Mass - Loading Speakers, for Extra Performance gains
71.50.18.225 |
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| Posted on January 24, 2017 at 17:25:49 | ||
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Posts: 9730
Location: East of Kansas City Joined: January 10, 2005 |
   This post has came about tonight as a result of a thread where I responded to AA Member, mhardy6647 today. I took the time to mass load a Fulton P-12 Premiere set of loudspeakers, one of my all time favorite models from the genius designer, Robert W. Fulton. It is a 7 way system, that is plus or minus 1 dB from 12 HZ to 110 KHZ, measured. I started with NO mass added, but the amp was cold, and it sounded poor. My program material was solo Piano, from some hack named Sir Arthur Brendel, playing some slipshod music from a guy named Ludwig Beethoven. It was a Piano Sonata No 21. " Waldstein ". As soon as I put two red patio pavers on each side, the piano got better. Then I went to three ( 16 pounds, each unit ), four, five, six, and listened happily with six. As soon as I would remove ONE, I could readily sense the degrade. I added a seventh, there was plenty of room to do so, and I sat and RELAXED and listened to Sir Arthur play. So, what are some of the things I experienced and heard?? Well, it played noticeably LOUDER with each unit added, It played " out of the box" more-so, and the drivers sounded more integrated, and I LOST the sense of a speaker, and the sense of a PIANO was starting to take place, in the room. Distortion in the midrange was lower, and I could RELAX and listen to the piano more-so. Individual piano strikes were better, more body and harmonic content, and a better hint of decays, was displayed. Dynamics were noticeably better. No folks, a Fulton P-12 can NEVER beat my present ( getting ) well-set-up ALTEC VOTT A7-800s, but the mass loading certainly helped the P-12 speaker, as it will ALL speakers, to a LOVELY degree. I had to disassemble the added mass, and as I did so, one 16 pound unit at a time, and carried each 20 feet to the back of this listening room, the P-12 speaker sounded more like a speaker, and less like when I heard seven 16 pound units per side. Interesting...ehhh ?? Seven is a good biblical number, Mr. Fulton would have liked that, he was with me in spirit in the session, he often is. My personal choice, as of ONE listening experiment, is to ONLY hear P-12s with seven units added...for SURE !!! 112 pounds added per side. Sir Arthur was retired till I put him on my butt-kicking ALTEC rig, with 290 pounds a side added. Have fun, I do ! HOPE this encourages some to get those red concrete blocks, truly, an audio / music-listener's NO BRAINER. Get off 'yer butt and DO something !! You will eventually be thankful. Jeff Medwin
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| I tried mass loading my TT, but I need to try another LP before I decide if it was worth it..., posted on January 27, 2017 at 19:23:27 | |
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| I suggest a Rolling Stones album. (nt), posted on January 27, 2017 at 21:08:44 | |
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Posts: 3703
Location: S.W. Washington state, USA Joined: November 17, 2001 |
(NT)
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| RE: I suggest a Rolling Stones album. (nt), posted on January 28, 2017 at 11:44:34 | |
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Posts: 5371
Location: New England Joined: October 20, 2002 |
No. Heavy Metal.
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