[Redbone]

Halleluja, I finally have some time this weekend to fool around with the 40s.  First item on my list is to build some new speaker wires.  I have the 40s bi-amped with two sets of amps and wires.  I will replace the bass wires with DIY cables made from four lines of 12 gauge Southwire appliance wire as per Julian's instructions.  For the ribbons I will use store bought 10 gauge Monster Wire.

This may also be a good chance to take a peek inside and perhaps try the Elmer's tweek.  I will try to get some pics to compare with Zybar's, and am particularly interested in the XO components.  Might add some padding to the NEOs.  And of course I'll have to fool with the putty, but at least I'll get a chance to actually see it.  I may try to weigh the amount on each side and be a bit more scientific about tuning this time.

I have read before and heartily agree that the 40's are temperature and humidity sensative.  My experiance is that they sound the best at higher temps, above 75 degrees F and at humidity levels above 40%.  THe difference in sound is quite dramatic between 55 degrees with low humidity and 75 degrees and mid/high humidity.  

Also I have bought a pair of Seas magnesium/aluminum cone woofers and a bunch of different iron core low pass inductors.  Am going to use the old CVs as test dogs to mount the Seas and then try different filters from 200 Hz to 1200 Hz.  It should be very interesting to compare the sound with the 10" CF woofers in the 40s.

[Redbone]

Well I finally gave up at any attempt at decorum (like I had any to begin with) and bought a 45" tall 19" equipment rack.  It was hard to find a good one and they aren't cheap.  Anyway this allowed me to move all of my gear closer to the speakers and ditch the 30' cables.  Got some silver wires for the high, copper for the bass.  Modest improvement, but not huge.  

Next I was able to reposition the speakers with the new cables.  Huge difference !  I put them about 4' out from the back wall, about 6-8' apart, and about 6' separation from the side walls.  Fantastic improvement in imaging and sound, about 2x overall gain in sound quality.  But the speakers are right in the freakin way in the middle of room, oh well.

The Lexicon/Bryston arrived.  I am planning on using it to drive the woofs eventually, but for right now I just used two of the five channels to replace my old HK amp on the Neos/FST.  Another huge, eye opening surprise.  I've got 500wpc@4ohms from the QSC driving the bass, and 200 wpc@4ohms from the Lexicon driving the mids/high and I can still EASILY go into clipping on the Lexicon, a bit more difficult on the QSC.

The only reason I would know this is that both amps have clip indicators.  But I can actually hear the distortion from the mids when the Lexicon clips, if I am watching the indicators.  It is no wonder the poor old HK didn't sound too good.  The Lexicon sounds MUCH better, I'd say a 2x improvement in the overall sound, as long as I keep the volume at a level where there is no clipping.

Since I am pumping a max of 700wpc into these guys and can still easily clip the amps, it is no wonder that quad 'Zillas sound so damn good.  I really suspect that most RM40 owners are underpowering their speakers.

Thanks Julian for the heads up on the power, but I didn't realize that the mids would be so hard to drive.  It looks like this may make the use of tubes to power the mids prohibitively expensive, as I wouldn't be comfortable with any amp less than ~200wpc for the mids.  I may stick with SS on the mids and use a modest tube amp on the FST, don't know yet.

Anyway, the sound is starting to approach downright scary.  I don't know if I can stand it if it gets any better, my head might explode.

[sbcgroup1]

Also I have bought a pair of Seas magnesium/aluminum cone woofers and a bunch of different iron core low pass inductors. Am going to use the old CVs as test dogs to mount the Seas and then try different filters from 200 Hz to 1200 Hz. It should be very interesting to compare the sound with the 10" CF woofers in the 40s.

I'd like to know what you find out...Selah uses the Seas woofers, don't they?

BTW...are you running 20amp circuits for your amps?

-Ed

[Redbone]

Also I have bought a pair of Seas magnesium/aluminum cone woofers and a bunch of different iron core low pass inductors. Am going to use the old CVs as test dogs to mount the Seas and then try different filters from 200 Hz to 1200 Hz. It should be very interesting to compare the sound with the 10" CF woofers in the 40s.

I'd like to know what you find out...Selah uses the Seas woofers, don't they?

BTW...are you running 20amp circuits for your amps?

-Ed

Well first off I figured that it would be better to have the long wires be 120v power cords than ~5v speaker wires, so currently I am using a couple of 20' extension cords to power the amps, off of a 20 amp circuit.  I am planning on pulling in a dedicated 20 amp line from the breaker box and installing an outlet, just for the stereo, plus having a "daisy chained" 15 amp oulet to boot.  I have already pulled in a 20 amp line for the fishtank, and did it again when I remodeled the bathroom (hair dryers pull a lot of amps), so I have some experience there.

The Seas 10" Aluminum/Mag woofer is outstanding.  The depth and impact of the bass is fantastic, plus it adds a warmth to the mid bass that I felt was lacking previously.  One down side is that it adds a "metallic" coloration to the sound.  This coloration is not always present, and I can only hear it when I am playing the woofs solo, but it is a weakness of the metal coned speakers.  

The Marchand crossover came yesterday.  An outstanding unit, well built with 3 modular filter slots per channel.  I hope it sounds half as good as it looks.  I am also hoping that modifying the low pass settings on the woofs can get some of the "metallic" sound out of the Seas.  If not there are a ton of other good 10" woofs out there and they are easy to swap in/out.