1.2tl Upgrades

dkfreebird

Well,after getting a great deal on a pair of 1.2tl's I decided to give them the same upgrade as I did on my 2.3tl's except to take them a little further.The crossovers were sent out to Dave (wmg) for the Sonicaps/Mills resistors and Erse SuperQ inductors upgrade.He also changed out the binding posts and made a set of jumpers.Great work as always and much appreciated.All the drivers and passives were dynamatted and magnets treated with loctite power grab to keep them from shifting.I installed 8 new RDO198's in the speakers also.

I used Larry's rings on the 1.2tl's where I used hurricane nuts on the 2.3tl's.I first ordered just the rings for the mids and passives and installed them and then the tweeter brackets and binding post cup rings became available and ordered those.I installed the the mid rings first and it wasn't until I got the tweeter brackets in that I realized what the flat side was for on the mid rings.I had to rotate a couple or rings to install the tweeter brackets.I also used Blackhole 5 on the rear wall,sidewalls and behind the tweeters just like DK did on his.I didn't use it behind the tweeter and side walls on the2.3tl's.

The crossovers arrived Thursday and I got the right speaker completed that night and finished the left one last night and had them hooked up and breaking in so in about 200 to 300 hours I will be able to compare the 1.2tl's to the 2.3tls.This sure has been fun and can't wait till they are broken in.

Here a a few pics if anyone is fixing to go down the same path and can't find them in the archives.

westmassguy

Looks great Dennis. Enjoy Brother!

voltz

That is audio ****, but I am not offended

dkfreebird

Thanks David,you did an awesome job on the x-overs and my first impression on these speakers was the bass slam.These things dig deep and fast.I can't really gauge the soundstage and clarity yet because of where they are set up but the bass is freakin great.

voltz

Good work from the both of ya!! Enjoy them.

dkfreebird

Thanks voltz,I'm going to run them non stop for a while and try to get them broken in.I may set them up in the same room with the 2.3's but on the long wall and on the other end of the room.The pool table is going to be put on sliders and moved so I can get a feel of which way the 2 channel setup will sound best.This is where the system is now.

westmassguy

voltz wrote: »

That is audio ****, but I am not offended

Pron?

MrBuhl

I love speaker ****!! Nice work!

westmassguy

dkfreebird wrote: »

Thanks David,you did an awesome job on the x-overs and my first impression on these speakers was the bass slam.These things dig deep and fast.I can't really gauge the soundstage and clarity yet because of where they are set up but the bass is freakin great.

That's the new Lo-Pass Shunt Caps, and Sub-Bass Drive Inductors. Always a big improvement over stock.

voltz

westmassguy wrote: »

voltz wrote: »

That is audio ****, but I am not offended

Pron?

Yes Sir! I just spelled it wrong

Looking good Dennis and after your burning in period, it will nice to get to compare them both! Super Jealous.

need a video clip of Jack Black saying: Dude you Rock!

dkfreebird

It has been a good week,made our final house payment on Wednesday,x-overs showed up on Thursday.The speakers were put together on Friday and the wife just showed up with some adult beverages.Time to settle in and enjoy some tunes.

westmassguy

Rock on

Braddles63

Great work.

RandyCroissant

Great read here fellas, don't forget to come back in a few weeks with an update.

gudnoyez

Nice job fellas real nice job.

Conradicles

Very nice job on the "big boyz".

honestaquarian

dkfreebird wrote: »

Thanks voltz,I'm going to run them non stop for a while and try to get them broken in.I may set them up in the same room with the 2.3's but on the long wall and on the other end of the room.The pool table is going to be put on sliders and moved so I can get a feel of which way the 2 channel setup will sound best.This is where the system is now.

