Chris, I wish I could give you a more interesting 😉 description of how I remove tonearm cartridge leads from a cartridge, but my method is exactly like yours. Only thing I would add is that the tiniest amount of Deoxit helps keep the connection lubed and easier to separate while presumably also helping conductivity. Your use of a toothpick is also my method of expanding clips that are too tight due to overcrimping. As you know, when crimping the clips in order to make the connection tighter it is all to easy to crimp it in a way that the clip loses round; this would most likely decrease the number of contact points between the clip and cartridge prong. I took a small needle nose pliers with serrated "teeth" and by using a small thin round hobby file I made the space between the "teeth" and on both sides just wide and deep enough to cradle the cartridge clip; this allows crimping with equal pressure along the entire length of the clip without deforming it; and I do this with the toothpick in the clip to help keep round and to prevent overcrimping. Re subwoofers:
In my experience, you are exactly correct re near field placement. My pair of REL’s sit on either side of my two-person listening couch. I set the xover point as low as possible; usually at 28hz with occasional adjustments of a couple of hz one way or the other depending on the recording. I find that anything much higher than that thickens the sound in the midrange unnaturally and what I am looking for, more than anything, is not necessarily more obvious bass weight, but the concert hall (and studio) ambient information that is found in that frequency range. I also find that the midrange, independent of the presence of obvious bass information, takes on added purity and density when the system can reproduce the lowest frequencies. A controversial topic and not entirely understood (certainly not by me), but just as there exists the overtone series in music, we have undertones or subharmonic series that factors into all this. For instance, a recording of a woodwind choir playing in a range well above a subwoofer’s xover point will sound noticeably fuller and with more tonal density (as in live music) with the subwoofer on than with it off; importantly, and as Pegasus points out, eventhough there is no spurious midrange information being reproduced by the subwoofer. Re inverting phase setting: I think whistling 😚. One can whistle while blowing air out or by sucking air in. To me, the correct phase setting sounds like the bass is being projected out (as it should be) as opposed to sounding like it is being sucked in. The latter, as well as generally sounding weaker in volume, detracts from the contribution of the bass instruments in musical terms. I like your hand on the woofer cabinet method. Btw, while I generally agree that directionality is not a major issue with subwoofers, before I bought a second REL, I found that with a single sub "up-front" with the main speakers sometimes center images would subtly "lean" in the direction of where the sub was placed (if to one side or the other); again, whether there was obvious bass information or not. Regards.
In my experience, you are exactly correct re near field placement. My pair of REL’s sit on either side of my two-person listening couch. I set the xover point as low as possible; usually at 28hz with occasional adjustments of a couple of hz one way or the other depending on the recording. I find that anything much higher than that thickens the sound in the midrange unnaturally and what I am looking for, more than anything, is not necessarily more obvious bass weight, but the concert hall (and studio) ambient information that is found in that frequency range. I also find that the midrange, independent of the presence of obvious bass information, takes on added purity and density when the system can reproduce the lowest frequencies. A controversial topic and not entirely understood (certainly not by me), but just as there exists the overtone series in music, we have undertones or subharmonic series that factors into all this. For instance, a recording of a woodwind choir playing in a range well above a subwoofer’s xover point will sound noticeably fuller and with more tonal density (as in live music) with the subwoofer on than with it off; importantly, and as Pegasus points out, eventhough there is no spurious midrange information being reproduced by the subwoofer. Re inverting phase setting: I think whistling 😚. One can whistle while blowing air out or by sucking air in. To me, the correct phase setting sounds like the bass is being projected out (as it should be) as opposed to sounding like it is being sucked in. The latter, as well as generally sounding weaker in volume, detracts from the contribution of the bass instruments in musical terms. I like your hand on the woofer cabinet method. Btw, while I generally agree that directionality is not a major issue with subwoofers, before I bought a second REL, I found that with a single sub "up-front" with the main speakers sometimes center images would subtly "lean" in the direction of where the sub was placed (if to one side or the other); again, whether there was obvious bass information or not. Regards.