Listening ImpressionsI listened to the V2 in stages, and there were 3 things done at different times which made the biggest improvements in sound.
Stock and no side panelsFirst I just wanted to build the basic MDF box and use the stock crossover just to make sure the speaker wasn't a dog. No point in building it out with full finish and expensive parts if it basically sucks as a design. Luckily these speakers were excellent sounding right away. I listen near field and off axis most of the time, and the OB nature of the bass and mids allowed me to finally get an even distribution of good sound and good bass in my very difficult room. Also, I'm particularly sensitive to the physical separation of mid and tweeters, so the coax drivers are right up my alley. They did a ton of things better than any other speaker I've heard in my home. They are not perfect speakers, and I don't think perfect speakers exist anywhere, but they are excellent and among the best I've ever heard, even at this early stage.
Upgrading the CrossoverThe first significant change I made was to bypass the Sonicap Gen I's in the crosssover with Sonicap Platinums. It took a while for them to burn in, but the sound was a pretty large leap in quality. I liked the Platinums so much that I bought more of them to bypass the output caps on my tube amp. I liked THOSE so much that I bought another pair to use as the input caps on the amp. Very, very nice caps!
Reticulated Foam TweakI started another thread on this, but the speakers were a bit bright for my tastes, and I stuffed a lot of reticulated foam in the tweeter throat to damp it down. It work, the highs softened. But, as I put in the Platinum caps and also started to attach the Baltic Birch Side panels, the highs and mids became better balanced. I ended up with about half the quantity of foam I started out with. Just enough to line the tweeter throat without the foam being very compressed. Most aquarium stores will have cheap foam that is used as filters in fish tanks, and it's perfect for this.
Attaching the Baltic Birch Side PanelsThe final step in my sonic journey was building out some 1.5" baltic birch no-void side panels. These add a CONSIDERABLE amount of mass and weight to the speakers. Sonically, their effect was very interesting. The bass of the V2's was already the best I've ever had in my room, simply by having 4 of those 12" woofers in an open baffle configuration. The side panels did 2 things with the bass - cleaned it up even more, and made it much more solid. Where before, the bass was a solid underpinning of the music, now it growls at you. It's mean. Music comes through with a lot more attitude.
Surprisingly, the lower mids also filled in quite a bit, and that allowed me to increase the frequency setting on the bass woofers while decreasing their volume settings. Net result is that mids are cleaner and more weighty, PERFECT!
While the bass is meaner, the mids and highs are sweeter and nicer. How can a speaker be mean and sweet at the same time? I've wondered the same thing about some of the women I've dated. But there it is.
ConclusionThere are very few areas that the V2's are not excellent-to-world-class in quality. They sound big. Bigger than my previous VMPS RM40's did. They image like crazy. I love their tonal balance. Dynamics are excellent. Placement and ease of setup in a room is outstanding. Transparency and that sense of "realness" is world class. If you couldn't already tell, I love these speakers
Update on SoundI did 2 more tweaks to my setup with the V2's. As I mentioned previously, I had bought Sonicap Platinums to bypass the tweeter caps in the crossovers, and I put a Sonicap Gen 2 cap bypassing the big 20uF midrange cap. I had also bought a quad of Auri-T caps to do a little comparison. But, the Platinums were so good, the Auri-T's never came out of the bag.
Line Level High Pass FilterAfter a while, I decided to build a line level high pass filter between my preamp and amp, so that my amp would not get any signals below 60hz. The .01uf values I had already with the Auri-T's was perfect for this. Got some male and female RCA's and some extra wire and built them several days ago. Inserted them in the system and I was.... underwhelmed. Almost no difference in sound, at least none that I could detect. Of course, I listen at only moderate levels and my amps are pretty strong, so I guess it's not "that" surprising.
Auri-T Midrange Cap BypassWell, I still had an extra 2 Auri-T's and nothing to do with them. So I figured "what the hell", and soldered them into the V2 crossovers across the 20uF midrange cap. Now THIS was a nice improvement! I don't know why it would make this much difference, but in my case it really does clear up the midrange quite a bit, particularly the lower mids. Even the bass seems cleaner and "faster", probably because of that lower mid/upper bass cleaned presentation. Of course there's still a long burn in process ahead of me, but right now I'm very happy!
Going ActiveOK, I kicked the passive crossovers to the curb and went active with a stock DCX2496. There's a bit of a drop in response between 10khz and 20khz that a 6db per octave boost on the DCX addressed quite nicely. There's also a 4 db bump between 1khz and 2khz that the DCX can dial in a small drop to get the upper mids very smooth indeed. I also got rid of my SA-1 amps because I just didn't have the space to build a box for them. They were actually pretty darn good amps. I ended up getting a Crest CA9, which is 900 watts into the V2 bass load, and I hear no difference in sound quality between it and the SA-1 at all. Of course, the SA-1 has a built in bass boost to compensate for the OB deep bass roll off of the V2's, but the DCX has a 12db per octave boost I can dial in to deal with it nicely too.
Going fully OB!!!!OK, I had some problems with the original V2 tweeters - the shipping company does a poor job with the drivers when they pack/ship them (P. Audio, it's the BM8XCA coax driver). The problem is that the tweeters are easily damaged in transit. But, luckily, dealing with Danny is awesome. He let me upgrade to the V1 tweeters and I have to say that going from the direct radiating tweeters (stock) to the OB V1 tweeters (upgraded) made a HUGE, HUGE difference. IMHO, the stock tweeters should be kicked to the curb, the OB tweeters make that much of a difference. I suppose it's the fact that the mids are radiating much more energy into the room than the stock tweeters, while the upgraded V1 tweeters match much the total energy of the OB mids. Anyway, I'm not sure if Danny will make these a standard option on the V2's, but IMO he should. They make a giant difference for the better, creating a more cohesive sound from top to bottom.
