Two pairs of x-ls speakers arrived today :-)

zybar · « **on:** 17 Aug 2006, 01:51 am »

After reading all the great reviews and comments, I took the plunge and purchased a new pair of x-ls speakers in the beautiful Rosewood finish (thanks Sean), as well as a slightly used pair in the White Shadow Maple.

Both pairs arrived today and I must say I am extremely impressed!

These speakers have no business being only a couple hundred a pair. When I look at the fit and finish, as well as the simple yet highly effective packing material, it leaves me scratching my head wondering how the heck Mark isn't losing money with each pair that is sold.

The Rosewood pair will be going into my family room and will flank the Salamander Synergy Twin in Cherry and Panny plasma. It will be driven by a stock Denon 3805 and Panny S-97 dvd player. The Maple pair will go into the kids tv room and be powered by a Panny X-45 receiver.

The Rosewood pair will only be staying at the house for a week or two as they will be shipped out to Wayne at Bolder Cable and he will be performing some upgrades (adding No-Rez, improved caps, etc...).

I will keep everybody posted on the sound of the stock and upgraded units. If they are half as good as everybody says, these really are the BEST bargin out there in audio land.

Stay tuned...

George

Marbles · « **Reply #1 on:** 17 Aug 2006, 02:03 am »

George, I'm not surprised you like them...designed by Danny Richie and built by MLS...Sounds like a winning combo to me...maybe they will take over the world

zybar · « **Reply #2 on:** 17 Aug 2006, 02:45 am »

Quote from: Marbles on 17 Aug 2006, 02:03 am

George, I'm not surprised you like them...designed by Danny Richie and built by MLS...Sounds like a winning combo to me...maybe they will take over the world

Yup, that was also one of the reasons why it wasn't really any serious risk with buying unheard.

George

BradJudy · « **Reply #3 on:** 17 Aug 2006, 03:34 am »

Glad to hear you're happy with your purchase so far. So you've elected to send them all of the way back to Colorado to have Wayne mod them? Why not just ask him to pick them up and save some shipping? I'll probably be modding my pair as well sometime shortly.

zybar · « **Reply #4 on:** 17 Aug 2006, 03:42 am »

Quote from: BradJudy on 17 Aug 2006, 03:34 am

Glad to hear you're happy with your purchase so far. So you've elected to send them all of the way back to Colorado to have Wayne mod them? Why not just ask him to pick them up and save some shipping? I'll probably be modding my pair as well sometime shortly.

Because I am a dumbass sometimes.

I was toying with the idea of modifying them, but didn't decide to do it until after they shipped and left CO.

George

JDUBS · « **Reply #5 on:** 17 Aug 2006, 03:51 am »

Quote from: BradJudy on 17 Aug 2006, 03:34 am

Glad to hear you're happy with your purchase so far. So you've elected to send them all of the way back to Colorado to have Wayne mod them? Why not just ask him to pick them up and save some shipping? I'll probably be modding my pair as well sometime shortly.

What types of mods are getting done on these?

-Jim

marvda1 · « **Reply #6 on:** 17 Aug 2006, 04:32 am »

have you thought about getting danny richie to mod them?

MaxCast · « **Reply #7 on:** 17 Aug 2006, 10:28 am »

Congrats, George. I want a pair too, but I don't have anywhere to put them.

zybar · « **Reply #8 on:** 17 Aug 2006, 10:55 am »

Quote from: marvda1 on 17 Aug 2006, 04:32 am

have you thought about getting danny richie to mod them?

Well I have the upmost confidence in Wayne's abilities and have worked with him numerous times in the past.

I am extremely confident that he will get the job done and at a very fair price.

Honestly, I am not even sure if Danny is modifying the speakers. He has posted over at AV123's forum about what to upgrade and why (man I need to learn to solder). This sort of lead me to believe that he wasn't really interested in doing upgrades.

If he was, I would have no problem having him do any work for me either.

George

marvda1 · « **Reply #9 on:** 17 Aug 2006, 01:58 pm »

the reason i asked was not to shed a bad light on anyone but since Danny designed them to a price point he would know exactly which modifications would benefit the most.

