7 simple ways to MOT your speakers for free (or very little)

[What Hi-Fi?]

How to make your speakers sound better for nothing...

7 simple ways to MOT your speakers for free (or very little) : Read more

 

[Rui]

it´s funny that i had my speakers bi wired with a bigger section cable but not a so bigger section ,like a friend of mine who broke the terminals to fit it´s extra thick cable.

Recentelly i had not more cable and what they were selling where i live were too thin , and i conect two to each speaker to the amplifier , having the original metal conectors between two positive and two negative stored in the late 80´s or early 90´s ,

i found it easier to conect them with speaker wire so i´m doin`it for some 20 years ,about grills i like to see the woofers tweeters and mid range speaker while working , as an example i put to work a 89 , A-91D from Pioneer and the CDM7 from B&W when conected made the grills be projected due to the kicks of the mids and woofer speakers,

this with the regular power not more than 1/4 of the volume knob, this started because of some old CS pioneer speakers that in a certain hour of the day the sun would be directelly pointing them only never noticed because the grills were in use ,but after some years, they got descoloured in those places but only knew when taking the grills so i ended up not using the grills in most of the speakers,

a friend of mine had in the 80´s a very simple Schneider compact system and when he recorded some cassettes to me i was not expecting such a great quality sound ,only the thickness of the foam as grills to it´s speakers made not possible hearing clear the high´s on it, having a old complete Schneider system i knew it was very good in recording quality , the cassette deck of his had only a line of leds to control the rec volume.

The speakers ,normally i left them a bit apart from the system and also a bit forward towards the wall ,having higher level of ceiiling as it was done when the house was built also the propagation of sound seems better and any speakers sounded better there,

i´m not a fan of putting the speakers very close to the system , in the 80´s i use to put them in each corner of the room which is big compared to todays bigger living rooms,

had not just a point selected to hear the speakers in front at midle position between the two ,also having some studio monitors i put them directelly above the bigger speakers, this to hear more frequuency´s than just the three way CS speakers from Pioneer,

which are good for themselves but notice in a diferent system that an LP had more sounds not heard only with the CS´s, with the Yamaha studio monitors or even some SB-F3 from technics 79 model, after they are bad, as everything released after 1979,

they completed the sound or complemented the sound to a rich wider frequency response, i use to never use an equalizer as the 70´s components seem to have a better richer sound compared to what was released after 1979, but while in the 80´s i only bought 7 cds but had access to every style of music in cd from friends also from my father,

which i recorded to reels , later to DAT cassettes, the analogue cassettes were more to record compilations to hear in the car or in a radio cassette player portable, in late 80´s had a real nice sounding philips radio that had a nice sound flow built for that purpose as the speakers weren´t that big but the size of the box made them release a very nice sound ,

in a early 80´s radio cassette player also from philips that had every function of a litle system ,only slim so the bass wasn´t that strong but used to put it in a big card box and was noticable the increase of bass and sound quality but it sounded nice and could hear perfectelly sounding my recorded cassettes ,

Cd´s with the heat they got blisters so i used to listen to cassettes having already the philips radio cd and cassette player , cassettes well recorded that may had sounded better than the cds in the same radio cassette player , either in the car or while camping in the summer.

Only the batteries were ....Get more in a litle time, due to it´s power and tone controls ,loudness and three way equalizer, both even had power button, normally they don´t have it.

My opinion is that the speakers are one of the most important factor to the better sounding of a system if installed in the right place(or left one), this starting from the point that the amplifier as to have a good quality.

One of the best speakers i like to hear were the Mission 761 at 4 ohms , i bought them first then when decided to by a Mission cyrus system i bought other speakers that were better but not so detailed and clean as the 761 mkI model.

With original stands with this 761 it sounded very good but so did any amplifier , they were conect to.later in 93 ,maybe, i bought very cheap a A-616MKII, the sound coming from it with thios mission was amazing good , both amplifier and speakers are 70 watts , r.m.s(real ones)and at 4 ohms a litle more, like the speakers

I some years ago conect them to a 78 SA-608 amplifier from Pioneer and with a good cd player and a high-end 90´s kenwwod cassette deck and minidisc,

all sources there sounded amazing good this said by every friend who went there and notice the clarity of the sound ,

even my younger brother who lives in Scotland, he in christmas went into my living room and said that it had a perfect sound this with any source, and being younger he was amazed by the old Pioneer integrated amplifier having so good sound in all senses.

i use to put the loudness on, a litle more high´s on the tone control but no excessive high´s and the loudness was a nice feature , each year more and more amplifiers don´t have it and to listen to music at lower volume, it shure makes a huge diference. it increases lower volume frequency´s from both ends of the spectrum at the system limit.

The Mission Cyrus system had no tone controls or efects but with direct listening it sure had a very good sound from every source, i normally only in a 82 Sony ES system or Esprit series use to put the control amplifier in defeat and sounded very good another was my grandfather tube amplifier , a dynaco that sounded perfect with some good speakers.

I prefer to listen with direct sound but most of the systems aren´t good enough for it and when i say system i refer the amplifier and speakers,

some have average expensive system badly installed and listen in drect (Denon amplifier and the smallest model of Tannoy sixes, Stéril Sound,

their explanation is far from what really is, i use to think, "how can this guy spent a lot money in a system by components and after he hears a worst sound than me with my radio casstte player portable from Philips".

When the release of the so talked about A-400 from Pioneer ,some did bought it but the frustration was reflected in their eyes ,

this because in late 80´s i also bought some pioneer components to a better not even , half of the quality they had with their good A-400 , that if ofered to me, new for 100€, i wouldn´t take it, this by the time i bought the amplifier i´m using now the A-91D,

had bought first a new Sony ES complete system that i sold as fast as it was possible also a Nakamichi system, all i can say is that both had excelent amplification(only kept the Stasis mkI power amplifier) compared to other regular amplifiers at the time,

all of this in second half of the 80´s till early 90'´s because i was tired of having the same type of components since my first one or wooden with metal or just metal in grey aluminium ,brushed or not,

also the frustration of noticing a not so good sound compared to my 70´s systems, in 82 my ES sony system was so loud and clean that i never even thought of it