My speakers have finally grown up!

[Low Orbit]

Well, in the spirit of impulse buys and such I grabbed a pair of preloved Infinity RS5 floorstanders to audition the other week.

Being an American manufacturer I would have thought them to be brash and forward tonally, as this seems to be a general rule. Good for rock, not much good for anything else.

Seems I was wrong in this case. They have a reasonably smooth midrange and enough detail to keep me entertained. Although the bass is a bit bloomy and muddy it's quite tameable (currently with a pair of QED XT Silver anniversary cables on loan - but I'll look into decoupling it from the suspended wooden floor it's currently spiked to - the cable to seems to EQ the mids up a littletoo much and I have a haunting suspicion if placed on a concrete floor it would make them a bit thin) and the speaker, (with its 2 6.5" polycone bass / mids and 1" softdome in a di appolito configuration) seems to time quite well. Tonally I think they err on the warm side which suits me well as I'm inclined to listen to music for long periods of time. A bit more detail than the wee standmounters they replace - I can hear more into music than I used to be able to. They also stage quite well, and go far louder than I'd ever constantly listen to them quite effortlessly, which means bags of headroom for those dynamic tunes.

So far I've thrown quite a bit at them, and the only real problem they have is bad recordings (bugger! I knew it would only be a matter of time until my system reached that point), and really complex stuff - but I think that's more the ancient front end I have running it than anything else. They get a little shouty at ridiculous volumes, and a little bloomy at times (the room has yet to be tuned to them), but aside from that I'm perfectly happy.

Well that's about it for now folks. You have a good day and happy hunting.

Cheers, Shane.

[Uh-Oh]

Hi Shane

I agree with you about the American sound. have you considered playing arond with your speaker's wadding? I like to share with you what I did to my JBLs. I brought a pair of TX 's(can't recall the exact model no. as my mum has them now for her head banging needs) sealed 3 ways for a project in understanding how various foams , wadding, lining etc can affect sound.

I was astonished how little wadding was in the original JBLs and I began to experiment with lining the entire inside walls with thin soft fiberous carpet underlay. then I systematically added all sorts of foam and different amounts and weights of acoustic fibres until I found a sound that I felt right. This took almost a year until I arrived at the 'right' sound. I also constantly evaluated this speaker with other amplifiers to ensure a 'balanced' approach.

I would only change one speaker back to factory setting to compare on a regular basis and compared it in mono. I noticed quite large differences especially in the areas of tone ( hellavu lot more neutral), bass ( you can hear more shape to the notes and it stops and starts) and especially in overall detail of the whole presentation- you can simply hear so much more. I guess if you have ported speakers you may have to be a bit more careful with the airflow. Remember everything is reversible so if it goes badly, you can always go back to default settings.

I also changes the internal wires for Kimbers4TC's. The last bit I tackled was trying to damp the bass driver's baskets as they are the cheap stamped variety. I damped it with slabs of carefully cut bluetack stuck to the reverse side of the baskets and magnets to 'deaden the 'ringing'. I tested 'ringing' by tapping a screw driver to the spider arms.

I think what you said about the room needs tuning is very interesting. Do you know much about room acoustics and damping? Can you recommend any books to read on that subject? Kind of like what they do in studios as I am very keen to understand more so I can do my room.

Happy listening!

Uh-oh

[Low Orbit]

Thanks for the reply Uh-Oh.

I think I'll leave well enough alone inside the cabinets until I've got the room / source equipment sorted. Once that's been settled I'll give it a few weeks for my ears to become reaccustomed to the new sound and if the speakers aren't playing ball I'll have a look at them. Considering I've got them to aout 90% of where I'd be happy (tonally) then it shouldn't be an issue.

Although I'm well versed on the terminoligy and application of room treatments, there's nothing really out of the ordinary at my place. Yet. I'll look at putting basstraps in the corners, and maybe break the wall up directly behind the speakers - at the moment I have a couple of egg cartons on the wall - they seem to help a little, but I wouldn't mind playing with accoustic panelling at some point. The only drawback is the cost - it's about $90NZ per square metre and I'd rather spend that on music or movies.

At the moment I have the infinitys sitting on paving stones, still with their spikes in place - they were a little hazy in the mids without them - on a suspended wooden floor. Although the bloom is still there, it's a lot less irritating than if they were sitting on the floor.

