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In Reply to: Requesting MMG crossover advice posted by 40for60 on April 20, 2007 at 17:14:32:
Glad to hear your mod went well.IME thick wires muck up the bass on Maggies. You could try some thinner wiring say 24g. I like the ANticables theory, just not the guage.
Try it before dismissing it out of hand and see if the bass doesn't quicken up.
You can experiment for $5 with magwire from Ratshack.
I did the capless mod, so I can't advize on the bypass cap.
Also, if you haven't already, you can try dampening the crossover with some reptisand. FOr a messless test, I bet you could just sit it on your external boxes. My crosses are completely covered with this stuff.
YOu could also try some rope caulk and since it is removeable, you could undo it if you don't dig it.
Follow Ups:
Funny thing is that about two days after I closed up the socks, I saw one of your previous posts about the thinner gauge magwire. I will probably try it some time, when I feel like lifting up the socks again.A follow-up question on the reptisand -- do you have the crossover parts on top of a layer of reptisand, or are they tied down? Do you fill with reptisand pretty much to the top?
2 for 3,The crossover components are resting on a styrofoam pad, and sand is poured around them to the top of the enclosure.
Scruffy had a picture of his that he posted and I think he had something like 10 pounds of sand in the enclosure.
Some say not to fill them all the way because the sand isn't a good dielectric. You may want to half submege them, but I only had good effects from this, and so have others.
Ironically, while Maggies can suck up copious amounts of current, they don't need big-big wire to do it.Also, make sure your speakers are being held as rigidly as possible. Just a little vibration or movement can have a noticeable effect on bass clarity.
Let's face it, the real distance in our crossovers lies in the inductors and capacitors. If a wire is very short, it doesn't need to be terribly thick because resistance is cumulative across distance. It's just a thought.
Hey Wazoo,I agree, and you really do have to be careful with distance on the thin stuff.
But when you think of it, there are hundreds of ft of thin wire that make up the maggies drivers themselves!
I don't see what the big deal is to use 8ft of 12g when hundreds and hundreds of ft in the crossover or drivers is very thin anyhow.
On the bass, IME thick cables usually muck up the bass and blur the precision that maggies have.
I know the text book are stacked against me, but if you try the thin stuff, you will hear increased resolution in the bass. It will be less bloated, and some people dig this, and some are so used to the bloat, that they miss it. For me, I like the accuracy but YMMV.
I'm using some Litz wires I purchased in Germany 25 years ago. I've had to re-terminate it - the original silver pig-tails didn't hold up too well, besides I'm not keen on having 20' speaker cables when 6' cables reach. As you can see, the strands are rather fine and the cumulative gauge is well short of 'Monster' proportions. All I have to say about terminating Litz wire is that it's a real joy!
Cool wire. After 25 years it hasn't oxidized?
That's one of the beauties of Litz wire's enamelized strands. You'll also notice that the positive and negative wires all share the same jacket. In fact, they are woven around each other. The enamel that makes all of this possible also makes them a bitch to terminate. One has to use a solder pot and dip and skim and dip and... I don't have a solder pot, but I can improvise!
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