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First post! Sadly, tis' a sad post.
My Titan v1's have a popped woofer (thanks to a sneaky two year old). They sound awful and are making me sad.
I will be replacing them with one of the following. I am a bit broke, so need to get something older and used. Please no other suggestions, just comments on my choices.
JBL s26
NHT Super One
NHT 1.3
Paradigm Mini-Mk3 (early mini-monitor)
Id like something with 150w handling capabilities for the C370 to push, but not critical. I listen to a WIDE variety of music - but if my harpsichord solos sound crappy I would be greatly upset. Thus, I would think a detailed, smooth tweeter would be top on the list of importance. Punk, Classical, Hiphop, Blues, and early Country are all on my rotation.
The room is a 15x10 living room - speakers will be close to the wall as placement options are limited.
Thanks for any feedback. Just trying to choose between these four.
Jaden
Follow Ups:
Sometime during the Spring 1990 quarter, I regrettably purchased the $349 Paradigm 5SE. It had those crummy push-in-and-lock spring-loaded connectors, which only accepted bare wire, or, at best, pins. And it sounded soft and boring.In September 1990, as I was preparing to go back to UCSC for my sophomore year, I received the new issue of Stereophile, where RH reviewed the NHT 1.3. When I did start the 90-91 school year, I brought that issue of Stereophile with me. I walked across a bridge, and went to the campus radio station, KZSC, where my friend/classmate Roger worked (doing what, I know not). There, I snagged this promo CD copy of Nelson's "After The Rain."
Though it was $500, the 1.3 was infinitely superior to my Paradigm 5SE. The NHT 1.3 had real 5-way binding posts. Though its gloss black finish was easily fingerprinted, it was light years better-looking than the usual vinyl-clad boxes of yore. If your stands were too short, you could flip the NHT 1.3 upside down. The NHT 1.3 wasn't critical, about distance from the back wall. In my parents' 15x15 chamber of horrors, with stone wall, the 1.3 did NOT, unlike other speakers, boom.
Sonically, the 1.3 made other speakers sound woefully congested, uneven, bloated, retarded, and just plain inaccurate. The 1.3 did a far better job in making music interesting and compelling. What a novel concept!
Just as the NHT 1.3 would have been the ideal budget speaker for my parents' place, it would have been absolutely killer, in my college apartment [during my senior year, I had the $200 Pinnacle PN-5+].
In 1994, I was back at home, and bought NHT's SuperZero for my tiny bedroom. That partially made up for me not getting the 1.3 a few years earlier. And in the mid-to-late 90s, when the 1.3 was no longer available, my brother took a gloss white NHT SuperOne to UC Davis.
Yes, I've played around with the old NHT 1.3 in various homes. In the early-90s, it was killer with the ol' blue-and-black Kimber 4TC. So imagine how much better a 1.3 would do, with the current-production white-and-clear 4TC on a Cable Cooker!
If you can find one, the NHT 1.3 is a LOT of fun! Because it has decent focus, resolution, control, and cleanliness, it does well with TV and video game sound. I preserves vocal articulation, so you don't have to strain, in order to make out dialog.
The Audiophiles' DJ,
-Lummy The Loch Monster
Edits: 07/02/15 07/02/15
I see they now sell only online and through installers. The products shown on their web site look pretty generic.
A dealer in town used to carry NHT in the 90s through early 2000s and sold a lot of them to the local college students. "Punchy," he called them. I think the same thing that made them decent home theater speakers made them great dorm room and party speakers.
.
airtime - I cant take a picture sadly, the grill on v1 titans is non-removable :(
the volume on the amp was literally on max, and briefly (about 1 second) a song was played with some decent bass. sufficed to say, now when there is any amount of bass in the song there is a terrible rattling / cracking from the woofer. im fairly DIY, replacing transmissions and engines in most my crappy vehicles multiple times - but never tore into a speaker. i would be more concerned about breaking it permanently than getting it apart just due to the amount of glue holding most of it together vs bolts and nuts.
Jaden
Ah - gottcha. So trying to fix it would break it more then?
Seems ya go nothing to loose there then - eh!
Call Madisound.com
I'll google and see if I find anything. You may be able to just rotate that driver if you can actually get too it.
see if they have any suggestions to replace or fix the driver. If you can manage to get to it.
charles
Got lucky! I opened it up and the foam surrounds were completely split. Easy fix - right?
Jaden
I've refoamed a dozen or more pairs of woofers over the years, and it's not hard but requires extreme patience, a steady hand, and ability to follow instructions to the letter. The most tedious part is the first -- carefully removing the old surround and scraping off ALL glue remnants from the basket and cone edge. Make sure you clean up ALL the crumbs and dust before the next step, removing the dust cap so you can insert the centering shims in the voice coil prior to gluing on the new surround. There are several companies that can either sell you the replacement kit or do the work for you for a fee. Parts Express in Ohio, Speakerworks in Oregon, and some outfit in I think San Diego are among them.
That being said, your damage may go beyond split surrounds, given your description of the distortion it now puts out. If the unfortunate bass blast bottomed out the voice coil against the backplate, the coil former itself could be bent, and the coil is scraping in the gap. This means the driver is FUBAR and must be replaced. First place to check is with the manufacturer of your speakers, see if they have any replacement woofers in stock. If that fails, get in touch with Madisound to see if they have any "close" replacements in their database.
Try rotating it 180 degrees. Otherwise Brian is correct. The VC slammed into the housing and 'bent' it.
So - upon further inspection I realized there was minor separation around the spider / cone connection. The spider was still connected to the basket perfectly - no lifting or tearing there at all. They weren't completely separated from the cones either. As such, I assumed centering would be minimally effected. I thought it best to attempt to even the spider around the edge of the cone while checking for any friction against the voice coil during up-down movement. I used a long feeler gauge from my auto repair days to ensure evenness of the spider where separation had occurred around the cone. After that I two-part epoxied all the way around the spider where it connected to the cone. Should be good for a LONG time - and fingers crossed, once I get the foam re-installed they will be good as new.
While I was doing all this I also decided to grab a pair of minty (though somewhat gaudy) NHT 1.3 "Limited Edition" for $80. Complete with giant chrome plaque on the front which reminds me of spreewells. ;) Maybe I can remove it. I'll try them both and sell the set I like the least.
Thanks for all the feedback and pointers.
Jaden
When you say popped - what happened? Can you take picture? Is it fixable?
sorry to hear it. Been there - only it was with mold trashing a speaker.
Paradigm as first and JBL as last.
Both the NHT marks use same Tonegen tweeter and its "okay", but it can be a bit tiresome at times.
The older Paradigm used a Vifa sourced tweeter and its "fine" but it too has its bad days.
Thank you for the response - I hadn't posted them in order of preference, just threw them out there. I do have experience with paradigm, and wish I could afford a set of nice mini monitors. Do you discount the JBL Studio for the titanium tweeter? Just curious.
Again, thank you for responding, its helping me narrow down since theres no way to 'audition' these early used speakers.
Jaden
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