Thanks Millercarbon,
It’s so refreshing to get such a thorough and helpful answer from someone who has first hand experience with SR products!!! I was expecting to get a lot of replies advising me to sell all my SR cables because there nothing but "snake oil" and buy something else. I have been slowly and carefully collecting them on the used market over the last few years and really like there sound. I did reach out to Michael Spallone a while back and am planning on sending him a few to mod for me. Your system looks awesome and although I haven’t tried it yet I am very eager to hear the swarm subwoofer set up. I have 6 Dayton hf 10" drivers and 4 of the 15" that need to be built and hopefully utilized throughout the listening/living room.
Thanks again, your answer gave me a lot of peace of mind since I have been plugging the mpcs in this way for quite a while and was never sure if it was correct even thought it sounded great.
You're more than welcome. Btw all you have to do is look at the way transformers and power supplies work to understand it cannot possibly make any difference. Transformers all work on AC. But the AC is always run through diodes to produce DC which is then stored in power supply caps. So no matter which way it comes in it all goes out the same.
Now that being said what does matter is the quality of the power supply. If you have a Master Control Center I would look inside that. Then open your MPCs and look inside and compare the transformers. I had a center, used it for trade-in to get my Atmosphere IC. (SR has a pretty good trade-in program.) Anyway 2 of my MPC are regular and 2 are Tesla. Main difference SR tells you is quantum tunneling. I don't know about that but you can see the Tesla transformer is much bigger. Barely fits in the case. With Spallone mods I told him what I was doing he used better caps, the case won't fit back on. Doesn't bother me one bit!
I don't know how tight you are on money but this is a very simple DIY mod. Basically buy a better cap and diode, solder em in. For me I know diodes are as different as caps. I have confidence Spallone has found the best sounding diodes. Having done this I know how much difference they make. So to me he is worth it. I just throw it out there in case, because you can save a lot on shipping and just swap them out yourself. It will be a lot better. Just not as good as his. He has had time to be able to try a lot and find the good ones, and he is very good at this.
As far as subs go, you need to DYODD. With speakers it all comes down to volume and design. And then with driving them it comes down to impedance. Take your time. Depending on how they are connected in series or parallel, and in what combination, you can figure out what load you want your amp to see. Then also for the drivers you can work out speaker cab volumes. Its almost all volume, not shape, that matters.
Your goal is to have subs in at least 4 locations. With 10 drivers you could have 10 cabs, or 5 with 2 drivers per cab, or any other combination you want. Also unlike the stereo pair where you want them both identical this is one where you're actually better off if they're different. So if for example you could make one transmission line or whatever tuned to go super low, that could wind up giving you even more flexibility in terms of getting super flat response. Although, to be honest, it seems to me if you have 4 or more it hardly matters what you do, its gonna be awesome. Kind of like the diode thing. Anything bound to be better than what's in there. The last little bit is like polishing the apple.
It’s so refreshing to get such a thorough and helpful answer from someone who has first hand experience with SR products!!! I was expecting to get a lot of replies advising me to sell all my SR cables because there nothing but "snake oil" and buy something else. I have been slowly and carefully collecting them on the used market over the last few years and really like there sound. I did reach out to Michael Spallone a while back and am planning on sending him a few to mod for me. Your system looks awesome and although I haven’t tried it yet I am very eager to hear the swarm subwoofer set up. I have 6 Dayton hf 10" drivers and 4 of the 15" that need to be built and hopefully utilized throughout the listening/living room.
Thanks again, your answer gave me a lot of peace of mind since I have been plugging the mpcs in this way for quite a while and was never sure if it was correct even thought it sounded great.
You're more than welcome. Btw all you have to do is look at the way transformers and power supplies work to understand it cannot possibly make any difference. Transformers all work on AC. But the AC is always run through diodes to produce DC which is then stored in power supply caps. So no matter which way it comes in it all goes out the same.
Now that being said what does matter is the quality of the power supply. If you have a Master Control Center I would look inside that. Then open your MPCs and look inside and compare the transformers. I had a center, used it for trade-in to get my Atmosphere IC. (SR has a pretty good trade-in program.) Anyway 2 of my MPC are regular and 2 are Tesla. Main difference SR tells you is quantum tunneling. I don't know about that but you can see the Tesla transformer is much bigger. Barely fits in the case. With Spallone mods I told him what I was doing he used better caps, the case won't fit back on. Doesn't bother me one bit!
I don't know how tight you are on money but this is a very simple DIY mod. Basically buy a better cap and diode, solder em in. For me I know diodes are as different as caps. I have confidence Spallone has found the best sounding diodes. Having done this I know how much difference they make. So to me he is worth it. I just throw it out there in case, because you can save a lot on shipping and just swap them out yourself. It will be a lot better. Just not as good as his. He has had time to be able to try a lot and find the good ones, and he is very good at this.
As far as subs go, you need to DYODD. With speakers it all comes down to volume and design. And then with driving them it comes down to impedance. Take your time. Depending on how they are connected in series or parallel, and in what combination, you can figure out what load you want your amp to see. Then also for the drivers you can work out speaker cab volumes. Its almost all volume, not shape, that matters.
Your goal is to have subs in at least 4 locations. With 10 drivers you could have 10 cabs, or 5 with 2 drivers per cab, or any other combination you want. Also unlike the stereo pair where you want them both identical this is one where you're actually better off if they're different. So if for example you could make one transmission line or whatever tuned to go super low, that could wind up giving you even more flexibility in terms of getting super flat response. Although, to be honest, it seems to me if you have 4 or more it hardly matters what you do, its gonna be awesome. Kind of like the diode thing. Anything bound to be better than what's in there. The last little bit is like polishing the apple.