Larry's rings install into 2B, question on fitment.

gmcman

This isn't the fault of the rings, but the cabinet is as the center brace is slightly off center.




The brace is almost flush with the opening for the stereo driver on the left speaker.








Are these rings stainless? if so I will need to go get a few dremel wheels.

F1nut

Not stainless steel, but a Dremel cut off wheel is still your best friend.

gmcman

Thanks. I wasn't sure and didn't want to possibly damage a bolt cutter to find out. Only needed minor trimming so all is good, You definitely can't get that level of fastening torque with the wood screws in that small amount of wood. Now I see why they are referred to as "coupled" to the cabinet.

I've had the rings since December and I wanted to wait until I had the MIT cables as well as rearranging the room to place the speakers on the long wall. This way I can get everything close to being fully setup with a few sound panels to then see how the rings changed things.

I never really accurately timed my passive push test, but I checked them before I removed the drivers, checking they were still tight, and after the rings the retraction is noticeably slower.....a good 4-5 count.

First impressions are quite a bit of improvement in the clarity of the mid bass. I played a few tracks from "The Wall" and some Peter Gabriel, and right away some of the mid range that used to be slightly resonant for lack of better terms was just no longer there. The woofers before the rings had good seals and were mounted fairly tight but this is definitely an improvement.

With the added clarity the sound stage width is more defined as I can quickly pinpoint a sound off to the side, which before I could tell it was beyond the speakers but now it appears to be farther out. A rough analogy is something being slightly out of focus, the image is there but where it ends is not clearly defined....now it is.

Something else I have been playing with during my sound panel placement is taking my grill covers and laying them horizontally on top of the speaker, pretty much making a "T". I can rest them against my TV to keep them from falling. Playing "The Wall" and listening to "Mother" both Waters and Gilmour's vocals while sounded clear, were slightly sterile with a void in the delicate mid range of the vocals...kinda slightly high pitched. This could be due to the wood paneling behind my speakers, could be other cancellations...not sure, but with the grill covers on top, those mid range sounds came back and were quite apparent. Now I can hear them with the grill covers off to the side using the rings.

I couldn't really put them to the test as it was late and the kids were shoving off to bed, I will get some more listening in this week but so far the rings have made a definite improvement....thanks Larry for manufacturing them and also to others emphasizing their performance.

gmcman

nbrowser wrote: »

gmcman, I had similar fitment issues when installing my rings as well on my SDA 2 speakers. I just trimmed the rings to fit the area. one ring lost some of the circle in the process but all four standoffs were in place and everything popped in nicely.

Yeah, same here. Again, not the fault of the rings, but the center brace, baffle in the speaker was way off center.

Everything bolted down nice and tight, all is well.