Regarding crossover mods, I'm also curious if people are modding them inside the cabinets, or if you're able to remove them from cabs. I've opened mine up a couple times and don't see how the crossovers are attached internally, assuming some kind of glue, and not wanting to start trying to force anything in there. Is there a trick to it, or do you just have to be really agile inside there with your soldering iron? |
Is there a trick to dealing with the glue to the brace? Or do you just force it? I wouldn't want to damage the cabinet brace and am concerned about physically forcing the crossover. I guess if you have to rebuild the crossover from scratch, I might as well just not even remove the old one.
I was able to mod the shunt capacitor with a higher value to tame the upper midrange a bit. That's been interesting. If/when I rebuild, I might put in two or three different values with a switch between them for that shunt cap to make it be a bit tunable on the upper frequencies. |
You're gonna need to help me out. What does SSG mean, and what is a KBG? |
And if you listen to the audio recording, you will hear Glen Beck say that Eric didn't want his help in promoting his products. Glen talks about it being because of his "small guy" virtue, but I also suspect it's because Eric realizes it's not a good idea to mix politics and business - that GB support would polarize and negatively impact him through that polarization. I dislike GB's politics about as much as anyone could, but I don't begrudge Eric his beliefs, nor do I even know what they are based on simply knowing that he sent GB some speakers.
Scutterflux, thanks much for those details. Very helpful, and I'll look into those ideas a bit more myself, as I still haven't decided on a direction with the crossovers. |
My brother has M-Lores with the original Peachtree Nova and likes it very well. But he streams through an unmodified Airport Express using the optical to connect to the Nova's DAC. This is also his first audio system and does not have points of comparison other than having heard my much more $$$ system with Lores in a much more acoustically suitable and treated room. |
Please, guys. If I want to read or participate in political argument, there are endless other web opportunities. We don't have to do it here, and I'd really like to continue to be able to read this thread without having to skip through endless political opinions and discussion. It doesn't in any way further our audio passions, the real reason any of us visit Audiogon or other audiophile message boards. |
Last weekend I took my Lores to visit another audiophile, along with most of my system. We had a long day of swapping out equipment on his Gedlee Abbeys and then the Lores. We had on hand:
DB Labs Tranquility SE with recent Gold level upgrades
Lampizator Level 5 boards, Duelund caps, upgraded tubes
TRL Dude Pre
Bent Slagleformer passive pre
Atsah ncore monoblocks
TRL Samson monoblocks
Job 225 stereo amp
NC400 ncore monoblocks
It was a silly amount of equipment, but the system completely gelled with the following combination, and we both agreed we could be happy forever with this setup:
Lores
Samson amps
Dude pre
Lampizator
Now, granted my Lores have about $600 in completely rebuilt crossovers and silver internal wiring, and bypass entirely the binding posts. That said, this is absolutely silly!!! $1600 speakers with $16,500 in electronics and another couple grand in cabling!
But the reason I share is that it was the best sound either of us had heard within memory, and the more important point is that the Lores are capable of responding with whatever level of electronics you are able to throw at them.
Am I saying that they're the best speaker out there? No, and I'm actually always looking at my options for upgrading. But I've tried some significantly more expensive speakers over the past three years I've owned the Lores, and decided to stay with the Lores because of what they do right.
My friend is seriously considering the Lores after last weekend...
Thanks for resurrecting the thread, Finsup. |
No, it's a full crossover network. The woofer is not run fullrange - crossover is in the neighborhood of 3khz I think. Three caps, two resistors, two inductors. I replaced the caps and resistors with higher quality - Mills for resistors, and a mixture of Clarity SA, ESA, and Mundorf Supreme for the caps. 18 gauge silver hookup wire replaced the zipcord stock internal wiring. Bypassed the binding posts by routing the internal cabling through two small holes I drilled into the cabinets just above the binding posts, using binding posts to clamp to the speaker cables from my amp. |
Eric and I did correspond - a long while ago. I sat on the idea for well over a year after he and I talked before I actually ordered all the parts and went ahead. I tried calling him again when I was getting more motivated, just to double-check what I had written down a year earlier. I wasn't able to get a hold of him at that time - he had become super swamped. I think this was around the same time people started complaining about long long delays in their orders and lack of communication from him.
