Underwhelmed with BR-1S kit, can I do anything.

[evilskillit]

The partsexpress BR-1S kit went on sale for $99 and I figured, what the hell, why not. So I ordered them and built them and now I'm thinking, What the hell? I guess they don't sound bad but I expected a box big enough to fit my head in with a 6.5 woofer tuned to the 30hz range would have a bit more bass. Instead they're just sort of uninspiring, kindof bright, or maybe midrangey. I can't tell I've just been letting them run by themselves in my spare room for 2 days hoping the woofer will loosen up and the tweeter will chill out.

If I don't just put them on craigslist they'll probably end up hooked up in the living room where the sonically impaired watch tv and movies.

I didn't really expect the kit to sound all that great, what I figured it might do is boom and bump and generally play that rock music that sounds nasty on the really good speakers in an acceptable way, but so far I'm not feeling it. I was wondering if anyone else has built this kit and tinkered with it or has any sugguestions, like yank the padding out of the box or put a resistor on the tweeter or something. Btw I added dowles to brace the front and back and side to side. If anything I'd think that should have helped the sound of the somewhat flimsy box but if anyone thinks otherwise let me know.

I should measure the port and model the box, maybe if I cut the port a bit shorter and moved the tuning up 10 or so HZ that would reinforce the musical low range of 40-80hz

Well I can boost the low end a bit by raising the port tune from 38 to 43 which according to WinISD raises the response to about 45hz.

[Teran]

Check all of your connections and make sure you don't have one of the drivers or speakers wired out of phase.

Move them back and away from a wall. They should get more bass as they approach a rear wall.

I built a pair for someone over five years ago. If I remember correctly, if anything, they were thick and muddy in the midbass and lacking in the midrange. Not anything like you are hearing.

[Dennis H]

Dennis Murphy has a revised crossover. Not sure if it will fix your problem though. He was fixing midrange issues rather than bass issues....

http://murphyblaster.com/content.php?f=pe_br1.html

[evilskillit]

Bleh, I don't want to open these things but I guess I should and double check everything. I put that rope caulk on the back of the woofer when I installed it. Will that cause me any problems trying to get the drivers out of the cabinet?

It is possible that when assembling the crossovers I made a mistake. I assembled them according to the book but the resistors were not labeled the same in the instructions as they were in the diagram so I might have gotten 2 resistors reversed tho I doubt it. It is also possible that some of the caps might have been damaged by excessive heat while soldering, tho I doubt that too. I'll also check polarity tho I marked the hookup wires to avoid mistakes but maybe I switched one on accident or one of the woofers was labeled wrong?

Its strange that these seem to have something slightly amiss about them considering they are a kit and should be foolproof where as my first project, the microbes had to be completely pieced together and the x-o laid out from the diagram instead of by instructions, but I got it right the first time.

I wonder if I could just return the kit assembled and use the credit towards some drivers towards a Nat P kit or something.

[Teran]

Just be slow and careful when removing the drivers and the rope shouldn't be a problem.

If you play only one speaker at a time do they sound the same?

[Bill Schneider]

FWIW, I built 4 pairs of the BR-1 speakers (non-shielded version) for our school classrooms. They have impressive bass for the buck, even in a 20'x20' room with 15' ceilings.

I put the first pair together using rope caulk, and COULD NOT get the drivers back out. I put a dowel through the rear port to press against the magnet of the woofer, and sat on the box. Nothing budged. I gave up, and used PE gasket tape on the remaining three pairs to prevent stuck drivers on them.

I hope you have a little better luck getting the drivers out than I did. I do believe that you should check the phase of your wiring though as has been suggested - if you can.

[evilskillit]

I'll play with them some more tonight. I tried turning the balance all the way l/r and it was hard to tell because ofcourse the volume goes down so much but it seemd like the sound was about the same. I'll try it again and have someone else change the balance while I sit back and listen.

Maybe my expectations for these speakers are not reasonable. If I use the tone control on my pre-amp, which seems to have a very nice tone control circuit and turn the bass up 2 or 3 clicks and the treble down one click they sound alot more like what I expected them to sound like with no tone control. As it is the tweeter seems harsh, which I did not expect from a silk dome and the mids/lows seem weak in comparison.

[lunchmoney]

I heard some BR-1's recently and thought they sounded rather resonant... I'd add some internal braces.

[evilskillit]

Thanks for the sugguestion Lunchmoney but I mentioned in my first post that I did that. I bought a 5/8" dowel and cut it down into pieces, put glue on the ends and wedged them inside the box, from front to back and side to side. The boxes got alot stiffer, if you knocked on any side of the box instead of hearing a sortof deep resonant knock you got a shorter sharper almost ringing knock. So it stiffened up the boxes a fair amount I would say.

I still managed to get all the egg crate foam all glued around the insides even with the braces I added in there too. Got quite a bit of hot glue on my hands for my effots, that kindof hurts but I figure if you're going to do something do it right.

[---k---]

It sounds to me like you have something wired incorrectly. Unless you pull the crossover out and post a photo of it, we can't help you much further.

[evilskillit]

Gah, its hot glued in there and the woofers are held in with the rope caulk dayton supplies. But if I can get the crossovers out without destroying anything I'll post pics by tonight or tomorrow.

[Curt C]

Gah, its hot glued in there and the woofers are held in with the rope caulk dayton supplies. But if I can get the crossovers out without destroying anything I'll post pics by tonight or tomorrow.

If anything, the BR-1's are renowned for their bass reproduction.

A quick and dirty check: Reverse the leads at the back of one of the speakers. It the bass improves, you have something reversed, either at the driver, or at the binding post. If its at the binding post, you're done. Remark it and forget it.

-Of course, make sure you don't have one of the speaker leads reversed at the speaker or at the amp... ops:

If not, you will have to double check your crossover construction.

If you do get the drivers out: Lose the rope caulk. It sticks tighter than dried-on breakfast cereal, and in general is a menace to the world as we know it. :evil:

C

[lunchmoney]

Lose the rope caulk. It sticks tighter than dried-on breakfast cereal, and in general is a menace to the world as we know it. :evil:

C

Why do you suppose PE continues to use it? There are so many other simple methods for sealing a speaker.