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Nazo
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2002
- Messages
- 3,672
Ok, so I bought these back when I had more money but still a very limited budget. Since then, the limited budget has become almost no budget... All the same, I've been slowly making changes here and there (most minor) to my Promedia 2.1 set, trying to get the best out of them. (In retrospect, I bought the wrong set for my needs, but at the time I still thought it would be best for me to stick to desktop speakers.) This post is going to be quite long and detailed, so please bear with me. (Sorry, but I feel it's necessary to be thorough in just about everything I do.)
I guess I'll start by saying what I have already done (you can scroll down a bit perhaps to get to the part about where I need advice.) After a while I decided that what I had left on my warranty wasn't really worth holding out on and finally began to actually irreversibly modify things (for the record I decided this back when I still had more money, lol.) First, I started out just replacing the cables. At first I didn't hear a lot of difference, but I've replaced them again since and have much bigger cables with I guess more copper among other things and now the difference seems to be quite huge. Also, one of the speakers fell and broke the plug completely. I was going to try to put in new connectors (I was just going to go ahead and step up to a 6.3mm connection while I was at it) but didn't want to wait to order connectors since the ones I could find locally weren't really very good, so ultimately ended up just soldering the cables in directly (and using some hot glue to seal up the hole and keep the cable from wobbling around.) I originally intended just to change this later, but realized I don't really need the plug to be disconnect-able from the satellites themselves right now and currently plan to just keep it this way from now on until something should change. I would swear that I'm getting even better yet sound. (The weird thing is, while I do have personal experience that changing cables can affect sound quality, I really didn't expect very much with speakers. With headphones a subtle difference can add up to a huge one, but with speakers it shouldn't be so huge. I changed the cable just to have something longer, not to increase sound quality. I really didn't expect any change, but I really would swear it has improved.) I also added on new connectors in support of the newer cables. I'm not stepping up a LOT, but it was easier to add large sized banana plugs (which are gold plated in the theory that I'll actually keep it this way for enough years for that to even matter actually resisting the urge to change things again later, lol.)
On less of a mod side, I've mounted the satellites on the wall. Once I had them pointed right, I found the difference was incredible. They may build these things to be ABLE to be desktop speakers, but I really feel like even these desktop speakers still were ultimately designed to sit a more proper distance apart (as speakers really should be I see now.) The only down side is they seem to be fairly mono-directional -- or at least the most optimal sound is rather -- so I had to get them pointed just right. I'm using cheap third party mounts for now (I'll probably get proper ones later) so it barely works, but it works sufficiently for my needs.
Besides the satellites, naturally I've worked on the main unit. First, as others have mentioned elsewhere, the bass can be quite a bit "boomy" with this particular line. I've been trying my best to try to get it more controlled. Call me spoiled as I also own a pair of Denon AH-D2000 headphones that have been modded with the MarkL-mod (see Head-Fi for details, but simply put it comes down to using some dampening material to decrease distortion considerably -- the drivers themselves are already capable of amazing clarity and detail at even low ranges, so the main thing is just to clean up the distortion) so I've gotten used to a clearer sort of bass and would very much like to get this set to do better. One thing I tried out of curiosity was to add speaker padding and a small amount of stuffing to the inside and I blocked the vent using said stuffing. While I realize the original point of that design, my aim is to reduce that boominess and increase clarity even if some comes at the cost of "fun" value of the bass sound and this has seemed to help a bit. I also added a cushion type of thing beneath the subwoofer because I less want to feel low frequencies through the entire room and more as part of the sound itself and also this pointed it up a bit more. (This may be less realistic, but again, the focus there was clarity.) Of course, I couldn't do this without doing something to handle the cooling on the amp section since it already has enough troubles staying properly cooled, but with padding added it would have fried in no time. I pulled that segment entirely out and expanded on the previous idea of the cushion by getting a really cheap ottoman that was pretty much covered in padding (but mostly was cheap, lol) with a nice cushion on top. This pretty much finished the job of what I wanted there with the cushion and it got it further up, closer to an even level (though I don't want it completely ear level obviously.) I also use this a bit for storage. For example, the Allen-wrench and stands that came with the speakers are stored in there. With a bit of cutting of the side materials, I was able to screw the amp section into two sides of the frame, so this completely separated it from the subwoofer. At the time I did this I had a couple of extra Netrik 6.3mm male and female connectors and small length of a good audio cable, so I just used those to connect the sub to the amp. For now I've had to close up the hole with a section of wood I cut out of an old speaker casing (just LDF though, so that's not helping) and a lot of padding to prevent leakage and etc. Finally, i've cut a couple of small holes on each side of the ottoman, lined up across the amp section and placed in a bit of cardboard to control airflow. I rigged up a fan (using an external power supply) on one of these holes and found a nice little grill I could use as at least a small amount of a dust/foreign object filter (later I can hopefully do better.) I have it currently using a somewhat lower voltage, so it's pretty quiet, but, I'd say that the amp section really doesn't get all that hot to the touch even when I'm doing something like gaming that uses a lot of lower noises (eg explosions and such.) Just slightly warm is all.
