"The Minimus" Project

skrol

Very nice cuts. I see you switch to an oval cut out around the tweeter.

VR3

Yes, same benefits but without harming the off axis performance

skrol

I pulled the grills off the my C series Minimus 7 and just siting the pads in place you can really hear how they tame some of the peaks in the highs and seem to have better focus. For grins I tried the other round pieces and they do kind of mess up the sound stage. The oval is the way to go.

A note on the C series - The tweeter bezel is plastic and thicker than the A or B series that have the metal bezel. The thicker plastic bezel with the pad makes it hard to put the grills in place. I don't know how much market there is for these but may need to thin the pad for the C series.

I am going to try the pads on my B series later but they definitely improve the sound.

When my friend said that they had tried using felt pads around the tweeters on the Polk speakers with no improvement, I wonder if it was much thinner felt. These things are fairly thick and may do better on the vintage speakers.

skrol

I pulled the grills off the Minimus 7 C and just have the pads sitting in place. They really do tame some of the peaks in the highs. They are more focused and cleaner sounding. It is kind of surprising the difference with them on vs off. A definite improvement.

One note for the Minimus 7 C. The tweeters have a thicker plastic bezel compared to the A and B with the thinner metal bezel. The thicker plastic makes it harder to fit the grills with the pads in place. I’ll try the pads on the B set later.

skrol

I tried them on the B version and the difference seems more subtle than the C version. The C normally is a little brighter than the B in spite of having basically the same tweeter. I was attributing it to possibly capacitor age. The XOs have the same value components but layout is a little different. Another difference is the B has fiberglass fill and the C has Daycron fill, not that it would impact the highs.

40-2030B with pad


40-2030B crossover


40-2030C crossover

skrol

The pads seem to make the most difference with grills on. I guess this makes sense since there would be reflections off the grill that are apparently absorbed by the anti-diffraction pads.

Bottom line, they are keepers on the Minimus 7. The best configuration is with the pads in place and the grills off. Which probably also makes sense.

plastic_avatar

Jeezus. VR3... I thought I'd do a $50 mod to my 7's next year, but now...

How much was the total in new parts fir the pair?

VR3

I can't recall exactly but it was around 200ish total in parts. I sold the pair for 280 shipped. Further proof properly done mods add value!

plastic_avatar

"Further proof properly done mods add value!"

Maybe I will Maximize my Minimus next year...