Playground for practical listening exercises

[Charlie1]

Isn't it the same track? I thought you preferred after before; now you prefer before after all? ;) Just having fun :)

Don't think so.

I didn't really listen to this track on the last comparison but you're right, preferred 'after' on track 3 in particular.

[tokenbrit]

Don't think so.

There is no after without a before. There is no tighter despite a Friday eve adult beverage. Everything is better after a dbl g'n't. Cheers :D

[Spannko]

I think I still prefer before, for what sounds to me like the most musically coherent version of the three.

[springwood64]

Thanks everyone

Between before and after:

• Re-terminated k400 with Fredrik's solder and recommended temperature
• Replaced the crossover plates with k400 jumpers
• Sealed the speaker drivers

To my ears the first two were an unmitigated improvement. The third is more complex. It brought much more precision but at the cost of some tunefulness.

For tighter I retuned the driver torques.

I then spent a few hours retuning the speaker positions, but ended up with the same locations. Even the toe in is the same.

I've since further adjusted the tweeter torques and discovered that single click stops make a difference, and that the balance between the drivers also makes a difference, so torquing the individual drivers in isolation isn't quite good enough.

More work required. Fortunately rain is forecast today. Perfect for speaker tuning.

[Spannko]

Thanks Pete. I don’t know how long Fredrik’s solder takes to settle down, but the difference can be huge, so this is worth taking into account. Similarly, silicone sealant also appears to take a few days to fully harden.

Your conclusion re the siliconed drive units is interesting too. There are a few variables involved when siliconing drive units and working through them all is quite a task: Initial torque/silicone thickness, silicone hardness, final torquing. I’m not surprised Linn switched to rubber gaskets!

[lejonklou]

With so many changes between Before and After, no wonder the choice was difficult! To me, it does sound like a mix of gains and losses.

There’s another difference as well: The wonderful dress to the right, which is absent in Before. I bet that could add slightly to the sense of staccato I had, which is still present in Tighter.

I have no experience with how to optimally seal with silicone. I can imagine it’s tricky as there are many parameters. Great that we have Spannko on board!

[springwood64]

Thanks Spannko and Fredrik. I have just switched back to the old K400, and some of the edginess has gone.

The dressmaker has offered to add another dummy on the left to aid symmetry, but I wasn't sure if you were serious Fredrik!

I think I'll pause on the repeated back and forth of driver torque tuning. I made some worthwhile improvement but had then got to the point that each change to the mids changed the optimum for the tweeters and vice versa.

I'll come back to the torques once I'm confident the cables have had more time to settle.

[Hermann]

A for me too.

It's not only a matter of volume, but the sound character is very different between the A and B clips. As if A was recorded in the middle of the room and B near a corner.

It is really very interesting because the effect of the slight preference for the left channel is actually present in the small system. This is actually an indication of incorrectly positioned speakers. By the way, A is the cable with Deltron plugs.

Since my daughter wants to listen to the Tukan from the cupboard on stands, the Keilidh has now been reassembled. The same effect with these speakers. I swapped cables and Keilidh from left to right, used other cables, swapped channels, but the effect remains. So it is not the equipment's fault. Therefore it was necessary to install the small system further towards the middle of the wall, which I did today. Nevertheless, a slight predominance of the left side is audible, although limited to a few pieces of music, so I assume that the mixing also plays a role, but I am not satisfied.

Before I repeat the test, I want to be sure that I hear a balanced presentation. Obviously the influence of the room is much greater than expected. The Keilidh have now been tested at the same distance from the side walls (~1.9m) and at a distance of 1.2m to 1.8m from each other and between 10cm and 40cm from the rear wall. The further away from the wall it gets better, but not perfect.

I'm also stupid enough to buy another Amplifi HD, which will hopefully arrive on Monday or Tuesday.