Anyway, when I did have his attention, he certainly offered for me to ship the speakers back to him and let him know what I wanted done. He wouldn't have charged much at all for his time - just a basic labor charge. Good customer service offer. I ultimately decided it wasn't worth the risk to ship across the country two more times, plus the added cost that I could just as well put into better crossover parts! But he was quite open to it and even offered to order the parts for me if I told him what I wanted.
I am certain you could have him make the custom upgrades part of your original order. He offers an upgraded crossover with Mundorf Silver/Oil caps, I think, but I know you could talk to him about any combination you want and he could install those for you. The only thing he might not go for is the binding post solution I made, which is a bit unconventional and I'm not sure what he would think about it.
Yes, rebuilding the crossover mainly involves soldering skills, although I had to cut some new wood boards since the old boards weren't large enough for the larger capacitors. I just used diagrammed the original crossovers before disassembling them and then replicated the same layout on new boards I cut, glued the caps/resistors/inductors into place after twisting the leads together, and then finally soldered everything together once everything was laid out right and connected properly. Then just a matter of glueing back into the cabinet after connecting the driver leads and binding post leads to the right connections on the crossover. That final soldering process can be a bit challenging, but I just set up a TV tray/short side table next to the upright Lore cabinets, which made the perfect work space for supporting the woofer driver while soldering those last connections and glueing the crossover board into the cabinet.
It's definitely a DIY project, involving some basic electronics and woodworking skills, as well as critical thinking skills and figuring out what will get the job done in your work environment. Rewarding, but not for everyone, and not without risks of screwing something up. |
Yep. Still have them. Tried the Lore S when it had just come out. I preferred the Lore for its strengths, acknowledging the more refined sound of the Lore S, but just didn't have the presence and scale in my room and for my tastes. The Crossover and internal wire upgrades have gone a long way to addressing its weaknesses in imaging and clarifying the critical upper midrange. The Lore has responded to every upgrade in y system I've thrown at it thus far. At times I thought it was the limitation in the system only to find later something else being the culprit. At this point I'm not interested in upgrading speakers until I've addressed Everything else in my system first. Don't get me wrong, I think it's absurd that I'm running upwards of $20K retail in electronics into the $1500 Lores (including crossover and wiring upgrades), but that's what has sounded best to me.
Points of comparison. I went to RMAF in 2010 several years ago and heard a bunch of great systems. My favorite rooms that year were the Odyssey room, a couple rooms with Sonus Faber on tubes, the Fritz Carbon 7's room, and a couple more I can't remember. My personal speaker evolution has been Klipsch Lascalas to Hornshoppe Horns to Omega Hemptones to Tyler Acoustics Linbrook monitors back to Hornshoppe Horns and now to Lores for the past four years or so. The longest I've had any speakers, and they have continued to add pleasure as I have taken the system up from Miniwatt integrated amp through a progression of electronics to my current system. Last fall I auditioned Eggleston Andra II's in my home for a couple weeks and decided to keep the Lores. That presence thing again in the midrange. In January I took my entire system up to a buddy's with a better custom dedicated audio room. The Lores with these electronics were way better than his Gedlee Abbeys, which sounded muddy and incoherent in comparison. I think that was a lot of system synergy issues, as he has very different electronics and has his system fully functional now (it wasn't then) and says it's doing great things. Well, he's heard a LOT more systems than I have, is looking for something truly special, and he said he would happily live with my system any day of the week, and he has some pretty high standards.
I don't doubt I'll start on the speaker merry go round again in the next year or two. The cognitive dissonance of Lores matched with my electronics is just too great. But it's great to know that I can confidently keep my Lores and know I'll have top notch sound as a fall-back until one of those others knocks my socks off ;) |
