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Snell type B:any upgrades?

Hi
I own these speakers for 12 years and consider them one of the best.I was wondering if there any upgrades i can do to them (drivers,wiring,crossovers)Even though Snell still supports this model,they can only offer stock parts identical to mine.I always wanted to put yellow kevlar midrange there.Any suggestions?
overhang
lneilb's avatar
lneilb
108 posts
 
I do crossover and electronics upgrades as a business. That's a great pic of your crossover, and it's nicely laid out, with SOME good parts. But there are at least 27 components that I have counted in that picture that could be upgraded. That would probably be overkill, but at least 12 of them would make a substantial improvement.
ritteri
223 posts
 
Actually you can get a much higher rez pic here: http://69.13.128.69/image_library/salon_circuit.jpg
(warning its a 4mb file)SO what are we talking to have them sent out?If I can improve on this investment I would like to. Email me if needed.
sedona_sky_sound
12 posts
 
My original Snell B's also have the plastic binding posts. About 2 years ago I had the woofers die in one of my speakers. I couldn't afford to fork over the $300 or so per weighted woofer that Snell charged so went with the equivalent Vifa woofer that had the same mounting pattern. I moved the front woofer from the good speaker to the back of the bad one and then used both new drivers in the front.

While I was at it, I noticed that the caps used were pretty low-end. I tested them and found there was about a 12% difference in value between the left and right speakers. I ended up replacing them with slightly better caps (can't remember which but they were a few dollars each) that were matched to within 1%.

Long story short, the speakers sounded just fine after my "experiment" (bass was about the same but the mids were slightly clearer) Better caps will definitely help you get another few % of performance out of the speaker.

Best of luck.

Julian

ritteri
223 posts
 
Julian: Great post! Yes, I know that one of the biggest offending area's in "high end" speaker design is what you "cant see", the crossover boards and their components. Im actually tearing one of my Salon's down to the bare components to have crossover boards upgraded. As good as the Salon's are in my opinion, there is still a few small area's for improvement. The drivers(especially the midrange) and cabinet are top notch, but from the conversation the crossovers still have some room for improvement.
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