I have been enjoying my Gunn'd MMGs for a couple of years now and thought Dawnrazor's razor tweak presented over at the Audio Asylum MUG was something worth trying. I had limited expectations based on comments about the combination of framing and sound dampening but, after quite a few disappointments with audio tweaks, I believe this is one of the best time/value/money propositions I have encountered yet in audio. It's a must for all of you with framed Maggies.
First of all, some background: I've spent a couple of years reading the generally very polite and informative debates by Maggie-aficionados on whether stiffening the frames or absorbing vibrations were the solution to some of the issues stock Maggies bear. Much like my answer to the age-old leftist/rightist debate about whether deteriorating economic fundamentals causes lower-class social/moral decline or whether the causation runs the other way around (my answer is: both theories are true), I'll observe that stiffening the frame and absorbing the vibrations are not mutually exclusive explanations. Both are worthwhile and have a positive effect on the sound.
Reading the debats, I’ve been wondering about the ~1” strip of masonite into which the drivers are fastened. Masonite is a quasi-mdf material and never seems to be mentioned in the debates over on the Asylum. In trying the halfrazor, my thought was that some of the vibrations inputted into the masonite could be siphoned away by the dampening material. I believe this thought is at least somewhat correct, based on the effects of the half-razor, which was only applied to the masonite.
A couple of weeks ago I purchased Cascade V-MAX and spent under an hour applying them to the back of my frames. Dawnrazor recommends 2 packages – ½ a package is sufficient to halfrazor MMGs and think a full pack will do pretty much any model. This was an easy tweak . You can read the instructions on a June 3, 2010 thread on Audio Asylum. I had no intention of doing the full razor as I don’t think opening up the speakers is wise.
What were the effects? Very positive. This tweak was close to a component upgrade in magnitude:
1) More tonal smoothness and richness, increased presence. This was exactly what I was looking for.
2) The bass got quite a bit better – this was unexpected. I was taken aback by how much improvement took place. Logically, the physical force of lower frequency vibarations would have more of an impact on the frame and the drivers than higher frequencies. Listening supports that point.
3) A bit more detail was audible (these speakers were already very detailed to start with).