Between all of this, I would definitely say my set has been improved a fair bit beyond the original intention Klipsch had for it (it is, after all, oriented towards a completely different sort of usage, lol.) It's a bit of a Frankenstein of cobbled together changes, but it works.
There are just a few things I'm wondering about though for further modification. My chief limitation is my limited funds though. First, I've read a suggestion of the Tang Band W3-881SJ 3" mid-range as an excellent replacement for the stock mid-ranges with improved tonality and all around sound quality. To get two of them I'd be looking at over $40 (I haven't found a better price than about $19 + S/H each so far,) so it is technically possible, but with my budget as it is right now I'm a bit hesitant and that's still pushing it just a bit. In particular, the stock mid-ranges definitely aren't bad. I haven't had any reliability issues with the mids themselves (unlike some I've read about anyway) and frankly I feel like the stock drivers are going to last me quite a while really. I do think it would be nice to improve the mids a bit though. In particular, I'd really like vocals to come out better if they could and it sounds like these would do that. Has anyone here tried this out? How much better than the stock mid-ranges are they? Are there other options I should be considering within reasonably close price ranges? I don't want anything that would tear up at relatively high volume levels, but I won't be turning them all the way up by any means either.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the subwoofer is still a bit boomy even with the switch from a vented to a closed design. One thing I've been wanting to do is to build a new casing for the subwoofer. Unfortunately, when one has a more limited budget this gets a fair bit harder. Obviously I can't just stick a bunch of 2x4s together after all... I was wondering though if more ordinary woods would be significantly worse than MDF. I don't think I can actually find a decent source for MDF, but I'm not entirely sure about normal wood yet. (The biggest problem is the size and the fact that, as a cube it has six sides.) Unfortunately, most sources for cheap wood are LDF and low quality LDF at that (most are probably worse than even what BOSE uses, lol.) Needless to say though, if I were using normal wood, it wouldn't exactly be Bubinga or something... We're talking about cheap light woods as commonly are used in building materials. So I do wonder if any of these are even good enough for audio applications? I still haven't really figured out exactly what I'm going to do to achieve what I want here. I may get lucky and find some old system at a thrift store or something even (though finding one that isn't LDF might be tough.) I'm not really sure where I can even find MDF in particular though. I'm not aware of any local places that would actually carry it. Regardless though, I wonder at its cost. Wood seems to be pretty expensive for some reason. If I had to buy online, with the weight it would have I wonder if this too might end up hurting things quite a bit. I'm also not sure if I'm going to be able to do a great job with the padding at least for now as I don't have a lot left and will have to rely a lot on salvage from the current case. I have plenty of stuffing, but the dampening padding is a bit more iffy. Does anyone have any thoughts on anything I might be able to do about the subwoofer casing given that limited budget?
BTW, I saw a video discussing that switch of the mid-range drivers and in one part they compared the Promedia 2.1 satellites with satellites from a higher model Klipsch set and other than the drivers, the only real difference was the casing had a vent. One thing I must admit I was a bit curious about is the question of what would happen if one added a vent hole like they showed to the Promedia 2.1s. However, given how things have been with the subwoofer and how I preferred the more controlled if weaker closed design I'm thinking it would probably not be an improvement from my point of view. Has anyone compared the results of those satellite casings?
