June 4, 2016
My usual go-to medium grade capacitor is Mundorf MKP, but since I had such good results with the Clarity MR caps in my reference speakers I decided to try the Clarity ESA's. 24 hours into the experience and it's still too hard.
I've increased R1 from 2.7 to 4.2 Ohms and it's much better. The LM-1 curves match the center channel curves more closely. However I'm still not quite satisfied with the treble. Of course, this is a $35 ring radiator tweeter, vs. the $500 Mundorf AMT I've gotten used to. The two may never closely align, but I have hopes. I've heard lesser tweeters smooth out with better caps, and I've heard caps mellow out after a few days, so this may take a while before I'm ready to say I'm done.
June 5, 2016
At about 48 hours the caps got noticeably less harsh. It's also interesting to note that changing R1 from 2.7 to 4.2 made only about 1.6 dB of difference at 13 kHz, but it's all the difference in the world to my ears.
June 6, 2016
In spite of the packing going on around here, I closed some drapes and listened more last night. I'm ambivalent over the total treble balance, but the tweeter and C1 seem to have settled in quite nicely. I sometimes feel it may still be a little bright, but the measurements don't lie, I'm actually just under the B&K curve, so I'm going to leave it alone. Honestly I think my reference speakers are a little dark, so this may be a good chance for my own ears to adjust. My PC is getting packed up today, so I'll be unable to do more measurements or design as I won't have access to my only Windows 7 PC. This will be a good chance for me to explore what else is available on Ubuntu/Linux! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment