most helpful person.

Sorry for the late reply...
I will email Russ Andrews, i am from belgium and will see if i can work something out as DIY job.
I always thought the 938's sounded a bit to soft compared to my 906, still a better speaker then the 906 but maybe a bit to polite.
A straightforward crossover might help a bit.

I actually still haven't contacted Russ andrews or planned a mod. I hesitate and talked about it to some other hifi enthousiasts about this what i was going to do. Replacing better quality speaker wire in the cabinet, terminals, acoustic pads are little tweaks which should defenitly lead to positive results.
But to change the entire crossover filter?? These are 5000$ speakers we are talking about and the designer of these speakers would have a certain sound in mind. When i think about it, why wouldn't Hyperions give then a simplified filter in the first place? That might be cheaper to, less components.
I'm not saying it's totally wrong this mod, but i'm just asking myself why?
I'm sure the sound will be different, but for different sound wouldn't choosing an other speaker in the first place be more logic?
Most of us bought these speakers becausse we like their sound.
Wouldn't changing the crossover filter make this the character of the speaker very different?
Is only a part of the filter changed or completely?

What would others posters do on these forums if a simplified crossover filter was offered to you?

[malcolmsmith]

I had the same fear as you regarding a complete new simple crossover but I have dealt with Russ Andrews a lot and trusted his advice and I'm very glad I did. The Hyperion sound is not lost at all it is just far more open. The existing crossover is only small and is all in one covered by some glue like substance.It is also connected to the binding posts so you have to change them. I would certainly recommend an e mail or talk with Russ Andrews firm,they will be able to explain the change far better tham I can and also explain/answer any technical questions,which I can't. At the end of the day if you don't still are not happy with idea of crossover change,don't do it! If you do the modification and are not happy just put the original crossover and binding posts back.Every part that was replaced I was given back on completion of the work so I can re-fit at any time. You can still alter wiring and get a marked improvement.Also well worth considering is using proper acoustic wool,damping pads to replace bits of foam currently used for damping. Again another question for Russ Andrews and his staff.
All the very best with your deliberations.

[watchemglow]

Hi Malcolm,

I was just wondering how you are feeling about the upgrades a few months down the track.  I plan to chase Russ Andrews for some information soon.

regards,

[malcolmsmith]

A few months down the line and I have no regrets at all.
I am still surprised at times by the absolute clarity without any trace of harshness.
At the end of the day the speaker units and cabinet are the same.All the other parts are changed without cost compromises.

[Dracule1]

That's great Malcom.  Has Russ done any mods to the 968s yet?

[malcolmsmith]

I don't know whether he has done any mods to 968s. I would guess not.
He did the modifacations for me because I asked him if it would make a differance,to which he replied it would make a big differance. I took him at his word and have no regrets.
I know he has done similar modifications to differant makes of speaker,or has supplied the parts to customers for D.I.Y. following discussion.

[jonnlad]

I'm to sorry SEVERELY necro this thread but has anyone had any joy in get details of the new, simplified crossover from Russ Andrews?

I am very interested in this.....

Thanks in advance...