Capacitor log Mundorf Silver in Oil
Lots of capacitors, resistors, and inductors to upgrade in my Dunlavy SC-VI crossovers: http://cgim.audiogon.com/i/vs/i/f/1359906100.jpg |
Vn 101606 Years ago I worked for a dealer that had multiple locations in the mid-west and we sold many pairs of Dunlavy speakers. I took a deposit of 15k on the first pair of SCVI's to be delivered.. almost a year to get those babys. I had many conversations with Mr. Dunlavy during the waiting period. I had purchased a pair of SCIV's for my personal use and like everything I do I take it apart in hopes I can make it sound better. Easy thing to do was to replace all the steel and aluminum fasteners with brass. Non ferrous material interferes less with the intended electrical field than does steel which bends the same field. I did this around all the drivers including the delicate face plate and dome which is held together with metric steel screws. Nice apparent improvement. Brass as a material is very musical and pleasant to hear. Next I removed the crossover and then replaced all the steel brackets and screws with brass. Again an apparent improvement. While inside the crossover area I made a record of all the component values and their placement and physical size. Over the course of time I made many changes that proved to be upgrades. In retrospect the best bang for the buck was the replacement of the very inexpensive resistors with bridges made of multiple Vishay metal films. Dunlavy himself told me I was wasting my money to do this swap. Today I would use the Duelunds as replacements because of their value and cost. The difference that late night was so extreme I asked my daughter to come and listen. What did you do to make such a difference she asked. I showed her those component parts that were swapped. She had no I idea what she was seeing but new what she was hearing as I had recorded her many times playing classical guitar between those very speakers. Super quiet yet highly resolving. There was one other major undertaking that actually made for a greater improvement and that was to remove everything inside the speaker cabinet and paint the interior surfaces with Cascade V-Bloc. This paint is drawn in to the pores of the mdf dry like concrete and seals and stiffens the cabinet and blocks the sound of the glue mixture and its damping ill affects. After I did this the sound stage was as wide as my room is wide 22 feet. Okay, I did replace all the caps and inductors and the wire but the biggest bang for the buck was the replacement of the resistors. In retrospect I would not change the factory supplied inductors in the Dunlavys. The inductors have a Q value as well as their own measured inductance. Changing from a 14 gauge inductor to a 8 or 10 gauge inductor not only decreased the dc resistance but also changed the damping of the entire system. So change what ever else you want but leave the inductors in place. All of these changes were performed over 15 years ago, one at a time over the course of a 18 months or more. If I still had those speakers today I would apply methods of resonance grounding to the drivers and the crossover components..Tom |
