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Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ. |
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Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ. |
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In Reply to: Re: Easy DIY posted by StevenACNJ on December 26, 2002 at 03:39:31:
I started drawing it out on paper for the center channel. This is the easier channel because it is only one board. The front speakers have two boards each.I think I am starting to see the light. When I look at the bottom trace side of the pc board there are thin dark green lines that outline larger areas of lighter green. The thin dark green lines do not pass current and the larger lighter green areas have copper underneath and pass current on to any component soldered to that area. Is this correct?
(RH) yes
Also the current is flowing from the binding post end of the board to the opposite end. So if a speaker lead is attached first toward the binding post side even if there is lets say a resistor in the same trace but is attached after the lead wire - that lead is not being effected by the resistor?
(RH) no. The trace that you are looking at is the ground. That resistor is probably part of what is called an "L Pad", which reduces the output level of the speaker without changing its impedance. Also, current is flowing in both directions, we are dealing with AC. Half of the time the red wire is positive relative to ground, half of the time the red wire is negative relative to ground. We use red and black wires only as an artifice to help us wire circuits correctly and to be able to tell at a glance what we are looking at in a circuit.
I am also assuming that the red binding post is the + lead and black is the - lead.
(RH) yes
Now,a few more tips: After you have built the crossover boards measure the resistance across the input terminals of the crossover before you put them into the speakers. If you get a reading of less than one ohm you have created a short which could destroy your amp. Go back and find and correct your mistake. (It is also helpful to do the same measurement across the terminals of the old board...you should get about the same number. It won't be exact). As you remove the wires that run from crossover to driver, carefully mark which wire goes where, otherwise you may get a driver out of phase and your speakers will sound truly strange until corrected. I strongly recommend that you call Jeff Glowacki at Soniccraft and tell him what you are doing. He knows as much about caps as anyone in the audio business and is very helpful. If he tells you his new Sonicraft line of caps are better than the Solens, just believe him. He won't steer you wrong. If he tells you that you you will like foil inductors better he is also right but I personally don't believe they add enough to be worth the price difference. I have used them and like them, but when I built my transient perfect 3-ways with expensive ScanSpeak drivers, I used top of the line components everywhere except the inductors. I just don't feel that they add nearly as much as the hi quality caps. I am retired and I don't have to pinch pennies, I just didn't feel the need to spend an extra $100 bucks for a tiny improvement that 61 yr. old ears may not hear. 18 gauge coil inductors are fine for any speaker costing less than $2,500.00. Don't be afraid to go to the Madisound board and ask a question. There are some serious experts over there, but if you tell them you're a newbie they will be very helpful. You'll learn a lot.
Now, after you complete this you should build some cat5 speaker cables, you will definitely hear $30 worth of improvement, comparable to any $300-500 pair. Do a search for the star quad design on the cable asylum for some that are much easier than braiding. When you are ready to do some cheap but excellent interconnects send me an e-mail and I'll get back to you with what I use. You have found what is for me, the most enjoyable part of audio: making a great sounding system doing simple and cheap improvements that produce sound comparable to expensive components. My whole system, other than turntable and CDP is DIY. Remember that the greatest costs in hi-end audio come from the intellectual property, the development time spent by a good designer/engineer required to make something better than the run of the mill. You can get that here for nothing.
Best,
Roger Hill
dt4f6x@rmi.net
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- Re: Easy DIY - Roger Hill 09:14:17 12/26/02 (0)
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