@dkfreebird
Looking good and jealous as well. If you want to hear them fully and at their best I cannot stress this enough. Get them away from that big A$$ cabinet!!!
I see this all the time unfortunately.People spend large amounts of money on their SDA's and upgrades and then put them too close to either the sidewalls or large furniture. The early reflections severely reduce or outright destroy the SDA soundstage. Ideally they should be 5 feet from any sidewalls or large furniture.This is what Polk Audio said years ago and no one seems to remember that. It has to do with the spead at which sound travels or something. Minimum of three feet.

Unfirtunately speakers like these and planars tend to have very low WAF, because the room needs to be set up to accomodate them and NOT the other way around.

Good luck and good listening!!

dkfreebird

Yep,not the best spot now to set them up,the 2.3's are just under 3 ft from the side walls and the entertainment center is open in the back for the height of the speakers.The legs in the front are only about cd case deep.The only thing in front of the speakers is the lower shelf with the gear on it.The 1.2's will be setup on the other end of the room.The room is 15x30 and the 1.2's should have about 4ft to the sidewall on one side and 12ft or more on the other side.The gear will be setup on a still yet to determined rack.As far as the money spent on them it is all from buying and selling and making a profit and the best part is the wife really doesn't mind them.If she ever does get tired of them I can always drag the 3.1tl's out of storage and set them up and store the others but my thought is I will end up moving one set of the big boys once I determine which one I like best.

honestaquarian

@dkfreebird
Post a pic when you have them set up

dkfreebird

Well,after about a week of listening to the 1.2's from the other side of a pool table I decided the pool table had to go.The sound just starting getting better and I knew I was missing the whole point of the SDA's so it was sold.

Once it was sold the need for a rug in front of the speakers was needed since I have concrete floors.Then after that I had to have a listening chair or two.The speakers are still hooked up to a Parasound Hca 1200ii and a adcom pre streaming Pandora thru my laptop and an Audioquest Dragonfly 1.2 dac and they are really starting to settle in and opening up.I have them about 10 inches of the back wall,5ft from one wall 7ft apart and about12ft from the other wall.

I'm really anxious to get my other gear in my signature on them but still need to get a rack and a few other things in place.The 2.3tl's sound better at this point but I have a feeling that may change soon.I had a brother come over for the weekend to give them a listen and he said he didn't think he could go back and listen to his setup again.LoL
He has a Sunfire 5 channel 200 watt amp I sold him and some Norman Lab Model 9's.

Here are a couple of pics of the new setup but I still have a lot of work to do. I hope to have a better feel for them after about 100 more hours.

machone

Nice!

Nightfall

Pandora? HiFi blasphemy!

dkfreebird

Nightfall wrote: »

Pandora? HiFi blasphemy!

I know I'm working on getting Tidal or Spotify just got a lot of other things to get first.I usually listen to cd's on the old oppo sacd player I have on the other setup .

westmassguy

Nice. Feel the burn....

dkfreebird

Yep Dave,they have been all over the place at first but now they are starting to settle in.Thanks for all the hard work on them and I was sorry to hear about Jean Stapleton

westmassguy

Yuk Yuk... Keep it up, and I'll activate the quantum field generator I secretly installed in your crossovers.

dkfreebird

Hell. I got Paul Kantner and Mickey Thomas mixed up in another thread.Getting old sux.

honestaquarian

One of the other founding members of Jefferson Airplane just died. I forget his name though. @dkfreebird try using some higher resolution material like a CD or an SACD to burn them in. Something with wide dynamic range and lots of low bass. Don't know if you're into classical at all but Dupre Symphony in G is perfect for this.

dkfreebird

I just put Beck Mellow Gold in and the sda effect is fantastic.Just played Soul Suckin Jerk and it blew me away. The sound is extending way beyond the speakers and wrapping around to nearly behind me.I can't wait to get the tubes and McCormack on these.

westmassguy

Amazing what SDAs do for well recorded tracks, with plenty of separation. MP and his Engineers were geniuses. Ahead of their time

dkfreebird

I agree,and the proper spacing is key.My 2.3's never had this much seperation where they are at,they are to boxed in.I knew that from listening to the advice here but it became REAL evident this morning for the first time.Wow!