best upgrade to rockets to improve dialog clarity?

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic. Read 16440 times.

jr43

Re: best upgrade to rockets to improve dialog clarity?
« Reply #20 on: 24 Nov 2012, 12:24 am »
I did the Sonicap upgrade to my old Klipsch KG4s and it is like getting new speakers. I also added some homemade bass traps made from two layers of Roxul Safe'n'Sound insulation. This made such a difference in my pool room, I built two more the living room.

minisq

Re: best upgrade to rockets to improve dialog clarity?
« Reply #21 on: 25 Nov 2012, 04:02 pm »
The good news is that you have the crossover that I designed for them.

If it were me then I would upgrade the caps to Sonicaps, line them with No Rez, and upgrade the internal wire. I have all of that in stock.

All of that will be a very significant upgrade for those speakers.

Did you ever do anythign with the swan 6.1's? I recently purchased a used set, and the first thing i did was pull the drivers out to inspect the inside of the cabinet. 2 things i noticed... complete lack of any dampening, so i would like to do a norez upgrade. And the crossovers looked pretty sparse. they are split...the two woofers have a simple 6db low pass and the upper cabinet has something i could not make out. Overall the sound is not terrible...but i think it could benefit from some clarity and focus.

Danny Richie

Re: best upgrade to rockets to improve dialog clarity?
« Reply #22 on: 25 Nov 2012, 06:41 pm »
Did you ever do anythign with the swan 6.1's? I recently purchased a used set, and the first thing i did was pull the drivers out to inspect the inside of the cabinet. 2 things i noticed... complete lack of any dampening, so i would like to do a norez upgrade. And the crossovers looked pretty sparse. they are split...the two woofers have a simple 6db low pass and the upper cabinet has something i could not make out. Overall the sound is not terrible...but i think it could benefit from some clarity and focus.

Sounds like they could be upgraded considerably. I wish I had them here to measure.

minisq

Re: best upgrade to rockets to improve dialog clarity?
« Reply #23 on: 25 Nov 2012, 09:43 pm »
Sounds like they could be upgraded considerably. I wish I had them here to measure.

not my picture....but something that was posted online. shows the awesomeness of the dampening :D




Danny Richie

Re: best upgrade to rockets to improve dialog clarity?
« Reply #24 on: 25 Nov 2012, 10:03 pm »
Wow! Iron core slugs, sand cast resistors, and electrolytic caps. It can't get any worse than that.

And the wiring is cheap.  :nono:

Seeing stuff like that makes me doubt their design skills as well. I wouldn't even start replacing parts without seeing how is measures. It will likely need a redesigned crossover as well.

HAL

  • Industry Contributor
  • Posts: 5533
Re: best upgrade to rockets to improve dialog clarity?
« Reply #25 on: 25 Nov 2012, 10:22 pm »
That picture shows a dead electrolytic capacitor in the crossover as well.  It is broken in half!  Ouch!

Danny Richie

Re: best upgrade to rockets to improve dialog clarity?
« Reply #26 on: 25 Nov 2012, 10:32 pm »
That picture shows a dead electrolytic capacitor in the crossover as well.  It is broken in half!  Ouch!

I think just the coating on the end may be gone.

HAL

  • Industry Contributor
  • Posts: 5533
Re: best upgrade to rockets to improve dialog clarity?
« Reply #27 on: 25 Nov 2012, 10:37 pm »
Looks like the cap body is empty, the lead and end plug are separated and the guts of the cap are on the right side wall of the cabinet.   

minisq

Re: best upgrade to rockets to improve dialog clarity?
« Reply #28 on: 25 Nov 2012, 10:48 pm »
Wow! Iron core slugs, sand cast resistors, and electrolytic caps. It can't get any worse than that.

And the wiring is cheap.  :nono:

Seeing stuff like that makes me doubt their design skills as well. I wouldn't even start replacing parts without seeing how is measures. It will likely need a redesigned crossover as well.

yes but they have excellent WAF....so its worth it to me to do some work on them. But dropping them off for measuring is not really practical since  I am in Vermont.

I could get in touch with Jon Lane ..and tell him my intentions to rebuild the crossovers, not sure what his response would be.

minisq

Re: best upgrade to rockets to improve dialog clarity?
« Reply #29 on: 25 Nov 2012, 11:06 pm »
Here is the driver set up for the swan 6.1 (pair)
2x HiVi F6 6" Bass/Midrange
2x HiVi TN28 Fabric Dome Tweeter
4x HiVi M8a 8" Aluminum/Magnesium Woofer

and some measurements, maybe of no use....but its whats out there online.











Danny Richie

Re: best upgrade to rockets to improve dialog clarity?
« Reply #30 on: 25 Nov 2012, 11:42 pm »
The measured response looks real good. If you are happy with the tonal balance then you might want to try swapping out the parts for higher quality ones and lining the cabinet with No Rez.

HAL is not too far away from you if you can talk him into measuring them for you. Just to confirm that there are no other issues.

HAL

  • Industry Contributor
  • Posts: 5533
Re: best upgrade to rockets to improve dialog clarity?
« Reply #31 on: 26 Nov 2012, 12:05 am »
Interesting.  Just had my CLIOwin setup out today to do some measurements.  All calibrated and ready!    :D
 
 

minisq

Re: best upgrade to rockets to improve dialog clarity?
« Reply #32 on: 26 Nov 2012, 12:13 am »
Interesting.  Just had my CLIOwin setup out today to do some measurements.  All calibrated and ready!    :D

how far from 05250?


