Rat Shck Presidian 40-5053. Next Sonic Impact?

This morning I A/B'ed the single Litekeys Presidian against a Dick Sequerra Metronome, which is admittedly a dated design - but cost about $800 for the pair new, and the Presidian was hands down the winner - with the one drawback being that softness in the lower mids. (Can't compare imaging obviously as I only have one Litekeys speaker right now.)

Also - Since I've hardly used the Presidians at all, even before the mod, and the Litekeys side has a brand new tweeter, I'm going to let them break in for a few days before trying my further ideas.

just now catching up with the thread. opalchip, your comments are very intersting and much appreciated.

i contacted litekeys and he said he intentionally left the tweeter a little "hot," and simply placing a 2 ohm resistor in series with the positive terminal should do the trick (he actually said 2-4 ohms depending on taste so opalchip certainly had the right idea). i couldn't imagine that litekeys didn't take the 6 ohm impedance of the new tweeter into consideration.

opalchip, regarding the midrange, are you stuffing the cabinets or ports? i'm referencing your comments from 1/22/06. i plan on addressing the treble issue first, then listening more intently for your perceptions of the mids. i'm wondering if a little experimentation with the type and amount of stuffing material may be a potential solution.

Hi again -

Sorry for the long delay, I've been very busy and somehow missed your last post. I've been running the stock and litekeys speakers in mono in my bedroom (not continuously) since my last post to really break them in. The litekeys has definitely improved - the bass level has come up a bit and the tweeter is a little more friendly. But for my ears, I still think adding some resistance on the tweeter will balance it out nicely.

I haven't the burning need to stuff the port on the litekeys version as I did with the stock. The addition of the crossover has cleaned up the woofer sloppiness quite a bit, but it's too hard to tell until I have two matching speakers running in stereo. I kind of wonder whether any analysis went into the design of the port at all - or did they just stick a random tube in the cabinet?
The rear of the cabinet has quite a bit of vibration which must be adding coloration, (as does the plastic grill frame, which is easier to eliminate) Even though there is a clever adjustable brace included in the kit, it can't really be engaged in a useful location inside the cabinet because the woofer takes up almost all of the front baffle. So adding stuffing may be useful to help damp some of that.

I'm hoping to finish up playing with these over the Xmas holidays, and I'll post my final results then.

Cheers, Chip

i have since placed 2 ohm resistors on the positive tweeter terminals to very good effect.

chip, i also noticed the vibration at the rear of the cabinet, and took the following measures: aside from putting generic dynamat on the inside of the cabinet, i got some 2.5" by 0.5" oak from lowes and gorilla glued it to the back of the cabinet on either side (9 10/16" long). this just clears the port area, but not the terminal cup. so i removed the terminal cup (a major PITA, btw), and glued another smaller piece of oak with rat shack binding posts. just file an oval area from the oak on the sides and you could easily keep the spring-loaded terminal cup.

thinking of also gluing some oak to the bottom of the cabinet which would further add some stability/mass without affecting aesthetics. hey, it's cheap and easy.

regarding the braces: THEY DO FIT, but in the following way: i requested and placed TWO per speaker, on either side in between the drivers. all you do is discard the square wood piece that is supposed to go with the non-threaded end and snug up the round brace to the baffle in that area. i didn't put any dynamat on the inner back in the area where the square piece for the threaded end fits, and gorilla glued front and back. it was a bit of a hassle reaching in to turn the brace while keeping it straight, but hey, i'm satisfied.

even with all this, mine seem to sound a bit better/clearer stuffed.

hard to tell if the port was a random act or a design intention. it's too thick to be a discarded chinese toilet paper roll :-) :-)

hope this helps a bit.

happy holidays!

a final post and FYI for all the bottom-feeding modkateers out there. these speakers are on final in-store closeout for $14.97 per pair.