Hales Transcendence 5’s slight discrepancy

They are back in place and sound incredible. I suppose after 21 years a few screws need tightening. I’m very pleased with how my speakers came out. The technician 18 years ago did a good job redoing the crossovers. I was prepared to spend up to$8000 to redo my speakers but my current tech had the speakers 6 weeks but only charged me $500.Best money I’ve ever spent in audio.

The speakers have been tested and are very close to one another. I have several graphs that the technician sent me and the speakers measure well. The new built crossovers 18 years ago match the values of the original crossovers and still function perfectly. We were going to completely rebuild the crossovers but when the technician saw what the replacement crossovers were like he said that the new crossovers were in excellent condition with excellent parts so he recommended leaving the crossovers alone. The woofers need to get new input wiring and the speaker boxes themselves need a little work. I’m excited to get my Hales back.

It seems that the imbalance between tweeters was due to the speaker box’s themselves. The woofers also require repair. Instead of my Hales crashing in a year or more the rebuild and repair should keep the speakers sounding good for years to come.

After much measured my technician told me that the speakers are in good condition. The new rebuilt crossovers redone 18 years ago were rebuilt properly and still match each other. The technician this time says that the crossovers parts are excellent and they should not be replaced. The speakers match for the most part and the technician is checking out everything. My speakers are in better condition than I realized but that’s awesome news. The still excellent condition rebuilt crossovers from 18 years ago will remain and the drivers and wiring are still good. 

I am getting my crossovers rebuilt by a technician who builds speakers. He is measuring the components of the crossovers so that they match the values of the original crossovers but he will be using high end Mundorf parts. I have the original crossovers for him to use as reference and of course he has other speakers in shop for reference and he has all the tools for measurements and computer programs to use for proper building of speakers. I believe I will get a much better speaker in return and I am very excited. Rather than trade in my Hales at a huge loss I am rebuilding them to proper spec with high end parts.This would be my final upgrade as I have upgraded everything else in my system already.

I found a speaker builder, someone who sold me my speakers 21 years ago, who is going to measure and tune up and tighten my speakers so that they are in excellent shape. I even have the original crossovers for him to use as reference. I love my Hales and this excercise is as exciting if not more than getting new speakers. Rather than replace my Hales I’m getting them tuned up.

The speakers sound the same. Could there be a loose connection on my right double cable biwire speaker cables? I’m getting good balance between speakers even now the cables are swapped back. I’m really excited as my speakers are fine. I love my Hales!

With further diagnostics in switching speaker cables at the back of the amp I find both speakers identical! In swapping the speaker cables back I notice that there may be a little “noise” from the right channel of the amp which is normal so the left channel may be slightly cleaner. The discrepancy in the speakers is compensated by slight”noise” from the amp. The speakers are heavy and properly placed so I will leave them alone but ideally I would swap the speakers and the channels would be identical. I don’t have the strength or patience but it’s good to know my speakers are fine.

The right tweeter is brighter than the left. I attributed it to amp noise for years but since I got a new amp I notice the same discrepancy. It is light enough to be not noticeable from my listening position but I would like to get it fixed. I don’t know who to call for the repair. It’s probably a weak cap in a crossover. I had my crossovers rebuilt because of this problem and I upgraded the tweeters yet the problem remains.

Does this happen when you feed both speakers a high frequency sine wave or music?
Sine wave: both your speakers (tweeters) should measure the same.Music: who knows, it depends on the music, the mastering, etc.

I am sure you are aware that one channel *sounding* different than the other does not necessarily mean a faulty component!
BTW, I liked those Hales

As nice as my Hales sound they would probably sound better if more evenly matched. I love my Hales and would rather spend money on matching them than replacing them. My Hales may only be worth $2000-$2500 on the used market but they would cost a fortune to match sound wise on the new market. I think my Hales are keepers and I would love to find a tech who would be willing to match them. It is probably just a mismatched cap in the crossovers. My speakers always had this problem which is why I had my crossovers redone and my tweeters replaced 17 or 18 years ago. I still have the original crossovers which is another option but I remember that my new crossovers were an obvious improvement over the stock crossovers.

Why worry about it if you can't hear it from more than two feet away. Life is too short.

The speakers sound very good. It’s just when listening to my speakers tweeters close up there’s a bit more brightness on the right tweeter but the two sides are close. Two feet back and they sound the same. After 21 years maybe it could be good to have the crossovers measured. I just don’t know where to have that done.