Fabulous Free Factory-Authorized Tweak!

Brian Cheney · « **Reply #80 on:** 19 May 2004, 05:14 pm »

They will reseal themselves once you screw them down.

James Romeyn · « **Reply #81 on:** 22 May 2004, 07:29 pm »

Quote from: meilankev

Roger,

Welcome to Audio Circle !!!!

Wow, I didn't know VMPS speakers were so well-travelled. I'm sorry - I can't help you with your question. I just wanted to welcome you to our little area.

Kevin

I've got three customers in Asia & at least three in Europe, all from the VMPS forum.

James Romeyn · « **Reply #82 on:** 22 May 2004, 07:52 pm »

Quote from: Bob Wilcox

The RM-40s were the first speakers I have owned where some problems in the recording studio faked me out to think the was a problem with with my speaker. ...

There are bass artifacts on the XLO test CD that are absolutely strange, making one think there is a system malfunction till you find out later it's on the CD.

On "Love Can Build A Bridge" by the Judds, the first vocalist sounds right, but then the second vocalist sounds distant & a bit phasey. My conclusion is that the balanced microphone or it's preamp input was wired out of phase, producing inverted absolute polarity & the resulting funny phase effect (her vocal projects more into the cabinet than outward into the room). I thought about asking Winona Judd about this when I was in her trailer on Ashley's movie scene, but for once my better judgement kicked in & I kept my big mouth shut. Winona is a very classy, polite & genteel southern lady.

pjchappy · « **Reply #83 on:** 23 May 2004, 08:16 pm »

Any more impressions of the PR tweak. . .

I coated my PR on my Smaller Sub, but I am waiting for Soundcoat and an amp. . .so, it will be awhile before I get to hear it again. . .

p

Tim S · « **Reply #84 on:** 24 May 2004, 01:19 pm »

As I mentioned a few posts up, I coated the outside on my RM 1's. Still haven't had time to do the inside. I can clearly say there was no degradation at this point so there seems little reason not to try it. As to gains? Well, I think there has been a substantial tightening of the bass which has simultaneously lead to the midrange clearing a bit as well. Now, is that from adding the glue or the very small bit of putty I took off? I don't know for sure. I also somewhat recently added in some makeshift room treatments until I get some real foam (i.e. strategically placed old couch cushions can do wonders). While I had listened with these in for a few weeks before the glue, I also recently shifted those to a better position so that would be another confound.

Tim

James Romeyn · « **Reply #85 on:** 24 May 2004, 06:39 pm »

Somebody might want to treat one speaker's PR but not the other. Make absolutely no other changes. Both PRs must be mass loaded as closely alike as possible. Hopefully you put all the mass removed for tuning into an envelope labeled to match the associated speaker channel, as I recommend in my setup document emailed to customers.

Put the speakers next to each other, best sited away from boundary effects. Put a Y connector from ONE source channel into both amp channels (there are funny artifacts when simply summing stereo channels). Switch from one speaker to another & note any differences. You should probably remove a bit of mass from the treated PR.

Bob Wilcox · « **Reply #86 on:** 25 May 2004, 12:52 am »

Once the PRs were off, I carefully removed as much of the putty as I could before I used the glue. I have about 1/2 of it reinstalled at this point.

I had lowered the driver levels after the glue mod when the woofers were in the swapped position and thought the overall sound a bit lean despite lower tighter bass. I now have the woofers back in the factory positions. The imaging is different the with the woofers in the factory position - a bit wider and slightly less focused. The bass was initially exceeding the levels the 4 RealTraps could tame. I am now bumping the driver levels up to see if I can achieve better driver balance synergy. I will probably live with it for a while and then flip the woofers again and adjust putty and levels to see what the best configuration is. Despite the imaging differences I could acclimate easily to either configuration.

zybar · « **Reply #87 on:** 30 May 2004, 12:02 am »

Click HERE to see my pics.

I let my PR's dry for over 24 hours before running them again.

In both cases I needed to remove a little putty from the PR (in the 40's I also turned up the pots a bit).
There was definitely an improvment in the impact and weight of the bass.

Thanks again Brian.
How about that bracing update?

George

Pocketchange · « **Reply #88 on:** 5 Jun 2004, 11:52 am »

Neophyte here so... HELLO,

I remember Silly Putty. You could roll out a piece of it and press it on the sunday funnys then giiiiiiiive it a stretch and watch the imprint stretch out of shape. Which reminded me of a paint like material that's main purpose was for temp (quick) roofing repair. First you would layout some newspaper over the hole in your roof then paint this stuff over it. The neat part of this was, if you just paint the newspaper with this stuff, let it dry, you could giiiiiiive
it a pull and it would stretch out of shape and just like the silly putty, would pull back to its original shape.

