[dbx]

Has anyone upgraded the capacitors and/or resistors in their Soundscape 8?  If so, what caps and resistors did you use, and what was your impression before and after the upgrades?

[yetis]

I have wondered the same question.  I would ask for those with upgraded caps, etc.

[dbx]

I just received my Soundscape 8s yesterday.  I hooked them up and listened to them.  They are not as involved and detailed that I expected compared to what my speakers produce.

[JerryM]

dbx,

What makes up your system? What size is your listening room?

I'm just curious, and you haven't made a System link yet. 

Have fun,

Jerry

[dbx]

Hi Jerry.

Are those minor details really important???   

I am powering my speakers using an Onkyo Grand Integra M-508 Power Amplifier that produces 200 WPC into 8 ohms and an Onkyo Grand Integra P-308 Preamplifier.  Solid State Design.  The Power Amp has no problems handling the speakers.

My listening room is 17*11.

These speakers are beautiful to look at - the most beautiful speakers I have purchased.

I tend to like and lean towards classic audio components.

[DaveC113]

New speakers need a couple hundred hours break in.... If you just got them give them some time.

[dbx]

Hi Dave.

These speakers are not new.  I purchased them from a forum member which had them for a while, so they are broken in for me.   

The original owner took care of them so well that you would think they are new.

[maxboy00]

I just received my Soundscape 8s yesterday.  I hooked them up and listened to them.  They are not as involved and detailed that I expected compared to what my speakers produce.

Not involving or detail? Not something I have heard about the Salk SS8. Lets hope that the sound smooths out more to your liking.  Good luck! 

[Early B.]

I am powering my speakers using an Onkyo Grand Integra M-508 Power Amplifier that produces 200 WPC into 8 ohms and an Onkyo Grand Integra P-308 Preamplifier.  Solid State Design.  The Power Amp has no problems handling the speakers.

Those 8's deserve much better electronics in front of them.

[kingdeezie]

I think you might be barking up the wrong tree automatically jumping to crossover changes from jump street.

As a quick aside, have you recapped your Onkyo gear? That stuff is from the 80's correct? Might be well overdue for a recap if you haven't ever done that as of yet.

In terms of the SS8 being not detailed, or involving, that could be any number of things really. You'll first have to decide why you find its not as involving.

Sometimes things that aren't good (distortion, ringing, glare, echo, compression, noise, etc, etc) sometimes trick our ears into thinking certain parts of the sound are different and/or louder for the better, when in actuality we are masking what is really on the recording.

Its very easy for things like glare and noise to be perceived like that sound has "bite," and some (myself once included) translate that into excitement. 

What did you have before the SS8s? I would be curious to know.

Of course its possible you just don't like the sound of the SS8's. I don't think caps are going to change this honestly.

I would keep in mind that the SS8s are a high performance speaker, and they need the best system behind them that you can afford. Source, amps, and cables.

They are going to reveal deficiencies that you potentially didn't hear before.

You might also need to play around with speaker location, toe in, etc, etc, which could also help. They are full range, and if you have any significant bass issues, it could be masking midbass/midrange detail. If your other speakers weren't full range, perhaps this wasn't happening.

[Big Red Machine]

Those 8's deserve much better electronics in front of them.

Totally agree. There is no 1980's gear in existence that would be expected to deliver the quality signal the SS8's can handle. Time to spend some more money on electronics.

[sfox7076]

I disagree with absolutely no 80s gear would be worth it, but the caps would all need to be replaced and Onkyo wouldn't do it for me.  McIntosh 2500 would work out pretty well.  Heh.   

[Rocket]

Hi,

Totally don't want to be disrespectful but your components aren't in the same league as your speakers. What were your previous speakers?  I have a pair of Salk Sound HT3's and the rest of my system is top notch and the speakers always rise to the occasion.

This is another thread on the Selah Audio circle which discusses the pros and cons of making changes in the cover.  Check out Rick Craig's responses as he is a speaker designer.

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=134561.0

You have a great pair of speakers which you can build the rest of your system around.

Cheers Rod

[paul79]

I have some vintage gear I can promise, would surprise some of you guys...  Good and bad then and now.

[ernest787]

I don't own ss8 but do have some ht3s and agree that upgrading your equipment will likely make a world of difference. I went from a pair of STRT to the ht3s and ended up upgrading my amp and turntable. Doing that made a HUGE difference.

[billmcc]

I just received my Soundscape 8s yesterday.  I hooked them up and listened to them.  They are not as involved and detailed that I expected compared to what my speakers produce.

What are the other speakers? I'd really be curious as to which speakers those are that are more involved and detailed than the SS8s.

Bill

[yetis]

I just received my Soundscape 8s yesterday.  I hooked them up and listened to them.  They are not as involved and detailed that I expected compared to what my speakers produce.

Well, don't think can agree here.  They are an easy speaker to drive but do require quality inputs.  They are revealing.  Bad recordings are especially tough on them... I had some hypex ncore  mono blocks and had to go with something that had a little more warmth.  I am using Ayre amp now, as it's a three channel setup.  I suspect that they really beg for tubes.  Jim and crew seem pretty hot on tube amps and I believe speakers are voiced, on purpose or by their designers preference.   If money was no object and I didn't have kids, I would have a set of Aesthetix or AR amps. (Tube amps and kids DONT mix...)

