El: As i mentioned, i've actually contemplated building and marketing such a design from the ground up. I've been thinking about this for quite some time, but it is probably "just a thought". Either way, i've bitten my tongue in this area on purpose, at least publicly, for this reason. I have worked with a few people privately in terms of performing simple tweaks to their F's, which can noticeably improve the performance of this speaker system.
There is another factor involved here though. There were several different production changes to this driver while it was alive. As such, they vary in performance and what needs to be addressed. Without really looking at the drivers, cabinets and damping materials themselves, it is pretty hard to give vague and generic advice.
Much of this is why Bill at Millersound doesn't want to take on these types of projects anymore. He told me that due to production tolerances and differences, it may take him up to 3 complete assemblies & dis-assemblies to get the driver where he wants it to be. Given that this is a VERY difficult driver to work with in the first place, we are talking about a massive amount of time & labour. This is one of the reasons why he considers the drivers to be "broken from the factory".
For those that are interested, I will say that these speakers benefit massively from bypassing the internal factory wiring. The effects of this are NOT subtle to say the least. Altering the type / density / placement of damping material within the cabinet can also make a big difference, improving the transient response and damping characteristics of the driver. How much material and what to use will vary depending on the individual characteristics of the driver being used.
The Walsh's will also benefit from damping the frame rails and motor structure as they are modulated by the motion and the output of the cone. This is not to mention the diffraction that takes place due to having the frame rails in close proximity to the source of radiation. I've devised a much better way to get around this, but i can't impliment it without building a driver from scratch.
As far as modifications go, the really tough stuff comes down to altering the mechanical design of the driver itself. I can see dozens of ways to improve this, which should be obvious to those familiar with speaker design. Then again, most of these involved gutting the driver and almost starting over from scratch. Starting completely from scratch would actually be best, but at the same time and as you know, the likelihood of success is much higher when starting off with a proven commodity.
The fact that Bill offered very specific suggestions as to what he's found to work best in terms of upgrading / addressing some of those problems really helped me out in that area. The fact that i discussed this with several professional rebuilders / reconers and it left them dazed told me that most non-professionals wouldn't be interested in such info. It gets very involved as the parts used require modification for use, so you can't even resort to "off the shelf" substitution.
As such, i refrained from posting such info. Someone attempting to perform such work without basic levels of experience will most assuredly destroy an irreplaceable driver that i dearly love. This is much the same reason that i had previously refrained from posting specific info about AC systems, as i didn't want to encourage potential hazards with even more serious potential results. The only reason that i did so was at the private request of several different Agon members who are / were dealing with that situation at the time. Sean
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