The Niles Experiment

Polkaguy58
Polkaguy58 Posts: 352
in DIY, Mods & Tweaks
I just finished playing The White Album on my new Niles controlled tweeters an do believe I have them dialed in !
You hear the word "forward" in describing speakers and I do believe that's what one might call the SVS Towers............until the other day that is.
I found that magic spot on the third click back from the "normal" setting.
It's like you're getting drawn into the soundstage now.
I found that rather than having to add an equalizer to amplify the mid bass, all I really needed was to give the woofers equal volume by lowering the tweeters output.
I know it's an odd way to accomplish what I was looking for, but there's no denying the grin I get when I listen now.
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Comments

  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 33,894
    Is this anything like The Philadelphia Experiment?

    :o
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 33,894
    What you did is called "padding" and it is a time-honored tuning technique.

    http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-Lpad.htm
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  • Polkaguy58
    Polkaguy58 Posts: 352
    I don't know, unless it happened in the 70's when I was experimenting.
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 33,894
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Experiment

    There's a movie, too...
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  • Polkaguy58
    Polkaguy58 Posts: 352
    I just keeps getting better !
    I decided to see how many clicks back on the Niles that I could go before things started to muddy up and it turned out to be 4.
    3 is the ultimate setting and now I've started to back the sub off too.
    It seems that the 6 1/2" mid woofers were getting buried on either end of the spectrum.
    Steely Dan's "Peg" has a unique synth bass line that has a fuzz type rasp to it which these SVS' never quite delivered.
    By backing down on the sub and increasing the over all volume a bit, it allowed the woofers to show more midrange punch and now I can hear that saw toothed synth.
    Oh yeah, Chris Squire's bass solos stick out a lot better now too !
    Life is good.
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  • headrott
    headrott Posts: 5,496
    Polkaguy58 wrote: »
    I just keeps getting better !
    I decided to see how many clicks back on the Niles that I could go before things started to muddy up and it turned out to be 4.
    3 is the ultimate setting and now I've started to back the sub off too.
    It seems that the 6 1/2" mid woofers were getting buried on either end of the spectrum.
    Steely Dan's "Peg" has a unique synth bass line that has a fuzz type rasp to it which these SVS' never quite delivered.
    By backing down on the sub and increasing the over all volume a bit, it allowed the woofers to show more midrange punch and now I can hear that saw toothed synth.
    Oh yeah, Chris Squire's bass solos stick out a lot better now too !
    Life is good.

    One question: Which Chris Squire bass solos are you referring to? The Fish? Or his solo in Nous Somme Du Soleil from Topographic Oceans?
    Relayer-Big-O-Poster.jpg
    Taken from a recent Audioholics reply regarding "Club Polk" and Polk speakers:
    "I'm yet to hear a Polk speaker that merits more than a sentence and 60 seconds discussion." :\
    My response is: If you need 60 seconds to respond in one sentence, you probably should't be evaluating Polk speakers.....

    "Green leaves reveal the heart spoken Khatru"- Jon Anderson

    "Have A Little Faith! And Everything You'll Face, Will Jump From Out Right On Into Place! Yeah! Take A Little Time! And Everything You'll Find, Will Move From Gloom Right On Into Shine!"- Arthur Lee
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  • Viking64
    Viking64 Posts: 7,107
    headrott wrote: »
    One question: Which Chris Squire bass solos are you referring to? The Fish? Or his solo in Nous Somme Du Soleil from Topographic Oceans?
    I like the Chris Squire isolated bass tracks. :)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYvFnkSo6ro
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 33,894
    edited December 2017
    I've always liked those photos of Squire with a ReVox A77, myself.
    (EDIT: And I just noticed the QUAD preamp in the YT splash photo...after all these decades)


    Now, youse guyses want some isolated bass tracks...

    https://youtu.be/YhmImkKvEDo

    (Squire was an inventive bass player as well -- too bad he was stuck with Yes to play for... mostly)
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  • Polkaguy58
    Polkaguy58 Posts: 352
    The solo that I use for speaker testing is from the song Starship Trooper.
    The very first notes have a lingering tremolo effect that doesn't shine through on an inefficient speaker.
    The bass solo in the middle of the song has a broad note span and will show any frequency drop outs in a poorly designed speaker.
    (The same goes for Neil Pert's descending drum rolls from RUSH)
    There's nothing like the sound of an over driven Rickenbacker bass !
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  • Polkaguy58
    Polkaguy58 Posts: 352
    edited December 2017
    Viking64 wrote: »
    headrott wrote: »
    One question: Which Chris Squire bass solos are you referring to? The Fish? Or his solo in Nous Somme Du Soleil from Topographic Oceans?
    I like the Chris Squire isolated bass tracks. :)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYvFnkSo6ro


    Those bass tracks were awesome !
    It's funny, as a guitar tech, half my clients would object to the amount of string buzz that Chris was getting off that Ricky..............but hey, if it's good enough for him...........................
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