[Beano]

Is there a difference between the current base 626R speakers and the version reviewed by positive feedback http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue9/vmps.htm?

I noticed that the reviewe stated the retail price as $799 whilst the sticky on price list here for the 626R is $1598. Thats almost double the price.  Has there been some significant upgrades in the design/components since that review?

[John B]

Is there a difference between the current base 626R speakers and the version reviewed by positive feedback http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue9/vmps.htm?

I noticed that the reviewe stated the retail price as $799 whilst the sticky on price list here for the 626R is $1598. Thats almost double the price. Has there been some significant upgrades in the design/components since that review?

Yup.

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue15/vmps626R.htm

[miklorsmith]

$799 each for two speakers equals $1,598, exactly.  Three would be $2,397, four would be $3,196, etc.  At some point, you'd get a package price.

[Brian Cheney]

Base model of the 626R is $1598pr.  The FST upgrade takes it to $1998pr.

The pf online review speaker had several upgrades beyond that, notably TRT caps.

[CornellAlum]

Get the mls cabinets, upgraded caps perhaps, though I still am not sure why the caps cost double through vmps than they do at retail, soundcoat, megawoofers, and bh5!

[Beano]

Thanks for the info folks. I misread the $799 price on the article. Thought they meant each pair  .

Are the TRT cap upgrades significantly better than the Auricap ones? For 1.2K , they cost almost as much as the speaker's base price. I haven't got any listening experience with TRT caps. The best caps I have heard so far on a couple of speakers after their caps were DIY modded are the Mundorf Supreme caps. I reckon they were better than the Auricaps. Scarily good....you can discern the different brands of instruments in the music. Are the TRTs in the same league?

[gongos]

When I talked to Brian, he suggested the auricaps for the 626's instead of the trts.

[Brian Cheney]

The Auricaps provide 90% of the performance of the TRT's at half the price, so they are more cost effective with a relatively inexpensive speaker like the 626.  Still, many owners go all out and get the TRT's.

The Mundorfs are wonderful caps but we would have to trim them here to exact value.  Standard cap tolerances of 5% or even 1% are way off in our crossovers. Sonically, the TRT's are on a par with the Mundorf.

[CornellAlum]

Brian.


What exactly does the length of wire on a cap do that makes it so important?

Curious....
D~

[Brian Cheney]

There is some discussion about stranded vs. solid care leads on a cap, but I am not aware of any controversy about lead length.  Care to elaborate?

[CornellAlum]

Maybe I misstated, you say that you have to trim the caps, I guess what I am asking is what exactly does that mean?  I obviously know nothing about this, just trying to learn.

[Brian Cheney]

"Trimming" refers to the value of the capacitor.

The cap is the main part of any loudspeaker crossover.  We trim to exact value, or four decimal places, the maximum our equipment permits.  Most manufacturers use caps with 10% or 5% tolerances for value.  We trim each crossover--every part, caps, inductors, resistors--to better than 1/100th of one percent, which gets us hoots of derision from competitors who do no such thing.

I recently demonstrated (for a critic) the difference in sound a 1/100th of one percent change in crossover cap value makes, and he agreed it was as great or greater than changing internal wiring, damping material, or level control settings on the speaker.

Parts values and parts quality make a significant difference in sound quality, which is why I pay these factors a lot of attention.
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