I guess I'll start by saying what I have already done (you can scroll down a bit perhaps to get to the part about where I need advice.) After a while I decided that what I had left on my warranty wasn't really worth holding out on and finally began to actually irreversibly modify things (for the record I decided this back when I still had more money, lol.) First, I started out just replacing the cables. At first I didn't hear a lot of difference, but I've replaced them again since and have much bigger cables with I guess more copper among other things and now the difference seems to be quite huge. Also, one of the speakers fell and broke the plug completely. I was going to try to put in new connectors (I was just going to go ahead and step up to a 6.3mm connection while I was at it) but didn't want to wait to order connectors since the ones I could find locally weren't really very good, so ultimately ended up just soldering the cables in directly (and using some hot glue to seal up the hole and keep the cable from wobbling around.) I originally intended just to change this later, but realized I don't really need the plug to be disconnect-able from the satellites themselves right now and currently plan to just keep it this way from now on until something should change. I would swear that I'm getting even better yet sound. (The weird thing is, while I do have personal experience that changing cables can affect sound quality, I really didn't expect very much with speakers. With headphones a subtle difference can add up to a huge one, but with speakers it shouldn't be so huge. I changed the cable just to have something longer, not to increase sound quality. I really didn't expect any change, but I really would swear it has improved.) I also added on new connectors in support of the newer cables. I'm not stepping up a LOT, but it was easier to add large sized banana plugs (which are gold plated in the theory that I'll actually keep it this way for enough years for that to even matter actually resisting the urge to change things again later, lol.)
On less of a mod side, I've mounted the satellites on the wall. Once I had them pointed right, I found the difference was incredible. They may build these things to be ABLE to be desktop speakers, but I really feel like even these desktop speakers still were ultimately designed to sit a more proper distance apart (as speakers really should be I see now.) The only down side is they seem to be fairly mono-directional -- or at least the most optimal sound is rather -- so I had to get them pointed just right. I'm using cheap third party mounts for now (I'll probably get proper ones later) so it barely works, but it works sufficiently for my needs.
Besides the satellites, naturally I've worked on the main unit. First, as others have mentioned elsewhere, the bass can be quite a bit "boomy" with this particular line. I've been trying my best to try to get it more controlled. Call me spoiled as I also own a pair of Denon AH-D2000 headphones that have been modded with the MarkL-mod (see Head-Fi for details, but simply put it comes down to using some dampening material to decrease distortion considerably -- the drivers themselves are already capable of amazing clarity and detail at even low ranges, so the main thing is just to clean up the distortion) so I've gotten used to a clearer sort of bass and would very much like to get this set to do better. One thing I tried out of curiosity was to add speaker padding and a small amount of stuffing to the inside and I blocked the vent using said stuffing. While I realize the original point of that design, my aim is to reduce that boominess and increase clarity even if some comes at the cost of "fun" value of the bass sound and this has seemed to help a bit. I also added a cushion type of thing beneath the subwoofer because I less want to feel low frequencies through the entire room and more as part of the sound itself and also this pointed it up a bit more. (This may be less realistic, but again, the focus there was clarity.) Of course, I couldn't do this without doing something to handle the cooling on the amp section since it already has enough troubles staying properly cooled, but with padding added it would have fried in no time. I pulled that segment entirely out and expanded on the previous idea of the cushion by getting a really cheap ottoman that was pretty much covered in padding (but mostly was cheap, lol) with a nice cushion on top. This pretty much finished the job of what I wanted there with the cushion and it got it further up, closer to an even level (though I don't want it completely ear level obviously.) I also use this a bit for storage. For example, the Allen-wrench and stands that came with the speakers are stored in there. With a bit of cutting of the side materials, I was able to screw the amp section into two sides of the frame, so this completely separated it from the subwoofer. At the time I did this I had a couple of extra Netrik 6.3mm male and female connectors and small length of a good audio cable, so I just used those to connect the sub to the amp. For now I've had to close up the hole with a section of wood I cut out of an old speaker casing (just LDF though, so that's not helping) and a lot of padding to prevent leakage and etc. Finally, i've cut a couple of small holes on each side of the ottoman, lined up across the amp section and placed in a bit of cardboard to control airflow. I rigged up a fan (using an external power supply) on one of these holes and found a nice little grill I could use as at least a small amount of a dust/foreign object filter (later I can hopefully do better.) I have it currently using a somewhat lower voltage, so it's pretty quiet, but, I'd say that the amp section really doesn't get all that hot to the touch even when I'm doing something like gaming that uses a lot of lower noises (eg explosions and such.) Just slightly warm is all.
