Modding/tweaking my system

After a bit of messing around with toe in I feel the system is getting there.

I'm now leaning towards the room/placement is likely the main cause for the issues I experience, that combined with the greater detail afforded by the new crossover, tweeter and using the correct cable for S/Pdif.

It seems moving around and messing with placement the sweet spot is just out of reach, something always has to give, overly bright, muddy mids or lack of bass extension. 

I also pulled the networks and checked resistance values which are pretty much even across both.

I did however swap the networks which with a short listen seems to have brought about a bit more balance, I've been finding the right channel much more forward than left despite a rough check with phone db meter app telling me the opposite.

I'll have an extended listen later to see if its just an immediate feeling rather than an actual change

Just a caution that mics in phones can't pick up low frequencies, so those sound meter apps are just measuring mids/highs with some very high notes also cutoff. Still handy, but just take it with a grain of salt. Cheers,

Spencer

Hi Spencer it was just to see if an app would agree with what I'm hearing, right hand HF more prominent than left. I used music as I have no access to test tone.

I played the same 2 mins of the same track with centre balance, left and right.I expected right to be louder however left channel was actually 1db louder on peak.

I'm not reading anything into it.

I'm beginning to feel the system as a whole is now more revealing in upper mids and HF exposing some recordings for what they really are. The room layout, system set up and acoustics are far from ideal. I would really like to get the system away from the drivers, speakers further apart and sit further back with more space behind but its just not possible

You keep mentioning channel imbalance. Unless there is something wrong electrically somewhere there should be none. It is very easy however to get imbalance, all it takes is one speaker one inch closer than the other, either to you or a wall or something that might reinforce, or some furniture or something that might absorb. Or even if everything else is right but one is toed slightly more or less than the other. You get the idea. Everything has to be perfectly symmetrical down to the nth degree. Which is why I always say start with the tape measure. 

If you are gonna measure anything, measure distance. Measure angles. Those you can get a handle on. Try and measure sound, you are gonna find you got your work cut out for you just trying to figure out what it is you are really measuring. Then why. Finally how. Guarantee in the end wind up learning, nobody agrees on even the tiniest aspect of any of it. Where hopefully everyone agrees if the speakers are cockeyed so is the sound.

Thank Millercarbon

I think I've got it as sorted as I can get considering the constraints of a kitchen/diner bloody great ceramic top weighs a ton table, plants and chairs!

Playing around with damping and swapping out the RCA to dedicated digital cable brought about some benefits.

Using a greater degree of toe-in really changed the dynamics and I think made me even more conscious of what this system could deliver.

Hunting around the net for hot iron mods I found a simply non invasive tweak thats been implemented today.

The result is truly astonishing, the closed in sweet spot is now wide open, the crashing trays are symbols with timbre and decay.

The congested mids now allow for delicate percussion instruments to be recognised and placed in the ss.

The tweak is so simple anyone with a DacMagic should definitely give it a go.

The tweak is using the XLR outputs for RCA using standard adaptors.

The pair cost me £4.85 delivered!

Apparently the trick is to ensure the pins are connected Pin 1 GND pin 2 V+ and pin 3 unused. The reason it works is the feeds for the RCA are taken from the balanced feed routed through OP27 op-amps which combine and buffer for the unbalanced output. You effectively bypass the op-amp and associated circuits.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the thread passing on your knowledge and experience its been gratefully received 

Happy New Year to all