Speaker Mods


Several years ago as a young struggling audiophile I bought a pair of Warfdale Diamonds. I was sceptical when I set them up, but I thought I'd give them a chance. I put an album on and listened. After only a few minutes I was ready to cry. I sold an okay pair of speakers to buy these and they sounded awful. I let them run for a while and since there was no noticeable improvement I realized I had to do something. I don't remember what the cable was anymore (this was about ten years ago) but I opened the cabinet and replaced all the wiring with either audioquest or monster cable???
When I put the speakers back on their stands the difference was unmistakeable. I did a "blindfold" trick with a friend who was also into listening. I played some familiar music for him while he couldn't see them. When he removed the blindfold he was floored that these little speakers sounded so good.
I have since moved on to bigger and better speakers and have thought about doing something with the cable but I'm worried about doing the wrong thing. When the speakers were cheap it wasn't intimidating, now it is.
Does anybody have any ideas about safe mods I could try on my Sony SS M7es speakers. They sound good now but I think they could be better.
Thanks for any insight you can offer.
128x128nrchy
I just looked at the M7 on the web. Pretty nice looking. What do you want to change about the sound of them? You can't just go happily modifiying away, without first deciding what sonic changes you are after. If you just want to do "basic" things, you could upgrade the binding posts, change out the lead-in wires from the binding posts to the crossover,and from the crossover to the drivers. Are you using the optional stands? Have you tried alternatative room placements? Or is there some deficiency that you want to improve that may require large changes? You may end up getting new speakers instead.
TWL, I should have asked you first! As soon as I saw your name I smacked myself on the forehead and said "Duh!" It sounded very hollow.
I am very happy with my speakers and I think I would have to spend a lot of money to get something appreciably better. I would like what I have to sound better. One of the obvious things was improving the cable inside. My speaker cable is Monster M2.4. I have thought about checking with them to see if this is available "bulk" and matching the interior cable to my speaker cable. Binding post are a good possibility which I hadn't considered.
I don't have the expertise to mess with crossovers or drivers and as I said I like the speakers. I just want them to sound better.
I have spent HOURS with placement and I am happy with where they are today. Who knows about tomorrow!?!
I am using a stand but not the one from the manufacturer and I am not very happy with them. Do you have a suggestion?
Thanks
I'd be clueless, but there's only one of them!
Nrchy, on the website I looked at, they mentioned factory stands that put the tweeter at correct listening height. But, they didn't show a picture or price. If it were me doing the mods, I would replace whatever internal wiring you are comfortable doing, with the best sounding speaker cable you have heard for your system. I'd also get a set of Cardas speaker binding posts, which are good and not too expensive. Also, I would get a pair of Bybee Ultra Quantum Speaker Filters or Walker High-Definition Links, and put them at the end of your speaker cables, outside the cabinets, at the binding posts. This way, the Monster cables that you already have will be feeding the Bybees or Walker HDL's, and the sound will be "filtered" just prior to entering the speakers. The really good cables and Cardas posts will then be the only wire/connectors that comes into play after the signal has been improved by the Filters/Links. I added the Bybee Filters to my system and found excellent sonic improvement to my sound quality. I have heard that the Walker Links are also very good, maybe even better than the Bybees, but I haven't tried them myself. Albert uses them on his super-high-end system, so that is a good testament to their quality. The stands may or may not help things for you, since getting them up off the floor may bring the tweeter up to correct level, but it may drop off some of your bass response due to removing the floor boundary reinforcement for your woofers. It depends on how the frequency balance of your system is, at present. Generally, using on-axis tweeter position in relation to your listening position will yield better imaging, but could be problematic if the tweeter is a little harsh. If the bass is strong or even a little boomy, you could tame it by using the stands, and if the tweeter is too hot in that position, toe the speakers out a little to get the tweeters off-axis in the horizontal plane. Another thing I recently did, was to use some room treatments, such as Room Lenses, to control the sound after it leaves your speakers. Controlling first-surface reflections will improve your imaging and soundstage. There are alot of pieces to the puzzle, but these are a few that I have found worked for me.