Between all of this, I would definitely say my set has been improved a fair bit beyond the original intention Klipsch had for it (it is, after all, oriented towards a completely different sort of usage, lol.) It's a bit of a Frankenstein of cobbled together changes, but it works.
There are just a few things I'm wondering about though for further modification. My chief limitation is my limited funds though. First, I've read a suggestion of the Tang Band W3-881SJ 3" mid-range as an excellent replacement for the stock mid-ranges with improved tonality and all around sound quality. To get two of them I'd be looking at over $40 (I haven't found a better price than about $19 + S/H each so far,) so it is technically possible, but with my budget as it is right now I'm a bit hesitant and that's still pushing it just a bit. In particular, the stock mid-ranges definitely aren't bad. I haven't had any reliability issues with the mids themselves (unlike some I've read about anyway) and frankly I feel like the stock drivers are going to last me quite a while really. I do think it would be nice to improve the mids a bit though. In particular, I'd really like vocals to come out better if they could and it sounds like these would do that. Has anyone here tried this out? How much better than the stock mid-ranges are they? Are there other options I should be considering within reasonably close price ranges? I don't want anything that would tear up at relatively high volume levels, but I won't be turning them all the way up by any means either.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the subwoofer is still a bit boomy even with the switch from a vented to a closed design. One thing I've been wanting to do is to build a new casing for the subwoofer. Unfortunately, when one has a more limited budget this gets a fair bit harder. Obviously I can't just stick a bunch of 2x4s together after all... I was wondering though if more ordinary woods would be significantly worse than MDF. I don't think I can actually find a decent source for MDF, but I'm not entirely sure about normal wood yet. (The biggest problem is the size and the fact that, as a cube it has six sides.) Unfortunately, most sources for cheap wood are LDF and low quality LDF at that (most are probably worse than even what BOSE uses, lol.) Needless to say though, if I were using normal wood, it wouldn't exactly be Bubinga or something... We're talking about cheap light woods as commonly are used in building materials. So I do wonder if any of these are even good enough for audio applications? I still haven't really figured out exactly what I'm going to do to achieve what I want here. I may get lucky and find some old system at a thrift store or something even (though finding one that isn't LDF might be tough.) I'm not really sure where I can even find MDF in particular though. I'm not aware of any local places that would actually carry it. Regardless though, I wonder at its cost. Wood seems to be pretty expensive for some reason. If I had to buy online, with the weight it would have I wonder if this too might end up hurting things quite a bit. I'm also not sure if I'm going to be able to do a great job with the padding at least for now as I don't have a lot left and will have to rely a lot on salvage from the current case. I have plenty of stuffing, but the dampening padding is a bit more iffy. Does anyone have any thoughts on anything I might be able to do about the subwoofer casing given that limited budget?
BTW, I saw a video discussing that switch of the mid-range drivers and in one part they compared the Promedia 2.1 satellites with satellites from a higher model Klipsch set and other than the drivers, the only real difference was the casing had a vent. One thing I must admit I was a bit curious about is the question of what would happen if one added a vent hole like they showed to the Promedia 2.1s. However, given how things have been with the subwoofer and how I preferred the more controlled if weaker closed design I'm thinking it would probably not be an improvement from my point of view. Has anyone compared the results of those satellite casings?
You might buy some sonic barrier