Latest MLS-RM30C & system/room upgrades

James Romeyn · « **on:** 25 Apr 2006, 05:45 pm »

Brian is building my speakers now. RM30C-Auricap/Blackhole 5/MLS seamless ultra-high-gloss black. IMO the cosmetics equal or exceed the sharpest, crispest, cost no object. The large radius corners, no visible seams, & especially the hand-rubbed gloss are easy on the eyes.

Last night Brian said the midrange xo was recently modified, other tweeks are being employed, & he is pleased w/ the results. The new speaker should sound good w/ the following acoustic upgrades to my room: Symmetrical walls, 3-sided ceiling soffit bass-trap, two 7' rear corner bass-traps, two front diffusers, hanging wall bass-traps, & calibrated/optimized speaker siting locations.

A custom 7' tall sealed active corner-loaded subwoofer will be employed: 90.5 dB, 1000 WRMS, equalized, four VMPS #4197 10". Past sealed subs w/ 4197s provided a confirmed free-air -3 dB @ 40 Hz & 30 Hz when free-standing in this room w/ boundary reinforcement. A -3 dB of 25 Hz is a reasonable expectation w/ the corner loading & 7' floor-to-ceiling soffit height, below 25 Hz will be a great frosting. The earlier subs had great punch, supreme musicality, & the finest razor-sharp transients. In other words, an excellent match for the RM30Cs.

The ribbon array will be powered by a Pathos Acoustics Classic One Mk II hybrid (85 WRMS on 90.5 dB 7-Ohm mids). The 6.5" midbass will be powered by an ATI 1802 (bipolar, 50 lbs, 270 WRMS @ 4-Ohms).

I will invite speaker A-B comparisons when the room is finished. Single-input speakers may require more power than the Classic provides. Fullrange the ATI may be OK, but owners of single-input speakers will be invited to bring their own amp. The acoustic mods in the room improve performance but also increase power requirements. I hope my expectations aren't too high, but the room could exceed the performance in Brian's.

Campindog · « **Reply #1 on:** 26 Apr 2006, 01:26 am »

Sounds very cool. Is the sub in both front corners or one? Hard to picture from your discription. What kind of XO? At what fr? Progress photos?

I may have to drag my "stock" speakers up there when you're done to hear how much better these babies can get (hard to picture they can get that much better)

warnerwh · « **Reply #2 on:** 26 Apr 2006, 04:22 am »

Jim: Don't worry about your expectations. You will be very pleased. As a matter of fact I bet you'll wished you would have treated your room sooner. Once you have this though there's no going back to any regular ole room, I guarantee it. I'd bet my rear surround Polk Rti 25's I have upstairs would sound good in my room.

Those large bass traps will of course make all the difference in the world also. I added my bass traps one at a time and every time it's made an audible improvement.

What are the mods to the crossover? Also are you getting the waveguides?

James Romeyn · « **Reply #3 on:** 26 Apr 2006, 04:30 am »

One corner only for the sub, unknown low-pass xo pole, must wait till it comes together. I had only one sub here previously (the Sunfire True Sig EQ) & it worked well x'd around 60 Hz or so. I'm planning on using the PE amp I originally recommended to Brian. Don't know the low-pass xo rate, probably 3rd or 4th order. EQ is single-band parametric. I had this amp earlier & liked it.