Soliloquy and bad crossovers

1) Yes.
2) Around 3-4 years ago.
3) High frequency.

Sounded like there was no output from the tweeter; very dull and lifeless sound. I would contact Soliloquy and ask them what to do. They were responsive to my inquiries about the sound of the speakers.

Contact Soliloquy. Thier customer service is great!

I had contacted David Berman regarding bad cross overs with the following reponse: "We had no run of bad crossovers being installed in Soliloquy products. We did have an issue in 1999 with the 6.3 crossover not performing as well as we like, but that was taken care of in 2000 with a capacitor replacement."

Not sure that it translates into dull life-less high frequency response, but apparently not an issue except for the 6.3s.

Cody, I contacted David Berman at Soliloquy because I cracked the grill cover on my 6.5s. Even though I am the second owner of these speakers, he said that he didn't have any grills in stock at the time but, to call him later in the month and he would send out a replacement. He did't have to offer that but he did. I would not think twice about Soliloquy's customer service. Jim

Hi Cody. Sorry you are having frustration. With regards to biwiring, you need to first remove the jumpers. If the jumpers are not in place, you have a problem right there. I am going to assume you know what these are.

In any case, as long as your positive and negatives are hooked up correctly, I dont think it matters which way you go. The biwiring separates frequencies along a signal path, nothing more. The signal frequencies themselves will wind up in the right place if you want to think of it that way. Hence the term crossover.

I do not know which city you are in ( if a city at all), but perhaps a second pait of Soliloquy-familiar ears can render an opinion on this. If there is a problem, perhaps you can return the speakers to place of origin. It's a shame about all of this. Hopefully it will turn out well for you.

OK. I am gonna be dumb here; you say that the tweeter is below the bass drivers? Perhaps this is a VERY old model ( that might not be bad), but I have never seen any 5.3s other than a tweeter on top layout. SO here's my really dumb question- Are you sure these are SOliloquy speakers?

Just thought I'd ask.

OK. Did a little snooping. There are pictures from 2001 clearly showing the tweeter above the drivers. In addition, 2004 was the first cabinet redesign in 5 years, at least according to the website, and the company formed in 1997. SO either you have the very first ones built ( probable) or they aren't Soliloquy speakers. (Unlikely but possible)

I think that the speaker is a totally different animal from what is generally talked about; I'm thinkin return- 30 day return policy?

To JimD: Don't get me wrong customer service is great and David Berman extremely helpful. I was just posting his response regarding a bad batch of cross-overs that seemed to only be an issue with the 6.3s. The original info I got on the bad Soliloquy cross-overs was a thread on Audioasylum.

To Rsya4: I did remove the jumpers. Also, I was refering to the Model 5.0s which switch the position of the drivers (sorry for the confusion) as I own both a pair of 5.3s and 5.0s. Thanks for your response. Actually, all is well that ends well. The problem I discovered was in the cross-over when I removed it from one of the speakers. One of the wires for some reason had come loose from the tweeter connection. Being quite handy with a soldering iron I reconnected with my trusty 2% silver solder. Now the sound pours out quite nicesly. Being that the speakers have less then 50 hours on them they do sound a bit reserved, although their full potential is certainly evident. Treble isn't fully extended (although it is sweet and liquid), bass isn't exactly firmed up, and the inner detail is somewhat lacking. In a sense they have not fully opened up. I intend to play them continuously for the next few weeks and anticipate a cacophony (sp ?) of musical magic. Thanks to all. By the way the early Soliloquys used twisted Straightwire cable, but have now switched to Analysis Plus. I am thinking about switching my Kimber biwire for Analysis Plus Oval 12 biwire. Has anyone evaluated the sonic performance difference between biwire and single cable?

Whew! I am relieved to hear all of this. Good work!

Cody, I'm glad that things worked out for you. I use a double run of Oval 12. I like it alot more than my biwired 8TC or my biwired Wireworld Atlantis. I never have used the jumpers so I can't tell you if they sound better single or biwired. Jim