One other question , how are they set up. Open or closed rear baffle, how much stuffing?  Have you checked the speakers with a sound pressure test to make sure something didn't happen in transit?

Embarrassing story.  My first high end amp was a Pass x 3 .  Got it and killed myself to set it up in a flash.  Was using rca interconnects and never read the manual.  So started listening and wasn't impressed .  Warmed up and while better, still required a lot of energy and flat sound .  Went on for weeks, convinced it was me.  Then read a review where the reviewer talked about how you needed to short the xlr connection to use rca!  What??? What a difference.  Not sure why I ever sold my pass amp! 

[DMurphy]

I just received my Soundscape 8s yesterday.  I hooked them up and listened to them.  They are not as involved and detailed that I expected compared to what my speakers produce.

I would also like to know what speakers were you running before the SS8's.  That's probably more important information than the particular electronics you're using.  The SS8's need a decent front end, but nothing all that special. 

[dbx]

Thanks much everyone for your input.

I found the issue of why the SS8 was not as involved, detailed, or textured as I would have expected it - this took place from the midbass-midrange area and the midrange-treble area.  Despite this, I could sense that these speakers can reach an upper treble area this is not possible on my current set of speakers.  All of this was noticed when watching a baseball game (as the first sounds to be injected into the speakers) after hooking them up.  But those sounds were far-and-few in between.  The speakers were placed head-on with no toe-in.  Bass was not a concern with the issues I was facing with these speakers.

I knew immediately that there was an issue with the speakers, not the gear itself, since it does put out lots of detail.

First - to answer a few questions -

I think you might be barking up the wrong tree automatically jumping to crossover changes from jump street.

You may be surprised.  I had purchased a set of used speakers that sounded good, but something was not quite right about the sound.  A recap of the crossover snapped those speakers into place and were humming.  (I understand that a cap rebuild cannot overcome a bad engineering or parts design in a product, but this was not the case.)

As a quick aside, have you recapped your Onkyo gear? That stuff is from the 80's correct? Might be well overdue for a recap if you haven't ever done that as of yet.

Yup.  Due to age of the amp, I did that years ago with the electrolytics, and replaced some polystyrene with film caps.  The only thing I did not recap was the filters since those look to be in good shape and would have been a hassle to replace.  After the recap, the amp sounded smoother (electrolytics) and the soundstage became more wide (film caps) - the wideness is apparent when watching films.

I also played with toe-in on the SS8 the following day.  The detailed upper-treble was a bit more apparent (not by much), but the mid-areas of the sound and texture were still lacking.

Thanks for your input Kingdeezie.

Those 8's deserve much better electronics in front of them.

Totally agree. There is no 1980's gear in existence that would be expected to deliver the quality signal the SS8's can handle. Time to spend some more money on electronics.

Ah my friend... you may want to think again.  There is a reason why vintage gear is loved.  I have an Anthem Statement Preamp Processor - one of the best Northern American Made Preamps out there.  Comparing both Preamps in stereo mode, the Onkyo Preamp edges out the Anthem for being a bit more airy and delivering a bit more bass.  Anthem Statement is a heavy hitter at sound, and it is great at surround sound, but for stereo, I prefer my Onkyo preamp (which is 2 channel - it does not handle surround sound).  If the Onkyo M-508 were produced today, it would cost as much as an Anthem Statement P-2 (perhaps even the P-5) and even some of the Emotiva Amps that are currently out there.

Great 80s gear brings to the table a level of detail that is comparable even with todays gear - amplifier and stereo preamplifier technology has not really changed all that much in the past 30 years.  So I would put it up with the McIntoshes, Krell, Anthem Statement, and Emotivas to see how each would compare.  It would be fun to compare them together!!!!

My power amp is 55 lbs, so it is no slouch.  But it can be regarded as a paper clip compared to some other amps which are much more heavier (McIntosh, Emotiva, Krell, Onkyo Grand Integra M510)

[dbx]

OK - now for the "fix".

THE MIRACLE OF POLYFILL!!!!

Inside the packaging of the speaker, there was polyfill stuffing.  I opened the back end of the midrange area and carefully started stuffing it with polyfill.  Powered on the stereo system again, and Voila!!!  Midrange detail, texture, clarity the way it was meant to be!!!  The detail in the treble area also improved with the polyfill, so now I am hearing details and texture that was missing from the midbass-midrange and midrange-treble areas as these speakers were meant to be heard!!!

Afterwards, after basking in the glory that the sound this speaker was producing, I found out that my neighbor had received a package for me.  This package came with dustcaps, cones, and a set of closed back baffles. (I thought this third package would arrive next week, I did not know about the closed back baffles.)  Replaced open baffle with closed baffle, and more sonic bliss to be had.  More Hallelujah!!!

So I spent the rest of the night soaking in the sound that these speakers are producing!!!  While at the same time I cannot explain why I cannot keep my eyes open.

What a glorious day it is!!!!  Today I will be playing with positioning the speakers to my liking.  If my eyes are willing to remain open.

Now, if I do decide to perform a cap rebuild - at some later point - the purpose of the cap rebuild would be to not change the sound - but to expand on detail, clarity, imaging, and wider sound-stage that the speakers could produce.  This would require some higher ended caps than the Solens, but I still am curios to see if anyone performed a cap rebuild, what they replaced it with, and what their personal experience was with the before-and-after effects of cap rebuild.