Internal Speaker Rewiring

Mot: I have been having good results with Kester 63/37 solder (mine is labeled organic core - whatever that is). A friend has noted that the Wonder solder is very easy to work with (quick joints with a 35 watt iron).

The best thing to do (regardless of how skilled a solderer you are) it to use plenty of heat sinks when working around caps, voice coils, et cetera. I currenty use the little copper plated clips (with flat ends) from Radio Shack. I used to have "solid" copper clips (which were even better), but misplaced mine and cannot find a new source for them (these were @ least 50 years old:-).

In general I prefer solid core/Teflon wire (over stranded wire) in the signal path. Stranded wire can produce a better defined musical image, but the downside is that it seems to smear transients. I am happy with the slightly blurred imaging but super clean/fast transients of solid core cable in my system. I have also found that in order to get a good balanced sound out of solid core the guage should be no larger than 24 (I use 26 guage myself on everything except the phono cables, which are smaller).

I have experimented with over sized (way larger than the wire) teflon tubing (running bare wire through it) and this sounds great for IC's, but unfortunately does not work well in speakers due to its tendency to vibrate, I think. What you will need is very thick Teflon tubing for this application (which sounds better in speakers than the very thin tubing (the type that you can peel off with a finger nail) and this again may be due to vibration/physical damping I would guess. If you want a more open and 3D type of sound avoid twisting and/or braiding the wire/cable and use it in single runs with very little solder on the joints (just enough to make the connection).

As far as the small size of the wire goes 26 guage is heavy enough for amplifier power up to 100, or so, watts per channel, from my experience, and friends have used it with up to 350 watts per channel. Try 24 guage if you wish to shift the balance more towards the bottom end - not really more bass, just a slighty different balance. As far as larger wire producing more bass, well, I do not agree with this as my 26 guage speaker cable has just as much bass (or more) than any of the heavy commercial cables that I have used in the past.

You need not spend a lot of money on your experimental cable as dealers (such as Michael Percy Audio) carry high quality stock in bulk (you order by the foot). I have not found a source for ready constructed solid core with "heavy" Teflon tubing so other than the 47 Labs OTA cable that I use, I also make my own from bare wire and thick Teflon tubing. I was @ a Fry's Electronics last week (picking up a new fan for our computer) and found some fairly heavy Teflon tubing that I will be experiementing with (it was less than 10 cents/foot - with 30-40 feet on a roll, depending on the guage).

Anyway good luck (lot's of good advice already in the thread) and as mentioned be prepared to undo what you have done in the event that you do not care for the sound. Kind of odd that such short runs of cable can make such a difference, but they do and will change the sound. Maybe just play around with the wire first before experimenting with caps?

Ooops, by bad. Closer inspection reveals that the internal wiring is Audio Research HF-164 12 ga. cords, not Monster.

Thanks for the well thought suggestions. I had this pair in my system orignally and replaced them with Sonus Faber Cremona. I friend has a pair of Dunlavy SC-IV and these PSB's just waxed them in a one-on-one test in my system and his. As a project, I thought I'd see if I could make them sound even better, albiet different, I realize.

I bought the PSB's used sometime ago on Audiogon and they were purported to have only three months usage at that time. In keeping with advise to document all original wiring, I removed first the post covers, notebook and pencil in hand. I found that the "original" internal wiring includes Monster cable that has been soldered directly to the posts and crossover connections. Hmmmmm. Looks like I won't have an accounting of the "original" wiring, but one of a previous "rewire"! Guess I will have to contact PSB to find out what "original" really was.

All great advice. Clueless' suggestion about caps with Rives' supporting comments are right on the money, especially if the speakers have a few years on them. You might not believe how much sonic influence crossover parts ( primarily caps ) make on a speaker. The Kid's comments about "unnecessary" parts / connections and the quality of such connections in the circuit path are also true. It all adds up. Like i said though, keep a very serious "log book" if you're going to attempt such work. It might seem like it slows you down and is a waste of time, but believe me, should you ever have to fall back upon your notes ONE time, it will be well worth the time spent. Sean
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Sean's advice should be taken. I've had similar experiences and I believe Albert Porter has as well. In fact if I remember correctly, after Albert "upgraded" his wire and his speakers sounded terrible he went back to the amnufacturer (or sent his speakers in). To his suprise, they did not change his upgraded wire, but rather changed the capacitors so that the voicing was back to where it was. The resistance and capacitance of the wire is part of the voicing (whether it was in the design, or just a product of whatever wire was used). You will change the sound, and possibly not for the better (so save the old wire just in case).

Yes, this is a huge sonic upgrade. What I would suggest is that you find a speaker wire that you feel gives you the performance you enjoy on the MAIN type of music you listen to. Then purchase an additional 8 feet (4 ft for each speaker) and re-wire your speakers with it. There are two real choices in Solder available today and sonically they are slightly different. Wonder Solder (my preference) has slightly laid back sonics with good detail and dynamics. The WBT solder seems to add more ZIP and can come accross bright in certain applications but also offers excellent detail and transparency.. You choose..

When you are doing this also eliminate any tin clips and solder the wire directly to the crossover and the drivers. Those clips detract from the sound in most cases. Finally when you are finished, check the screws on all of the drivers and torque them to a similiar torque setting. This makes a big difference and you will be surprised how loose certain screws will be on your drivers.. Hope this helps..

KiD

One of the biggest differences might be your choice of capacitors to replace the old in the high pass filter for the tweeter. I would do a search over at the Audio Asylum tweak forum or the Madisound Speaker Building forum as there has been a lot of discussion and it is a personal taste issue. Lots of opinions on this.

I remain,

Some manufacturers actually "voice" the product with the characteristics of the wiring taken into account. Others simply use what will get the job done. Either way, changing the wiring inside the speaker WILL alter what you hear.

If you are going to attempt to do something like this, you should always document which wire went where, what direction it was facing, etc... This will allow you to take the speaker back to stock should you ever want to reverse the procedure. DO NOT TRUST ANYTHING TO MEMORY as there is a LOT more going on inside the speaker and your head than you think.

Keep in mind that if you modified the wiring and then took it back to stock, the sound would still be different. You can attribute this to fresh solder connections, the wiring having to "settle back in", etc... I don't know why this occurs, but it does. Sean
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