How old is too old ?....
If you can find a way to easily replace the capacitors in the crossover network with newer models, you'll probably like your speakers even more. Not only should they sound more transparent, you'll have increased their power handling in the long run. Capacitors deteriorate with age, can shift value, etc.. Bare in mind that the sound will change quite a bit when you initially do this. It will continue to change a little bit more over time as the capacitors settle in. Depending on the specific types of capacitors used and the power levels that you normally generate listening to the system, it can take anywhere from a few listening sessions all the way up to several hundred hours to finally reach their "plateau". I am currently working on a way that i can cycle capacitors to help them "form" before i install them in gear or speakers for this very reason. This should get me most of the way there but will still require a little bit of "actual use" to fully settle in. If you are really interested in doing something like this, try checking out the forums at Madisound for further information. Sean > |
FYI About a dozen years ago I compared, side-by-side, the then top of the line KEF107 to the B&W801. The KEF sounded vailed, lacking detail compared to the B&W. The current B&W's surpass the previous models in virtually all cases. If you follow my logic, you will come up with the following order of the speakers that I mention, best to worst: B&W now B&W then KEF107 KEF104 I am not saying what speaker to buy, but YES you can make dramatic impovements with the right new speaker. Have fun looking anmd listening, Richard |
I would ask you, did you hear an improvement when you added the front end changes? If so, then they are not "wasted". Are they? So much for the opinion given you by the speaker zealot. I have regularly had systems where the speaker was the least expensive item in the chain. My systems consistently outperform many of my friend's systems who have way more $$ in their speakers than I do. How can this be? We all know that speakers are the only "real" component in the system, and that everything else is just a "necessary evil" that takes up money that you could have spent on more expensive speakers, right? But, somehow those old KEF's let you hear the difference in your front end, didn't they? I wonder how that happened? Perhaps you live in the Bermuda Triangle like I do. Where the "assumed" rules of audio are changed, and speakers only reproduce most of what they are given by the amp, which reproduces only most of what is given it by the preamp, etc. But these rules don't apply in the rest of the world. In the rest of the world, speakers make the music. Just like all those mid-fi salesmen told everyone they did.(Because profit margin is higher on speakers than any other audio item). Shhhhh! You're not supposed to know this. I may be hunted down by the profit mavens for my disgressions. Rant over. Since you have nicer front end gear now, you may go out and audition some speakers that could sound better on your gear. Just remember that it is a system that provides the music, not just the speakers. |