Hey BC, just so happens, I have can of this stuff. I'm not interested in messing with my sub, but if you would like to give it a try? It's well seasoned, most likely 30 or so years. And it ages very well without getting brittle like Elmers and roaches don't care for it, if you live in the south!

I made repairs to a EV 18" woofer many years ago with this stuff and it's still working and the bugs havn't eaten any new holes in the cone so far.

Marbles · « **Reply #89 on:** 5 Jun 2004, 03:18 pm »

What's it called?

Pocketchange · « **Reply #90 on:** 9 Jun 2004, 12:38 am »

POLYMERIC SEALER...

Smells like it has some quick thinners and it gets tacky quickly.
The fellow that had this Co. passed away several years back. If you wanted, mabe you could locate some via the net or something like it. Mr. Small seems to have designed most of his stuff for the tropical climate of South Florida, he was fairly successful and was in business for 60 plus years in the same location. In fact, one of his ex-employees (Ken May) started CORONADO PAINT CO. and sold it for a bunch of millions. PS he's dead too.

I'm not to sure if it's any good any more due to age, but if you would like to have a can, just let me know. I have several left.

Here are the directions:
A thick material that can be applied with a putty knife or brush, where sealing and waterproofing is desired. Bonds well to concrete, metal and wood. Where reinforcement & fabric is used over a seam, two light coats are more desireable than 1 heavy coat. Drying time in good weather is one hour. Wash brush with soap and water immediately after using.
WARNING: Use adequate ventilation; do not take internally. Keep container tightly closed. DO NOT APPLY ON RUST OR GALVANIZED SURFACES

John Casler · « **Reply #91 on:** 25 Jun 2004, 11:07 pm »

I just found out today that the PR's in the RM30 are not paper, but carbon, and should not be vitrified.

So any RM30 owners rejoice in the satisfaction that your PRs "DO NOT" need this tweak.

Only the PRs with "paper" cones can be improved by this application.

sbcgroup1 · « **Reply #92 on:** 2 Jul 2004, 04:49 pm »

Quote from: RibbonSpeakers.net

Winona is a very classy, polite & genteel southern lady.

That's a euphemism for "I wanna hit that."

Hey, you both could ride off into the sunset on your hogs....

So is she pissed that you have a better sound system then she does?

-Ed

jgubman · « **Reply #93 on:** 7 Jul 2004, 03:00 am »

Finally got around to vitrifying and putting on the pedestal bases yesterday. While removing the PR w/ the drill gun, a wayward screw accidentally separated some of the layers of mounting gasket thing (shoulda hand unscrewed the screws..). I took a qtip and "vitrified" those layers back together, and they seem like they're as solid as pre-seperation. Let me know if I should do something else.

Anyways, waited the 24 hours and took a listen and a quick putty adjustment today. The results are really, really good. Deep bass notes seem to be the most effected. They seem to have more definition and "umphf" to them. The rest of the bass seems improved also! Bella's hippo is shaking the foundation!

Very nice tweak. Thanks Brian!

Marbles · « **Reply #94 on:** 14 Feb 2005, 12:00 am »

I tried to take off a base today to vitrify the passives.

I took out 6 screws from the bottom of the first speaker, but could not get the base to loosen.

I then took a hammer and a piece of 2" X 4" and hit the 2x4 with the hammer to try to loosen the base....no go. It's like it is painted in and I didn't want to ruin the finish or split the base anywhere.

Did anyone else have trouble taking the base off to get to the passives?

Thanks for any guidance.

rlcordeiro · « **Reply #95 on:** 14 Feb 2005, 03:40 am »

Something is wrong the bases came off easy so I had no problem vitrifying my passives.

Brian Cheney · « **Reply #96 on:** 14 Feb 2005, 05:12 am »

Once the screws are removed tap the inside lip of the base with a 2x4 and a slefgehammer and the base should come right off.

ekovalsky · « **Reply #97 on:** 14 Feb 2005, 05:54 am »

Never heard a manufacturer recommend taking a 2x4 and sledge hammer to their product before

Dunedain · « **Reply #98 on:** 14 Feb 2005, 04:22 pm »

Brian: Is there any chance that this glue coating might become brittle and crack and drop flakes
of glue onto the bottom of the speaker after years of heavy bass output? Because we know that VMPS
speakers can put out some serious bass, and so the glue coating would have to undergo major vibrations
for many years.

Brian Cheney · « **Reply #99 on:** 14 Feb 2005, 05:17 pm »

Nice part about Elmer's is that it permeates the cone material. If it flakes off in 10 years or so I'll let you know.

I have been known to apply the 2x4/sledgehammer to customers as well as speakers.