For those that may have missed it..Danny had done some 626 upgrades for others in the past, maybe 7-8 years ago, but I sent him one of my VMPS 626 speakers to measure and evaluate. As you can see from earlier posts and the measurements on here and HTS he made a huge improvement. Now, I added the final touch, bypassing the treble caps with Sonicap Platinum's and have about 200 hours on them. This turned out to be the crowning touch. Not only did it make the treble distinctly clearer, but the midrange got a little more mellow on voices, although there is no logic to this. These crossover pictures are before the Platinums. Compare this to your stock unit and the difference is very apparent.
There was more to the build mod than just the xover. The cabinet volume was reduced, the port lengthened and more stuffing was put in the box. But now, I have a monitor that, sitting 13" from the rear wall, measures flat to 30Hz. You read that right. But of course there is not a lot of air movement with a 6 1/2 inch driver, so the subs are crossed over at 40Hz with a fourth order slope.
This afternoon I had another audiocircle member over that owns a pair of 626's with the Auricap upgrade, so he is very familiar with the sound. We played a variety of music from vocals to big band to pipe organ, with and without the subs. He and his wife were overwhelmed by the difference. It digs really deep for a monitor and has incredible transparency with vocals. If I were to describe the placement of sound I would put it about even with the front of the speakers, neither forward (though some might call it that) nor rearward. There is a palpable "live" feel to the performers. She noted that the soundstage was so much wider and deeper, and he was amazed at the clarity of the midrange and high end. Well, of course it's great, we have a planar and a ribbon handling these frequencies. The drivers are very good quality in these units, it was just the junk crossovers.
If you have a pair of these and you like the looks of them (as I do) Danny's upgrade is a no brainer. And I can say without equivocation that spending the money for the 4 Platinums was worth every penny and then some. You have to hear it to believe it.
In my mind no amount of money you can spend on your system if you have these speakers will make this much difference. Before the upgrades, there was a small difference between the sound using my prepro and then my 2 channel pre (same amp). After the first round of mods there was a huge difference. Now, with the Platinum bypass caps, there is a gigantic difference. I love surround sound, even with a stereo recording. But the sound from these through the 2 channel set up is so much better now I don't even want to use the HT stuff except for movies. It is as much a difference as going from an FM station with speakers to a good set of headphones and a CD.
Best thing I have done to my system to improve the sound, and also the cheapest.