HAL

  • Industry Contributor
  • Posts: 5533
Re: best upgrade to rockets to improve dialog clarity?
« Reply #33 on: 26 Nov 2012, 12:19 am »
I'm in MD.  Not very close to VT.   :scratch:

minisq

Re: best upgrade to rockets to improve dialog clarity?
« Reply #34 on: 26 Nov 2012, 01:31 am »
The measured response looks real good. If you are happy with the tonal balance then you might want to try swapping out the parts for higher quality ones and lining the cabinet with No Rez.

HAL is not too far away from you if you can talk him into measuring them for you. Just to confirm that there are no other issues.

i would say i do like the over al tonal quality...its not earth shattering, nor does it give me goosebumps...but it does draw me in.

replacing the crossovers with higher quality parts is surely an option. And regarding the no rez...is that flexible for curved boxes like the swan 6.1?  And for a speaker that is roughly 45" tall and 11 inches wide and 15" deep...are you thinking 2 panels for each speaker?

Danny Richie

Re: best upgrade to rockets to improve dialog clarity?
« Reply #35 on: 26 Nov 2012, 01:34 am »
I was thinking for some reason that you guys would be closer than that.

Quote
And regarding the no rez...is that flexible for curved boxes like the swan 6.1?

Yeah, no problem on that. We used to put it in the AV123 Rocket's with curves sides too.

wagnju

Re: best upgrade to rockets to improve dialog clarity?
« Reply #36 on: 26 Nov 2012, 02:30 am »
i would say i do like the over al tonal quality...its not earth shattering, nor does it give me goosebumps...but it does draw me in.

replacing the crossovers with higher quality parts is surely an option. And regarding the no rez...is that flexible for curved boxes like the swan 6.1?  And for a speaker that is roughly 45" tall and 11 inches wide and 15" deep...are you thinking 2 panels for each speaker?

Hi
I was in your shoes 2 years ago with my Swan Diva 5.2 speakers . I needed 3 sheets of Norez for my similar sized 5.2 and just swapped the original capacitors and resistors with mills resistors and sonicaps capacitors with the same value .Except the 68uF capacitor in the bass part ,I used a "cheaper" Solen from partsexpress as I didn't want to spend high dollars for the bass part capacitors at Sonicaps . I left all inductors original as updating them (I hope that I don't get spanked for that) don't bring that much improvement as the new capacitors and resistors do . I bypassed the tweeter and midrange with 0.1uF Sonicaps capacitors too .
The capacitor /resistor upgrade was the biggest improvement to this speakers and worth every penny . The impact of the Norez wasn't as big but I would still recommend it as it reduces unwanted enclosure resonances significantly . Just give the new capacitor/resistor upgrade time to break in and you will be rewarded with a much better and improved sound from an already great speaker .







« Last Edit: 26 Nov 2012, 03:46 am by wagnju »

minisq

Re: best upgrade to rockets to improve dialog clarity?
« Reply #37 on: 27 Nov 2012, 12:34 am »
Hi
I was in your shoes 2 years ago with my Swan Diva 5.2 speakers . I needed 3 sheets of Norez for my similar sized 5.2 and just swapped the original capacitors and resistors with mills resistors and sonicaps capacitors with the same value .Except the 68uF capacitor in the bass part ,I used a "cheaper" Solen from partsexpress as I didn't want to spend high dollars for the bass part capacitors at Sonicaps . I left all inductors original as updating them (I hope that I don't get spanked for that) don't bring that much improvement as the new capacitors and resistors do . I bypassed the tweeter and midrange with 0.1uF Sonicaps capacitors too .
The capacitor /resistor upgrade was the biggest improvement to this speakers and worth every penny . The impact of the Norez wasn't as big but I would still recommend it as it reduces unwanted enclosure resonances significantly . Just give the new capacitor/resistor upgrade time to break in and you will be rewarded with a much better and improved sound from an already great speaker .








Thanks for the info....and being that your stock crossover looked so much nicer than the crossover pic that i found on the web claiming to be from a 6.1, that i had to take mine apart and revisit this.  So here are a few pictures of my actual speaker crossover. the simple small inductor and cap is wired to the lower binding posts...+ and -...and then in parallel to the to 8" woofers.

The the other set up appears to be one for the midrange and  one for the tweeter....pretty basic stuff.

And first off my apologies for barging into the OP 's thread on rockets...i didn't expect to go this far. And Danny feel free to delete or move to a new topic, or we can continure via private message.

But i guess my goal would be to have you look at these pictures and suggest some replacement crossovers....i can dig deeper and try and find you the exact values of each, and then i think i would like you to assemble them and and ship  them back to me so i can put them in the boxes and add the no rez.

i don't need ultra high end crossover....just high end would be ok...not sure on cost...but my gut is saying $150 +/- for the pair? Plus the 3 sheets of no rez? Is that realistic?






Thanks!! And if i am way off on the pricing...don't be afraid to educate me :-) I dont know how much stuff costs sometimes.
 

Coldfusion

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 49
Re: best upgrade to rockets to improve dialog clarity?
« Reply #38 on: 27 Nov 2012, 03:46 pm »
The good news is that you have the crossover that I designed for them.

If it were me then I would upgrade the caps to Sonicaps, line them with No Rez, and upgrade the internal wire. I have all of that in stock.

All of that will be a very significant upgrade for those speakers.

Thanks Danny, you have a PM.

minisq

Re: best upgrade to rockets to improve dialog clarity?
« Reply #39 on: 30 Nov 2012, 11:38 pm »
Thanks!! And if i am way off on the pricing...don't be afraid to educate me :-) I dont know how much stuff costs sometimes.

judging by the silence...i wasn't even close :lol: