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attenuators?? is there better??

99.188.43.52

I recently purchased a pair of 1.6's without jumpers. I had some of the chalk ones laying around so I had to use them. Im not crazy about the sound. My question is this: Is there something better that I could buy? What do you guys use?

Thanks everyone

Follow Ups:

Where are your Acoustats? - Satie 03:54:02 09/22/10 (9)
I thought you liked them.

Did they end up moved elsewhere in the house?
- RE: Where are your Acoustats? - The peleton 08:06:01 09/22/10 (8)
  Satie-I dont like my Stats I love them-I adore them-I absolutely am DONE looking for listening room speakers FOREVER! Im in the process of recovering them with Vandersteen speaker cloth and painting the wood tops and bottoms. So far they look great-one down one to go. I have lots of projects-daunting but exiting!
  
  I love magnepan too, they were my first audiophile item. I will always have a pair of Maggies somewhere in my house.
  
  I hear a lot about chokes - dunno what they are or where to get them -- Help?
  - RE: Where are your Acoustats? - Satie 12:56:00 09/22/10 (7)
    Chokes and Bybees take RF out of the speaker-amp circuit, the Maggies like all planar magnetics are actually one really big antenna and the RF gets stuck in the circuit and strains the amp for non-music signals.
    
    The choke is a small value inductor put in line - in series- with the speaker, the Bybee is a capacitor in parallel. Both are effective low pass filters that cut off supersonic frequencies including RF.
    
    It was surprising that you were suddenly looking for speakers after such a big commitment.
    - RE: Where are your Acoustats? - The peleton 14:04:16 09/22/10 (6)
      commitment?
      
      I have two rooms for speakers--my personal dad space where I watch movies tv listen to music play xbox and the listening room that is currently being set up in the master bedroom where the stats are going.
      
      I have so many projects to get done with no time or money to do them
      
      1- room acoustics for both rooms
      2- acquire new amp for my personal room
      3- set up stats and equipment in listening room (which involve massive furniture moving)
      4- chokes for maggies
      5- send servo tube monoblocks to get updated and mods
      6- get to the guts of the 1.6's
      7- mye stands
      8- new squeezebox touch
      
      and the list goes on
      
      room acoustics I have a decent grasp on, amp - its either anthem or emotiva, moving furniture requires at least three strong men and four full days (2 armoir, king size bed, fan removal, ect), CHOKES? no idea what parts i need or where they go-NEED HELP-, servo amp mod 3grand-ouch, as far as maggie guts I have absolutely NO IDEA what Im doing at all-really no clue-dont even know where to start-NEED HELP, mye stands no problem probable audiogon, squeezebox easy cant wait --
      
      Daunting but doable
      - RE: Where are your Acoustats? - Satie 12:13:27 09/23/10 (5)
        
        In Reply to: RE: Where are your Acoustats? posted by The peleton on September 22, 2010 at 14:04:16
        
        Well we have a few things I can help you with.
        
        The servo amp upgrade is outside my area.
        
        I am not there, so I can't help you with moving - besides my bad back would not give you much assistance.
        
        Choke - best is to make one out of speaker wire - simply a small value coil. What are you using for speaker wire on the 1.6 now?
        
        I can help you with amps. Quite a few others can contribute.
        
        RE: Where are your Acoustats? - The peleton 21:45:31 09/23/10 (4)
        
        In Reply to: RE: Where are your Acoustats? posted by Satie on September 23, 2010 at 12:13:27
        
        Thanks for your help Satie--
        
        Im using crappy monster speaker cable but plan to upgrade...Im thinking about anticables..seems like a good deal and people seem to like them..Im not sure I buy into the high priced cables thing..In terms of interconnects I have noticed a huge difference between my crappy monster and audioquest..I a/b tested them and heard an improvement with the audioquest.
        
        RE: Where are your Acoustats? - pictureguy 10:16:44 09/26/10 (3)
        
        In Reply to: RE: Where are your Acoustats? posted by The peleton on September 23, 2010 at 21:45:31
        
        Peloton,
        If you are thinking your panels, the 1.6s are a little 'hot' on the top end, try an experiment.
        
        Take you 20 minutes TOPS. I promise.
        
        Just rotate them in place. Magnepan has them configured to listen to the mylar side. In the 'old days', you listened to the pole piece side. I toe mine so they cross well behind me. great balance.
        
        I prefer the pole piece to listen to. smoother, less strident highs and a bigger sweet spot.
        
        ......................
        Too much is never enough
        
        ahhh no - The peleton 22:38:42 09/27/10 (2)
        
        In Reply to: RE: Where are your Acoustats? posted by pictureguy on September 26, 2010 at 10:16:44
        
        I tried it and it sounds strange and thin. I remember you mentioning in other threads that you love it like that all cadywhompus but its just not for me, but thanks.
        
        If you rotate the panels ... - andyr 19:43:20 09/28/10 (0)
        
        In Reply to: RE: ahhh no posted by The peleton on September 27, 2010 at 22:38:42
        
        you have to swap R with L, to keep the tweeters in the same relative place. Otherwise, you have made 2 changes:
        * metal vs. mylar (or vice versa), and
        * ribbons out vs. ribbons in (or vice versa).
        
        Putting ribbons out when you had them in before, could give you " thin "! :-))
        
        Regards,
        
        Andy
        
        RE: ahhh no - pictureguy 16:43:35 09/28/10 (0)
        
        In Reply to: RE: ahhh no posted by The peleton on September 27, 2010 at 22:38:42
        
        important thing is that at least you tried it......
        
        I can't account for 'strange and thin', but who knows?
        Too much is never enough
RE: attenuators?? is there better?? - The peleton 21:23:18 09/21/10 (3)
I tried the copper 8ga bare wire - results-not much difference in the center channel and a little brighter in the 1.6's
- "8ga bare wire - a little brighter in the 1.6s"??? - andyr 22:43:20 09/21/10 (2)
  So what's the problem ... what do you want to achieve??
  
  Your original post said you used some of the "chalk ones" (white rectangular resistors? - if so, they should have an ohm value written on them) which you had laying around ... but you're not crazy about the sound of your 1.6s.
  
  Do you therefore want to tone the treble down more (than what the wire jumper delivers)? Or what?
  
  Regards,
  
  Andy
  - RE: "8ga bare wire - a little brighter in the 1.6s"??? - The peleton 00:50:04 09/22/10 (1)
    lets get the obvious out of the way first
    
    1- No room treatment at all-Its my next project behind setting up my listening room around my acoustat monitor 3's
    
    2- Adcom GFA-545 Amp-not my favorite...Ive auditioned an anthem mca 5 that I hope to get soon.
    
    3- Small Square Room with Tall Ceilings- the room is not the best size
    
    4- I expect at some point to work on the guts so to speak- crossover, fuse bypass, myestands,ect
    
    So with that said I dont expect attenuators or jumpers to make a significant change, the purpose of the thread was to assess what are my options based on the stage Im at currently.
    
