2.3TL Inductor upgrade

gmcman

After the rebuilt crossovers had at a good 500 hours (somewhere between 4-600 hours) I got with David (Westmassguy) so he could unwind and properly setup the new inductors.

Before I started changing inductors, I went with the Duelund CAST resistor (mounted on backside of board) to replace the .5 ohm Mills in which I also tried removing the resistor and using a jumper per DK's recommendation. There was an improvement with the solid jumper but the tweeters were slightly hot with this setup in some cases so I went back to the Mills. Then once the Duelund was in I feel that there is noticeable subtle details that were not as defined with the Mills. I was going to try a .22 or .3 ohm Mills but so far the Duelund sounds real nice.

So I started with the large inductor and changed to the Erse Super Q and this seemed to change the bass energy more noticeably than I would have thought. It didn't turn the 2.3's to a whole house shaker, but it went from hearing decent bass to more tight, focused deep bass especially with the bass guitar.

After that I figure I might as well change all of them so I went with the Jantzen air core and David set them up as well. The smaller .3 & .4 mH inductors had about a 2 week lead time so I replaced the two larger inductors first and gave them a listen.

I may not be explaining the change as accurately as I could, but the same thing I told David was it seems like any amount of "muddiness" in the midrange was cleaned up, perhaps a level of distortion was improved upon. Not as dramatic as installing the rings in my 2B's, but on a smaller scale, male vocals seemed more accurate, but overall the midrange was cleaner.

A few days later the small inductors arrived and I pulled the X-overs again and replaced the last two on each board. Now these two inductors really seemed to clean up the highs and was noticeable right away but again on a small scale....but quite noticeable.

After all 4 board inductors were replaced, I can say more accurately what I'm hearing, and that's overall increased resolution. The speakers sounded good before, but this is a different level of detail and is across the board in terms of resolution. Almost like taking a picture and getting that last bit of focus out of it. Everything I heard before is still there, but the added slight detail really makes you try to hear for all the nuances.

I've only listened to a few CD's, but one example is Fleetwood Mac's "Rumors", regular CD, in "Dreams", Stevie Nicks' own backing vocals while they were obviously hers before, I can clearly hear the slight flutter or "reverb" for lack of better terms in her backing vocals with more detail, she went straight from the center, over to the left speaker at a reduced volume....same micro details. Before it was just her signature sound moving to a backing vocal with small amounts of detail.

Acoustic guitar strings seem more easily defined, the middle strings are more defined over the high notes while playing at the same time....almost hear them back into the wood.

I wish I could explain that better, it's like you moved a foot or 2 closer to the speakers. Doesn't jump right out and floor you, but it was noticeable right away and those small improvements really add some depth to the music, this is also with the grills in place.

I wish I had a recording of before and after, but if someone has a recommendation of a mic or a way to record accurately from the listening position, I would be happy to get a few examples for comparison.

Overall for the price of the inductors, I recommend changing them or at least try them. Thanks David for all your help!

westmassguy

Glad they worked out for you.

agfrost

Cool. I've been sitting on a full set of replacement inductors for my 2BTL for quite some time, and am looking forward to doing a bit of soldering over the holiday season.

F1nut

Nicely written, Doug. Thanks for your impressions.

RandyCroissant

I switched to the Erse and Jantzen combination a while back, when I switched to the new boards on my 2btls. "Dave was kind enough to tune the Erse inductors" I have to say it took a while to adjust to the new sound they are clearly much much better than before. Other mods include sonic barrier and hurricane nuts as well as Cardas binding posts new IC with speak on connectors. Next item will be the 1000 kv dreadnought can't wait.

RandyCroissant

I should explain the difference in sound a little better, more punch on the bottom but not boomy at all, the mids sounded a little clearer however seemed to be a little quieter I think that is due to the sonic barrier. The high end is clean and crisp very detailed compared to before any mods.