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Reference 3A upgrades!

Posting this as both a thank you to Mr. Tash and as information for anyone who’s contemplating upgrading their Reference 3A’s. I just received back my Royal Virtuoso monitors with every viable upgrade option and what I have here before me is a VAST improvement over the original. I’m running them 24/7 to break in, the beryllium tweeter is pretty badass, superb definition with apparently zero fatigue. Communication was good and turnaround time was about 2 weeks after all the options were decided. Bonus points to Tash for tolerating my relentless questions. Exemplary customer service from Divergent Technologies, I couldn’t be more satisfied.

Here’s the work order:

  • Larger bucking-magnets added to the existing magnets.
  • Solid Delrin acoustic lenses are installed to the core of the driver magnet.
  • New set of multiple KPM polypropylene capacitors in parallel, with a Mundorf oil and small Teflon by pass capacitors installed.

This replaces existing old paper in oil capacitors (also excellent but a little too slow for the new beryllium dome tweeters).    

  • Heavy steel tension rods are installed across the cabinet and new more effective  acoustic materials added inside.
  • Gold plated copper binding posts are installed replacing the old connectors.
  • Beryllium dome tweeters with microfiber textile material clad flanges installed.
  • New shorting jumpers made of 7Ns pure OCC copper/Teflon conductor will be supplied.
  • Soft brass screws are used for mounting the drivers.
  • Rearranged the mechanical grounding of the main drivers to accommodate the bucking magnets.
  • Special heavy gauge OFC Litz and thiner pure 7Ns copper OCC/Teflon tweeter  wires are used to rewire the speakers.
  • Damaged speaker grill repaired inc new fabric.

 

128x128jl1ny
theedge's avatar
theedge
7 posts
 

Sorry I took a while to reply.

The La Suprema II is basically the Royal Master (Corian sides) sitting on top of twin unpowered subwoofers.

It takes some extra power to drive these of course, but you get additional bass. As my room is large, it is appreciated.

They were made in the late 90's in Switzerland by Daniel Dehay, before the company was sold to Tash and moved to Kitchener, Ontario.

Very musical speakers. In comparison (not head to head), I think that post-upgrade the Royal Virtuoso's had more speed, finesse and resolution than the stock Suprema II's, which is high praise as the Suprema is excellent.

There is something very special about the Royal Virtuoso cabinet.

jl1ny's avatar
jl1ny OP
418 posts
 

@theedge

Thanks for your thoughts. The RV full Corian cabinets are incredibly inert, the only issue is maintenance. While polishing the speakers one day I noticed that the l left speaker had a verrry fine hairline crack running right along side the top edge of the cabinet. I had a couple of Corian fabricators take a look them. They told me that repairing a structural crack requires routing out a channel and re-filling it with a composite ($$$). Thankfully the hairline is only cosmetic and could be sealed with a Corian epoxy (a rather expensive and difficult to find epoxy) to prevent it from spreading. When the speakers went to Divergent for upgrade, I had Tash inspect the cabinets and he verified that they were fine. Btw, Divergent does not stock replacement Corian cabinets so ownership runs the risk of a costly repair if ever needed. Anyway, I’m still fascinated by the RV’s luxurious sound and their ability to completely vanish from the room regardless of the recording…magnificent.

k101770
3 posts
 

Hi,

Where are you sending your Ref 3a speakers to upgrade...I have never heard it is  possible to upgrade  my Royal Virtuoso, but I am interested in it also and I am living in Finland. I bought mine 2004 and still love those like very first day.

jl1ny's avatar
jl1ny OP
418 posts
 

@k101770 

Reference 3A is located in Canada. I suggest you reach out to Tash for your options.

 

https://reference3a.com/

k101770
3 posts
 

Hi,

THX, I´ll do that.

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