UV101
27-01-2010, 22:50
Hi guys,
I think it was Andre who asked about my mods to my Focal 716v'a.
Just for background, I've had these speakers for 15 months and I was a right pain in the arse for Audio-T in Swindon when I was trying to make my mind up!
I tried several speakers at home over 3 or 4 weeks! I had a set of Kefs (don't recall the model) which were about the same price and they were just plain awfull! I ran them for about 30 seconds and they sounded like they were still in the boxes!!!
I um'd and ar'd over floor standers (which I have always had) and standmounts. Although i know that there are plenty of standmounters that would put my current choice to shame, I can't seem to get my head around the physics. To me (and I'm not suggesting this theory is right) Stand mounters can't go down low enough (open flood gates for abuse!). I know they do, but for some reason I am completely turned off the idea!
I also tried the next model up the 816V. These are slightly bigger, and have an additional downward firiing bass port. I've also auditioned the WSE versions wich have the 'W' cones (found in their megga expensive range) but tbh at the time, the rest of my system wasn't up to the difference.
My choice was made purely on the fact that I didn't hear masses of difference between all the Focals i listened too!
As my System has got better i've made a few changes to the speakers too.
My experience with Mundorf Supreme caps, lead me to look at the x-overs! I'd been using them as DC blocking on the output of my CDP for several months and was very impressed with the transparency. The CDP became more open and dynamic upon installation.
Based on the theory that the best cap is no cap, any inferior quality caps in the audio path must be bad?!?! X-Overs have several caps that ususally fall into this catagory!
Time to open the 4 month old cabs! :lolsign:
Upon inspection, I found a crappy little elco bp6.8uF on the low pass filter and a small MKP on the mid. I decided to spend the considerable amount required to replace them both.
The 6.8uF went on to the LPF and I mistakenly ordered 2.7uF for the mids instead of the 3.9uF I needed. I ordered additional 1uF ampohms to bypass the 2.7's giving me a total of 3.7uF where the original 3.9uF's were!
What did this do for me? Pretty much exactly what I expected. The sound stage opened up. There was more punch and overall character became more aggresive, faster with more attack and most importantly no unruleness under louder volumes.
The attached pics were taken during phase 2! I aquired some odd lenghts of Kimber 4TC (same as I use for speaker cable). I used these to rewire the whole speaker. I made several other system changes at the same time so I cannot comment on the effectiveness of the rewire. It could be that it made no audable difference at all. However, I know its there and it makes me smile! lol
A couple of pics for you. I do recommend having look at your own x-overs. In future, the 1st thing i'd do with any speaker is to throw away and electrolytic caps lurking in there!!!
edit:- how do you upload larger pictures? I'm limited to about 97k which is a resize of 12% :-(
I think it was Andre who asked about my mods to my Focal 716v'a.
Just for background, I've had these speakers for 15 months and I was a right pain in the arse for Audio-T in Swindon when I was trying to make my mind up!
I tried several speakers at home over 3 or 4 weeks! I had a set of Kefs (don't recall the model) which were about the same price and they were just plain awfull! I ran them for about 30 seconds and they sounded like they were still in the boxes!!!
I um'd and ar'd over floor standers (which I have always had) and standmounts. Although i know that there are plenty of standmounters that would put my current choice to shame, I can't seem to get my head around the physics. To me (and I'm not suggesting this theory is right) Stand mounters can't go down low enough (open flood gates for abuse!). I know they do, but for some reason I am completely turned off the idea!
I also tried the next model up the 816V. These are slightly bigger, and have an additional downward firiing bass port. I've also auditioned the WSE versions wich have the 'W' cones (found in their megga expensive range) but tbh at the time, the rest of my system wasn't up to the difference.
My choice was made purely on the fact that I didn't hear masses of difference between all the Focals i listened too!
As my System has got better i've made a few changes to the speakers too.
My experience with Mundorf Supreme caps, lead me to look at the x-overs! I'd been using them as DC blocking on the output of my CDP for several months and was very impressed with the transparency. The CDP became more open and dynamic upon installation.
Based on the theory that the best cap is no cap, any inferior quality caps in the audio path must be bad?!?! X-Overs have several caps that ususally fall into this catagory!
Time to open the 4 month old cabs! :lolsign:
Upon inspection, I found a crappy little elco bp6.8uF on the low pass filter and a small MKP on the mid. I decided to spend the considerable amount required to replace them both.
The 6.8uF went on to the LPF and I mistakenly ordered 2.7uF for the mids instead of the 3.9uF I needed. I ordered additional 1uF ampohms to bypass the 2.7's giving me a total of 3.7uF where the original 3.9uF's were!
What did this do for me? Pretty much exactly what I expected. The sound stage opened up. There was more punch and overall character became more aggresive, faster with more attack and most importantly no unruleness under louder volumes.
The attached pics were taken during phase 2! I aquired some odd lenghts of Kimber 4TC (same as I use for speaker cable). I used these to rewire the whole speaker. I made several other system changes at the same time so I cannot comment on the effectiveness of the rewire. It could be that it made no audable difference at all. However, I know its there and it makes me smile! lol
A couple of pics for you. I do recommend having look at your own x-overs. In future, the 1st thing i'd do with any speaker is to throw away and electrolytic caps lurking in there!!!
edit:- how do you upload larger pictures? I'm limited to about 97k which is a resize of 12% :-(