BradJudy · « **Reply #10 on:** 17 Aug 2006, 04:00 pm »

Yeah, Danny has made his recommended mods pretty well known. No-rez on the walls and Sonicap replacement caps with Sonicap Gen2 bypass caps. He has also discussed the options of replacing the inductors with foil ones and tuning the tweeter resistor to match your tastes. This fairly long thread covers the topics pretty well - http://av123forum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14712

Wayne1 · « **Reply #11 on:** 17 Aug 2006, 04:53 pm »

I also own a pair of X-LS. I REALLY love these speakers. For the money there is nothing that comes close.

I am on fairly good terms with Danny and I asked him about mods to these speakers.

He gave me a list of things to do. It is exactly what Brad has mentioned.

George asked me if I had done any mods to the speakers. I let him know what I had done and the results. He then decided, after the speakers had shipped to him, that he wanted mods done to a least one pair.

The capacitor change out does give the high end more "air" and transparency. The sound is "faster" with quicker transients.

The No-Rez does dampen cabinet resonance a fair amount. The end result takes a very good speaker to a great speaker for the size and price.

Brad,

Let me know if you would like to get together and compare your stock X-LS to my modded pair. I would be wiling to travel up to your neck of the woods to take a listen.

BradJudy · « **Reply #12 on:** 17 Aug 2006, 05:14 pm »

Wayne,

Thanks for the offer, but I'm already familiar with what the mods will do. I'll probably be doing the caps and no-rez myself one of these days.

laserman · « **Reply #13 on:** 17 Aug 2006, 05:15 pm »

I received my x-ls about 10 days ago and loved the sound and would have been happy with them in stock form. However, since I had read Danny's comments about being able to squeeze a little more from them I decided to purchase the No-Rez, bypass caps and bypass resistors from Danny. I am in no way a DIYer (just ask Danny), but I felt this project was well within my circle of ability. Yesterday, I performed the mod.

The No-Rez took a while since I don't have a table saw and used a utility knife and a good heavy usage pair of scissors to cut the required pieces and affix them to the cabinet.

Danny said the caps and resistors will need a good 50 hours of burn in but after 20 hours of white noise on moderately high volume (my spouse said she thought it was raining outside when she awake this morning. lol) I had to give them a sneak listen. So about an hour ago, I used my cd to test differences and noticed an improvement over all in the upper midrange of the speakers. The 1.8 ohm bypass resistor is suppose to lower the resistance of the tweeter and thereby increasing overall output of the tweeter by 1-1 1/2 db. The bypass .1 uF Sonicaps also seemed to give me a cleaner less smeared sound in that upper midrange area. The No-Rez dampened the cabinet. I will put white noise on for another 24 hours and see if it gets even better. If it stays exactly the way it is now, I will be happy with the little additional expense and sweat equity. These speakers are truly a bargain whether in stock form or moded.

lonewolfny42 · « **Reply #14 on:** 20 Aug 2006, 10:34 am »

I got to listen to George's Rosewood pair (stock) at the Rave yesterday. Nice speaker's !!! Sound....build....quality....all top notch....their a great buy....NICE WORK !!!!!

Chris

Captain Humble · « **Reply #15 on:** 20 Aug 2006, 12:42 pm »

Quote

Congrats, George. I want a pair too, but I don't have anywhere to put them.

MaxCast, you can store them at my house until you find a spot. Naturally I wouldn't think of charging a storage fee to a fellow A/C member.

zybar · « **Reply #16 on:** 20 Aug 2006, 02:15 pm »

Quote from: Captain Humble on 20 Aug 2006, 12:42 pm

MaxCast, you can store them at my house until you find a spot. Naturally I wouldn't think of charging a storage fee to a fellow A/C member.

That is why your Captain Humble!

George

nature boy · « **Reply #17 on:** 20 Aug 2006, 03:34 pm »

Too bad AVS only did a limited run of the rosewood x-ls's. Sean and Mark may want to consider a larger run of these at some point.

NB

Sean Parque · « **Reply #18 on:** 21 Aug 2006, 10:20 pm »

We are thinking about doing something in the next few months

Sean

Quote from: nature boy on 20 Aug 2006, 03:34 pm

Too bad AVS only did a limited run of the rosewood x-ls's. Sean and Mark may want to consider a larger run of these at some point.

NB

Sean Parque · « **Reply #19 on:** 21 Aug 2006, 10:22 pm »

If anyone out there is uncomfortable doing the the XO upgrade, I set up a little company and super-quick website...you can see it here:

http://www.skiingninja.com/xseries.html

Sean