There was a thread on Audio Asylum in April 2015, that slipped-by many people. I would like to bring it to everyone's attention.
From what I have read, and what I have tried, I believe this will help ANY hi fidelity system play better, more realistically, in one's listening room. It blew me away, using ONLY some stacked-upon-each-other empty cardboard boxes as " temporary " deflectors, between my A7-800 speakers. My suggestion would be to copy what Dryginger 2 executed, or Stu himself, in the thread.
This was written by Stewart Ono, a well established Honolulu, HI high fidelity Dealer, who contributed selflessly on the Audio Asylum, often under the AA's " Tweaks " Forum, for many years. His moniker was either unclestu or unclestu52, which may relate to his year of birth. He passed away 12-10-2015, some eight months after posting this information, at what may have been 63 years of age. Go and read this entire thread, a few times so it sinks in. There may be other follow-up posts on AA, but this is very good as a start :
Tweakers' Asylum
A few things to remember, the deflector panels MUST block the line of sight between the drivers / and horns on each side of the room. Determine deflectors' angles, and their forward-of-the-enclosure's positioning, by ear and sight lines, ...easy to do.
"My" 2017 pick, for deflector panel size with A7-800s is 18 inches wide, and TALL, I certainly liked 8 feet high over a 6 foot height. I went to Lowes this past weekend, and bought what they call " hinged hanging doors " to become the basic deflector panel. The front side is reflective, the rear side is made to be absorptive.
Please, do let us all know what YOUR results are, listening wise. You CAN start with just large cardboard boxes, thoughtfully angled and positioned, stacked high, to hear the result. Once experienced, its HARD for me to listen without them. Very audible improvement.
Thanks, have fun.
Jeff Medwin ..... Low Ohms.
Last edited by LowOhms; April 6th, 2017 at 02:24 AM.
Is no one curious enough to try this, even with tall cardboard boxes - stacked tall, on a very temporary basis, and report what you hear??
'Ya gotta block the line-of-sight, one set of drivers / horns to the other, and guestimate a good angle of deflection.
Then ......'ya got to listen.
Low Ohms....Jeff Medwin
Low Ohms, I am going to try it at some point, seems like an interesting idea. I just need to get some 8 or 9 foot piano hinges.Originally Posted by LowOhms
A few stacked cardboard boxes, if there is open space midway between your speakers, will also work, just to hear it. Corner of the boxes " Veeing" into the room, box sides as equal deflectors.
That is what I did.
Uncle Stu says it gives you 90%. He says, it has helped every system he has done it to. You will all be surprised, mightily, by what you hear !! Block the line of sight between the horns and the woofers, arrange deflector's final position by ear, and go up as HIGH, above speakers, almost touching the ceiling if you can. No piano hinges needed initially to hear it !!
It was an unexpected sonic result, less clutter, and lovely to hear.
Low Ohms.....Jeff Medwin .
Jeff, I went through the tweakers link you posted and it seemed to make sense and worked for others so I figured I would give it a try as I had the materials sitting around. In theory seems to be a viable concept, not sure I can live with the long term logistics of the divider, but we will see. Anyway appreciate the info. I will eventually post my thoughts after I have made some listing comparisons.
Well, I appreciate seeing your post and photos. I am so happy someone will be trying this on ALTECS, besides myself.
A couple of comments. Looks like you have a hinged " hanging door" assembly. Looks to be 6 feet tall. Eight feet will be even better IMHO, as the last ( highest box ) up I stacked, was clearly audible, nicer to listen to.
IF you notice a difference, and IF it is to your liking, you may put a single deflector on either side of your equipment rack, with support feet on the bottom, so you can get to your controls. I would refer you to DryGinger's lovely implementation in the Stu Ono thread. The feet need not be a circle, it could extend to the rear of the deflector, with maybe a brace from the floor to mid panel - rear.
I often wonder if Stu knew he was sick, dying, and he shared that 20 year plus used-by-him favored tweak with us all, as a parting gift ???
At my local Lowes, I found eight feet high hanging doors, 18 inches wide, which was JUST the size I was hoping to find. There was a defect, on the rear of one door, so I got the entire hinged pair, retailing for $51.00, marked down to twenty dollars. Could not refuse that. My 2A3 amps are being rebuilt, so I have only heard the cardboard boxes to date. They pleasantly surprised me.
How many square inches is your bass port, may I ask? How did you arrive at that specific size? I will be re-doing my reflex ports, after all else gets done, as a final modification. I like your wings, I may do a similar thing. The deflectors do not do, precisely what the wings do.
Cheers,
Jeff
Last edited by LowOhms; April 13th, 2017 at 10:41 AM.
Looks like his ports are about the same size as mine. I changed mine to 10" wide by 7.5" tall. I read a bunch of threads about A7 port size and tried put some different ones. 10"x7.5" was the recommended size anyways
I am not sure about overall efficiency going down when we decrease the stock port's size. I was thinking a simple " Battery Click" step test may be useful in determining port size by ear. Comments anyone??
Jeff...Low Ohms
I'm sure efficiency does go down a little. I don't worry about that with 300wpc of Mosfet power. They are still VERY efficient speakers.
I didn't modify my existing port boards. I cut a piece of plywood that screws in. I could go back to the stock port size easily
I have not really had a chance to critically listened to my system with the 6" panels. Truth is I did listen the other night but I'm afraid my listening session got a little clouded by a gifted to me bottle of Woodford Reserve Double Oaked, but that another story.
I do have some 8' similar sized panels, so maybe I will switch them before I make any judgements.
The Bass reflex ports in my cabinets are 10" x 6", the panel is 5/8" thick plywood. When I went with this port size I was running a set of JBL D130 drivers. I do not remember how I came up with this size of port, Im I had some reason going with it. Can't remember, I need to go through my notes. I'm currently running a pair of Altec 604e for which I did not modify the port, I also have a pair of JBL 2226H I would like to try. The other day I set up WINISD on my computer and did some comparisons of the three woofers using their file theil small data. It is interesting to note that all three drivers came in between 45hz-47hz as the enclosure tuning with this port size. My enclosures have the horn flairs sealed off, which I have calculated to be about 11 cubic feet and some change. I'm running several subs located around the listing room at low volume so for the music that I predominately listen to which includes Classic Rock, Jazz, Blues, and Bluegrass, there does not seem to be any issue with a lack bass content.
Wes
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