It should be very entertaining when I lug my amp and speakers over to my friend's place in a few weeks - he has a Naim - 5X I think it is - CDP that times well, and has bags of detail but seems somewhat detached in the bass in his system. Still, as long as he's happy with it - and it is very room friendly.

Anyway, that's about it for now. Should be an interesting journey this careful upgrade path.

Cheers, Shane.

[Uh-Oh]

Hi Shane

I used to have various LS35a's that I messed with(Rogers, Harbeth and Spendor- they all sounded different and my fav. pair was the Spendors in 15ohm) and I think these speakers can become a window to the type and design of stands you use.

I tried and learnt a lot with these speakers and how various stands changed the sound. I actually enjoyed the difference when I did place my stands on a stone slab like what you have done but I found further tweaking can change things.

Try getting a largish slab and cutting the sides so there's no parallel sides as that encourages standing waves. I took a couple of slabs down to some yard and cut it for a small charge(well worth the hassle).

Also consider placing the slab on top of cones ( I used Steel Partingdon speaker cones- not sure whether you have come across them and I also tried Michell aluminium cones ) rather than just sitting on top of your wooden floor.

Uh-oh

[Low Orbit]

I think perhaps if the slabs were sitting atop a bare wooden floor then the standing waves from the slabs would be the least of the issues. Luckily in this case it's carpeted. Thin, tacky carpet from the 70's, but carpet nonetheless.

Yes, I have thought about decoupling the slabs from the floot, that's something I'll have to look into.

Something I forgot to add - all of the information I have about room daming comes from either my own experience, word of mouth or the internet so I can't help you with any books other than to say check out your local music (instrument selling) store - if they have an array of mixers and midi gear then they may have tomes on damping as well.

Cheers, Shane.

[Low Orbit]

Hi all,

Just thought I'd throw a couple of pics up - I'm a bit slack like that - they should have been here ages ago. Apologies for the qualiity, I'm not very good with this point and shoot digital stuff.

Cheers, Shane.

[Low Orbit]

... and just because I'm a complete moron and can't figure out how to post multiple pics in one post ...

Cheers, Shane.

[Mevunky]

Looking good.

[Low Orbit]

Thanks. It's getting there - all I need are a few thousand dollars more of upgrades.

Cheers, Shane.

[Owen Y]

Hi Shane,
That is a most interesting & elegant equipment rack design. Is there a story about these?
Cheers, Owen

[Low Orbit]

Hi Owen, yes there is of sorts.

I had been meaning to make a rack for ages, so one day when I had a little time I cobbled together a basic multishelf 4 legged design. This of course was far too boring for someone with an ecclectic music collection like mine, so I dropped a leg and spun them sideways. That seemed to work so I measured some gear and used common sense for the dimensions. Then my flatmate said to flip each shelf around. Looked bizzare with no gear, so mocked that up as well.

After the initial build had been done (the shelves are modular, and with the exception of the 4 legged one for the heavy gear can be placed in any side by side or upward configuration) I stacked all the shelves one on top of the other. End result, too symmetrical, far too tall. (Would have put the TT about chest height). Shelves were then placed in a 2+2 (side by side) configuration, in opposite poles, as they are in the picture. A 5th shelf was added a day or two later for the TT - the dark blocks are med density foam (which are to be replaced by a proper DIY isolation platform, along with the same for the CD and DVDP at the same time) when I finalise that design.

Everyone that's seen it has commented which is what I was after - a point of difference. Should be entertaining to see what happens to the finish on the sub. I've got a few ideas.

Cheers, Shane.

[Low Orbit]

Well folks, just a quick update.

Nothing new added to the system, just a few words about how they're bedding into my system.

The bass still needs taming somewhat, it's still far too slow and loose for my liking but I guess it's a matter of finding a speaker cable that leaves the precious mids alone whilst handling the bass in the same manner that the silver anniversary XT cable does.

The sheer dynamics of these little (?) speakers still leave me astounded however - whenever I'm hard charging with them they never fail to make me break out in a rather large grin, and that after all is what it's all about - pure enjoyment.

They also work spectacularly well as PC speakers. It's quite satisfying to have massive explosions rip down the room as you blow stuff up.

On the connection front I now have the DAC running directly into the multi channel input on the AV amp via the Perreaux as the preamp. Sounds cleaner than ever. Still a bit annoying having to unplug the PC to use the CDP though, but I guess I could pickup / build another DAC to curb that little problem.

Anyway, that's all for now folks. You have a great day, and happy listening, no matter what your medium.

Cheers, Shane.