All the hardware in my speakers and electronics are of the non ferrous type. The most musical of this type are those of solid brass. Brass is the metal of music. Tom |
The Audiopoint designed and manufactured in 1989 was conceived on the superior conductive musical qualities of 360m brass. Brass was also used by the Starsound members in speakers, electronics and cables. All of this was previous to Virtual Dynamics. Brent and Robert from Starsound shared many of these original applications as well as the conductive makeup of the Sistrum platform with Rick of Virtual Dynamics. Rick has moved some of these concepts well forward especially in the use of magnets and brass as a resonance control in cables and chassis design.
I will applaud Rick in his recomendation of magnets instead of fuses in my system. No fireballs at my house or that of a friend. We both found the sonic upgrade to be immediate and huge. Much more stage, impact and sheer sonic joy. Same goes with the use of AVM that stuff works wonders as well. More music less noise and no damping WOW. Rick is always at the forefront and I believe there is much more on the way. Tom |
Several years Rick came on these pages saying that the use of use of magnets in and around electronic circuitry was of great benefit. He got pushed around and laughed at as a result. He now uses magnets in many of his upper end designs. With more to come along. I used one magnet in a friends system, replaced the line fuse in his Bat 31SE preamp. The difference was huge and immediate. Now when music is played in the room his birds come down off their perch and sing and dance to tunes he has played way to many times before. Toe tapping I suppose. Sounds crazy but I've been there many times before. Maybe Rick will chime in to say why magnets work so well. Tom |
The bass driver of my mains and its crossover both have resonance control brass tuning bolts that do make for a obvious change when tightened or loosened. My amps also can be tuned in a similar manner. Vibration can be given direction. Tom |
The screws that matter most are those that hold the diaphragm and voice coil in place to the magnet assembly and face plate. The ferrous screws do just that, they screw with the field of flux as the coil moves back and forth in the gap. So the smallest speaker with the smallest coil is held in place with ferrous material at the closest distance to the motor assembly. Replace those screws one at a time that hold the dome in place. All of these that I have ever replaced have been metric size. Tom |
Cdc,
Very interesting. I remember a fellow writing in Audio Amateur some years back about gluing felt strips on the face of a cone driver with the idea of breaking up standing waves and how well he thought that worked. If I decide to EnABL my drivers I will use the AVM acoustic paint instead of the paint sold in the kit. Tom |
Torque would indeed be a factor. As I said my bass driver,crossover and amp are tuned ..by ear. I have not recorded the settings by torque measurements but by ear and then recording the postion like the hands on a clock. During shipment of any device that is "tuned" at the factory the tuning will change in transit to the end user. The tuning will also "relax" with use. Retuning may also be required with changes in cables, electronics, tube brands and room acoustic additions. Increased resolution as I found with the addition of the modified Altmann Dac, D-Clock, PS Audio transport all AVM treated and Rick's magnetic replacement fuses made for quick apparent retuning by ear. Yep that feels right! Now sit down and enjoy. Right was obvious. Tom |
Sherod, The torque to "tune" applied would vary from speaker to speaker. Cabinet structure and material.. driver frame material and even the number of fasteners.....T Nuts used? Hey what about speaker stands? Coupling or de-coupling materials? How about the flooring material, it too would make for a difference. Yea but its easy. Tom |
Albert,
You would make a great candidate to do the brass for steel swap out. Lotsa drivers lotsa steel. I performed that surgery on my Dunlavy 4's some years back. I used brass machine screws intead of wood screws. The machine screws had a higher number of threads and they extended all the way to the head unlike the wood screws. Made for a more tuneful sound that was also less noisey. Tom |
Its the brass material 95% and the torque the balance..thats the measure of it all. The torque measurement device has much to do with adjusting for the shear strength of the brass material. Versus that of the inferior sound and greater shear strength of the steel usually supplied and installed by the factory. Brass is the metal of music. Tom |
Take a screwdriver that has a magnetic tip along for the ride. If its sticks or it has a draw its ferrous. Go for the brass not the stainless. Brass is the metal of music.Tom |
And yesterday I thought I responded in the same way as I am on this day. Grant you are the AD man so I will leave it to the experts. Tom |
Grant,
To place a Sistrum platform under a speaker like yours would require at least two people. The first step is to predetermine where the speaker sounds best and to mark that area. If the floor is carpeted I stand on the platform so the points penetrate the carpet and pad. With the help of a friend or two I would then place the speaker on the upper set of points. I would have on hand 3 APCD discs for each speaker to rest on. These offer surface protection but also in this case allow you to slide the speaker front to rear left to right and adjust for toe in. The discs before they settle in allow for a smooth surface for the speaker to be tweaked geometrically. This is important to match all the angles of say the left speaker to the right speaker. Some speakers sound better, different with or without the APCD discs engaged. They can be removed after the angles are determined. One at a time by tilting the corner of the speaker and allowing for the disc to fall away.
The platforms vary in their reactance. All 3 will improve your speakers. The speakers will sound better on the platforms from the get go. They will need to settle in as will your speakers. Vibrational drain will develop a pattern over time usually complete after 96 hours. Its very informative to hear this steady progressive improvement. Enjoy and if you have any further questions I will be happy to answer as I can Tom |
Most tweeters use metric size to hold the domes in place. Vifa, Seas, Scanspeak, Peerless all use metric. Brass the metal of music, on a t-shirt coming your way soon. Tom |
Photon
You are right about those fasteners in use with mdf. I dipped my brass screws in Cascade Audio paste. The paste product is like concrete when it drys and it is drawn into the pores of the wood or mdf. When my Dunlavys were in use I sealed all reachable internal surfaces with Cascade. Major hours and pain endured. When I was finished with this part of the project, the stage was wall to wall or 21 feet wide. New brass fasteners ideally should have a deeper cut thread to reach further into the wood surface. Brass around the tweeter dome and all crossover standoffs and fasteners should be brass..There is a sonic difference..certainly cleaner more articulate and less confused..Tom |
Photon,
Experiencing the audible advantages that brass has added to floor mounted musical instruments, I believe that the active harmonic structurer of brass fasteners in relation to the mass of a speaker cabinet would be a benefit. The extraneous active vibration of the driver would be drawn away, to and thru, by the low impedance reactive nature of the brass material and grounded to the much higher mass of the speaker cabinet. It would then be up to the owner to properly terminate or ground the speaker to the flooring surface a much greater mass again. Tom |
Photon..
Exactly..You got it going thats great. The whole idea is not to store excess energy whether it be a musical instrument a speaker cabinet or an electronic device. You want to lessen the time signature much as you would in a capacitor. You want the note to bloom on its own and disperse before the next note enters and blurs the previous. The bigger and more inert the more important it is to couple this mass to the higher mass below . There are drivers that have bronze baskets. I have not listened to any. Tom |
