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In Reply to: Has anyone tried this tweak? posted by hondadanda on July 30, 2002 at 19:41:19:
Hi Danda. I once made my own redition of these with some neoprene I bought locally, which I used with a pair of B&W 601's years ago. I remember it did seem to help but it was not a dramatic change. The idea there is good, especially with some speaker designs.Fast forward. Did you see my thread a couple days ago about using felt material around tweeters? You might scroll foward and find it, kind of interesting. I went to a local fabric store that evening and bought a bit of wool based felt and tried applying some felt around the tweeters of my Paradox 1's for fun, as it seemed this tweeter could be prime for damping it's diffraction characteristics because it is so wide in dispersion. I've only done one experiment, where I've applied a large amount around the tweeter and interestingly enough it's made a very positive improvement. The amount of treble does not seem diminished or muffled in any way, it simply sounds cleaner, slighty sweeter but the biggest improvement is clearer definition of treble and subsequently depth definition and image definition. On some recordings it has been striking, the feeling of presence and seeing into the stage has been nicely enhanced. I'm still experimenting, but it's definitely interesting and fun!
Follow Ups:
If anyone could take a digital photo of this felt application I would love to see exactly how it's done, ie thickness, proximity to the tweeter etc. I know it's very experimental but would like to see exactly how someone else does it.
Jeff
See how the neoprene imagers are mounted in this picture, this is basically the idea of using the felt too. As to thickness it's just one piece of felt, it's not nearly as thick as this neoprene. You just experiment by cutting varying sized rings. Size meaning width of the ring. Hope that helps.
Sean,Did you cut the felt in form of a ring? How did you attach the felt to the baffle. Double-back tape?? If I remember right, the Focal tweeter in P1 is a inverted metal dome which is flush mounted on the baffle. My Stratus Minis have a aluminum dome which mounted on the baffle where the baffle is kind of recessed like in small valley and the tweeter has a hard grille on top of it. I am wondering what is the purpose of recessing the baffle at the location of the tweeter and if any felt ring will adversely affect the response because of the recessed baffle.
My main purpose of the experiment is to see if I can get more focus. The tweeter is laid back compared to other speakers and I am not looking forward to reducing any further brightness since it may affect clarity/detail. O well, I guess I need to try to find it out.
Thanks for the feedback!
Contrary to the suggestions of others here, I decided to start with a lot of felt in my first run at this so I basically have the entire Focal tweeter's mounting plate covered with the felt, the hole around the tweeter coming very close to it's edges. Bold I know, but hey this is free and it can be removed and cut smaller in seconds. I got a ton of it for $3. I used regular old rubber cement. Rubber cement sticks nicely, does not damage, can be applied and reapplied several times before wearing out, and cleans up very easily by just rubbing off. You just brush it on the felt.I just checked out the PSB web site and I see what the tweeter looks like on your mini's. Since we are talking a mere few dollars here for the glue and felt I'd just give it a try. Try applying a ring close to the tweeter, try applying one a bit of a distance away, try large rings, thin rings, etc. The Reynaud Twins have a recessed tweeter like yours, they apply a felt ring around the edge coming from the tweeter to help diffraction from the immediate edge next to the tweeter. You might try felt very close to the tweeter too. Who knows.
As to focus versus losing detail/clarity, even with the huge amount of felt I have applied right now I have to say I have noticed no decrease in detail at all and clarity has only got better. I plan to listen for a day two more with this amount of felt and then try removing it to see if I can gauge what exactly has changed. So far I could not be more pleased. Like you Danda, I tend to like a more sweeter sounding treble but I like detail too. Though the Paradox 1's were not too bright or forward before, they now sound just as detailed but slightly sweeter and more focused. The focused images is a very nice improvement, it's like some background noise or high freq hash has been removed, leaving me with more music in space. Dekay described in one of his posts that just a small amount of felt made big differences on a pair of speakers in one of his experiments, in one case too much so where it took the treble down too much. Again, every case is different, but in my case this is not happening. It's not as if the treble sounds like a blanket has been thrown over it or anything like that, no muffling,
I'm simply noticing changes in the realm of "minor" or a "tweak."Hope that helps. Trial and error. It's cheap and totally reversable if you do not like it, and you are out only a few dollars but have it on hand for the future. Regular acrylic based felt can be found at about all fabric stores but if you can I'd call around and find one that has a content or percentage of Wool or cotton in it. Mine has a wool content.
.
:) Rubber cement can be found at grocery stores, drug stores, home improvement stores, art stores, department stores, etc. Check in the paper/pens/folders/tape/paper clips/stuff like that sections. :)
I have used rubbers and have seen cement, but not together :-).
Can't imagine the combo, won't it hurt after the cement solidfies?
Come on, give us the recipe. We know it's the rubber cement and not the felt that changes the sound.
Jeff
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