[Bob in St. Louis]

Thank you for that. Be safe.

Bob

[strider]

The "clay" putty I used is $1 per pound. You can find it used mostly for sealing the entry points for the electricity and HVAC in most houses. Can't recall what it's called though. I found it at Home Depot in the electrical section. Comes in one pound "bricks". It doesn't harden, isn't messy to use, and comes off easily.


Bob

Sounds like what I've used, I think it's called duct seal.

Ben

[Bob in St. Louis]

Yes, I've heard it referred to as that as well.
Also, in the auto industry there's a rope caulk type thing used to seal the HVAC on cars. You can go to any car parts store and ask for "dum dum", they should have it. Might be more $$$ than the duct seal but would be worlds easier to use.
Not sure what the deal with the name is. 

Bob

[bombadil111]

Thank you for that. Be safe.

Bob

Thanks Bob, will do.

Cliff

[bombadil111]

 

The "clay" putty I used is $1 per pound. You can find it used mostly for sealing the entry points for the electricity and HVAC in most houses. Can't recall what it's called though. I found it at Home Depot in the electrical section. Comes in one pound "bricks". It doesn't harden, isn't messy to use, and comes off easily.

Regarding removal of the screen, I have an old thread on the Hawthorne site with pictures, but can't find it now. Basically, I used a 90 degree 'pick' to pull the screen off. It's held on with three drops of glue. I would pull it off as opposed to cutting to avoid pieces of debris falling into the throat.
I've got some pictures, I'll see if I can find them.

Maybe I missed it, but why are you packing up the speakers?
Bob

Hey Bob,

Well I finally got around to removing the "bug screen."  It was rather easy.  Pryed it off as you suggested; holding the driver with the mouth down.

I also damped the frame.  I took a different route here, and used insulating tape.  Stuff came in 2" wide and appears to be perfect for this aplication. 

I've been listening for awhile, and though an A/B comparison is impossible, to my ears the tweaks have made a great speaker even better.  What I've noticed is that the sound seems more 3D. 

All in all, very happy with these simple tweaks.  I'm still smitten by these speakers, and suspect I will be for a very long time.
 


Cliff

[Bob in St. Louis]

There you go. Well done Sir! 
"Smitten" is the perfect word, I couldn't have said it better myself.

Enjoy the music Cliff. 

Bob

[howburger]

Just for the heck of it, a cheap tweak that I did was reverse the tweeter leads to the compression driver. The effect is of course room dependent. The effect that it had in my system was that it reduced a peak that I was very sensitive to. I can't tell you what quite what frequency it brought down, but it reduced it and brought a somewhat forward, shouty vocal back into the soundstage where it belonged. I also replaced the stock 6.8 uf capacitor with the Obbligato capacitor, it had a smoothing effect on the sound also.

Harold

[bombadil111]

Just for the heck of it, a cheap tweak that I did was reverse the tweeter leads to the compression driver. The effect is of course room dependent. The effect that it had in my system was that it reduced a peak that I was very sensitive to. I can't tell you what quite what frequency it brought down, but it reduced it and brought a somewhat forward, shouty vocal back into the soundstage where it belonged. I also replaced the stock 6.8 uf capacitor with the Obbligato capacitor, it had a smoothing effect on the sound also.

Harold

Thanks Harold . .. some day I may upgrade crossover components. 

So far, I have not detected any honk from the cd.  But that's just me.

These really are fun speakers tho and I'm really enjoying the ride.

Cliff

[versus rider]

Hi Cliff, how do you find the bass as your baffle doesn't look that big in the pictures comapring the size of the driver and the surround. I am building some baffles and the surrounding piece round the bass drivers is about 50mm at the sides and about 100mm at the bottom.   paul

[bombadil111]

Hi Cliff, how do you find the bass as your baffle doesn't look that big in the pictures comapring the size of the driver and the surround. I am building some baffles and the surrounding piece round the bass drivers is about 50mm at the sides and about 100mm at the bottom.   paul

Hey Paul.  Yeah I kept the baffles somewhat narrow as suggested by many builders over on the Hawthorne forum.  Apparently you don't want to go too wide with the Iris drivers.

I kept a minimum 2" around top and sides, more on bottom.

I like the bass as they are.  They are adequate for most of my music.  However, I will be addingthe "Augie" driver next year.  They are "ripper" from what I understand.

Cliff

[Bob in St. Louis]

Cliff,
You rules of thumb for the SI dimensions are spot on from what I've discovered.

Bob

[bombadil111]

Hello,

So I recently purchased two Augie woofers to go with my Silver Iris coaxials.   My intention is to have stereo, rather than mono bass.  So I am assembling all the necessary equipment to this end.  And here is where I am at a dead end .

Now I am a little green at this, so bare with me.  It seems I have two major options.  #1 Use two plate amps to drive the Augies, or #2 Use an active crossover and a separate amp, stereo of course.

#1 is a simple one:  Two Rythmics, or a cheaper option, two Keigas.

#2 I am thinking about something like this:

For the crossover a Rane, or the cheaper alt. Behringer CX3400:  http://www.rane.com/ac22s.html

For an amp:  A used Parasound or Adcom, or?  Another options is a pro amp like QSC, Crown, Peavey, etc.

I am not beholden to either option, but the first seems the most simple.  Will option two bring another level of performance for the money spent ($500-$800)?

So what would you do?  Keep in mind I don't have a pre-amp.  Just the MiniWatt.  So I'll need high level in?

Thanks,
Cliff