[Gbatokai]

I own a pair of Norh Marble 3.0 speakers, and to me this speaker produces too much treble. This is also apparent from looking at the tangband-driver's data sheet.

To keep it short: creating a parallell low-pass filter using one resistor and one capacitor solved the problem in an unobtrusive way.

Use a film type capacitor of 0,1uF and a power resistor matching the speaker's nominal impedance, i.e. 8 ohms. The resistor should ideally have a rating of 10 watts or higher, but 5 watts should do nicely given the speaker's power handling of only 20 watts.

The network - also called a zobel network - is connected across the speaker terminals like this:

Code: [Select]


  +          -
  |          |
  |--||--[]--|
  |          |
  |          |
  ----SPK-----

-||- means capacitor
-[]- means resistor



Another nice tweak for my marble speakers was to clothe the front side of the speaker with felt (cutting a hole in the felt for the driver, of course) , in order to aid treble dispersion and make the speaker "disappear" sonically.

[mbarnes]

Thank you for the post. I want to try this out.  We have tested the TB driver with our CLIO system. It rises at about 20 Khz and goes up until it starts to drop at 22Khz.  This is clearly beyond myhearing.  

I have tested a new TB driver that is overall smoother sounding but it only goes down to about 150 Hz.  We are using this new driver in our multimedia project.

We put felt on our drums but not on the Prism 3.0s.   We like the way the felt works but it isn't always the best looking solution.

The mable 3.0s sound pretty amazing to me -- consider the single driver. It is a 6 liter cabinet instead of the 2.5 liter cabinet so it can actually go reasonably deep.  I imagine that if you have tamed the sound, it would really sound great.

[Gbatokai]

We put felt on our drums but not on the Prism 3.0s.   We like the way the felt works but it isn't always the best looking solution.
T ...

I agree - the speaker looks better without the felt. It sounds very good given its price and size.

Another modification I have made to this speaker, is to apply a very thin layer of silicone onto the driver frame, creating a gasket between the baffle and the driver. I felt that the naked metal against naked marble might not be sufficient to prevent unwanted airflow, which would screw up the speaker's performance.

I wanted to remove the metal shielding basket from the magnet as well, but this requires heating the basket to soften the glue, which might well ruin the drivers.

[RuSsMaN]

Could you please share the impedance curve datasheet on the Tang Band driver in question?

If anything, to my ears at least, the 3.0's are incredibly flat, if not subdued on the upper end.  I have my 3.0 drums on a 2ch rig with a NAD 2240PE amp, NAD 1130 pre, AMC Cd8b cd, Signal Cable Analog 1 interconns, MIT Terminator 4 speaker cables, passed through a B&W Asw500 sub with a 6db/oct active low-pass, 6db/oct passive high-pass @ 80Hz.

The results in the sweet-spot are stellar, no high-end fatigue/brightness. Before purchasing, I spoke with Mr. Barnes on his thoughts of adding a zobel network, and we both came to the conclusion that it wasn't needed.  

Yes, a single Tang-Band 3" has it's disadvantages, obviously power handling, and efficiency, however, driven properly and within its capability, the image, soundstage, and response are second to none, at any price range.  Is there better sure, I am generalizing a bit.

Granted, your ears and mine aren't the same, as surely our source and back end components aren't either, BUT, imo, there is nothing to be tamed on the 3.0 (drums).

I will however try your Zobel network, and listen objectively.

Cheers,
Russ

[Gbatokai]

Could you please share the impedance curve datasheet on the Tang Band driver in question?

If anything, to my ears at least, the 3.0's are incredibly flat, if not subdued on the upper end.  I have my 3.0 drums on a 2ch rig with a NAD 2240PE amp, NAD 1130 pre, AMC Cd8b cd, Signal Cable Analog 1 interconns, MIT Terminator 4 speaker cables, passed through a B&W Asw500 sub with a 6db/oct active low-pass, 6db/oct passive high-pass @ 80Hz.

The results in the sweet-spot are stellar, no high-end fatigue/bright ...

Here's the driver:
http://www.tb-speaker.com/detail/0116/W3-594S.htm

Bear in mind that I have the *Marble* 3.0s, which might sound a bit different than the wooden drum ones.