    The problems Im having in terms of sound quality with the 1.6's and the mgcc3 is brightness. Ear fatigue sets in after only an hour or so of medium level listening. This particular room is my personal space which is used for tv, movies, and music. Im using an Arcam AVR 350 and an OPPO BDP83-SE with a powered Klipsch sub. The center channel has a really low level of sound with it turned up all the way in the speakers trim section.
    - "Ear fatigue sets in after only an hour or so of medium level listening!" ... - andyr 01:33:21 09/22/10 (0)
      That is absolutely no good at all, mate. I can listen to my true-ribbon Maggies for hours at a time with absolutely no fatigue ... unfortunately, though, I rarely get many consecutive hours of uninterrupted listening time!! :-((
      Now, some people love the sound of the 1.6 and some people don't - just like with true-ribbon Maggies. :-)) From what you've said, I suggest that until you get "stuck into them" (ie. "work on the guts"), you need to attenuate the QR with a resistor.
      Of course, if you change amps this "brightness" (read "harsh"! :-)) ) might go away but, in the meantime, you need to do something.
      You appear to have tried a stock Magnepan sand-cast resistor (which you said didn't sound too good! :-)) ). You didn't say what value this was but I suggest you do what neo suggested - ie. buy some pairs of 12w Mills wirewound resistors in, say, the following values:
      0.75ohm
      1.0ohm
      1.25ohm &
      1.5ohm.
      Then buy a pair of Duelunds of the value you like best.
      You might also be suffering from RF interference. IE. use a choke instead of a wire link and get a pair of the chokes which Al Sekela recommends (various inmates use these, so they should be able to tell you what to buy).
      Enough inmates love the sound of their 1.6s to "prove" to you that they can sound nice - your problem is simply to make this happen.
      Regards,
      Andy
      
      Edits: 09/22/10
Methinks you are confooosed :-)) ... - andyr 14:25:11 09/20/10 (0)
Do you want to tame the QR tweeter ... or simply make the tweeter work?

If you want to bring down the tweeter, you need to use a resistor - follow neo's advice.

If you simply want to connect the tweeter but not bring down its level - you need some jumpers ... so just use some wire, as sbrians suggested.

However, I would not use 8ga solid-core for the tweeter signal. If you think about it, the tweeter signal passes through a fuse ... which is extremely small guage. 18 ga is "massive" by comparison, so I would use that or thinner (24g is more than enough).

Regards,

Andy
Solid bare copper works - sbrians 12:33:54 09/20/10 (0)
8ga. bare wire fits great.
RE: attenuators?? is there better?? - Ron90068 12:27:17 09/20/10 (0)
Just examining my new 1.7s and decided to take a closer look at the stock tweeter jump-overs. I took one off and was amazed at how heavy it was. Why? Because it's steel (looks a lot like a Romex staple that's been cut off square at the ends). How well does steel conduct an electrical signal? What a joke! I'm preparing new jumpers using some solid silver wire that I had left over from another little project. We'll see how that turns out.
RE: attenuators?? is there better?? - neolith 11:04:21 09/20/10 (2)
If you just want use jumpers and not attenuate the tweeter, then the best choice is to by-pass the holders all together. It just a matter of opening the input panel in the back and de-soldering and re-soldering the wires. The 2nd best is to get some 12G wire (go to Lowe's and get a foot of 12g THHN solid wire or just get a foot of Romex) and just fashion your own jumpers.
If you want to actually attenuate then get some decent non-inductive resistors. IMHO Duelund is the best but expensive at ~$20 plus shipping; Mills is pretty good too and a lot cheaper.
�

I plan to procrastinate my demise for as long as possible. In the meantime, I practice by putting off all the little stuff.

Edits: 09/20/10
- RE: attenuators?? is there better?? Neolith? - WernerLen@aol.com 16:13:02 09/20/10 (1)
  Neolith, are you saying that If I re-connect the jumper wires "behind" the back plate, instead of using the Mapleshade thin copper jumpers I ordered, the sound will have more definition and be clearer?
  - RE: attenuators?? is there better?? Neolith? - neolith 17:45:45 09/20/10 (0)
    Well, the proof of the pudding is in the listening, but a priori - a definite yes. Why, because no matter what you stick in the terminals, the problem is going to be the terminals which are steel. Clearly, when it comes to audio, nothing is better than something and elimination of each link is going to improve the sound. Even better than soldering together the two wires attached to the attenuator would be to replace them with a single wire. Ideally that wire would be bare copper (or silver if you prefer) with no insulation (not recommended) and short of that one having insulation with the lowest dielectric absorption eg teflon or my personal preference magnet wire.
    �
    
    I plan to procrastinate my demise for as long as possible. In the meantime, I practice by putting off all the little stuff.

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