Okay, so I've been working over the last couple weekends when I've had time to rewire my 604s3, LCR600, and 602s3 (got 4 of them).
This initially started out when I took my speakers over to the meet at WKHanna's house to compare. I noticed how much "warmer" these sounded over the Nat Ps and Line up Maxx. So I set out on a search to see what all I could do. My initial thinking (and still will eventually end up with doing) is to do a set of M8/12tas or Modula NeoD CCs.
However, in the mean time I thought that after looking at the B&W wiring, my spare Belden 5000UE would do a lot better than theirs. So I took it upon myself to do some work on the speakers. I used WBT-400 4% silver solder on all the connections (Binding posts, Crossover and Speakers).
All I can say is the difference it made in the speakers is absolutely huge!!! :E :E
It started off by doing the center channel and I never used to like it for music AT ALL. I always thought cymbals and voices sounded competely weak when compared to the 604s. I did this speaker first just for the heck of it due to the fact that I had damaged the tweeters dust cover and wanted to repair it... Well to my amazement, the change in sound was night and day. I played music in the Cinema setting on my 1098 and for the first time it sounded BETTER than my 604s. And it was a FAR better sound. So this lead to my 604s and 602s (one set of 602s to go).
Voices are definitely clearer and more distinguishable. I can't remember what song it was, but the group was harmonizing and I had never heard each voice separated from the others like they are now... Bass also has tightened up a lot, it's much quicker and has a punch to it that wasn't there before (sloppy or bloated would be there word to describe it before).
I can very easily tell that cymbals and instruments sound 100% more realistic, cleaner, clearer, and more lifelike. I honestly think they are very much closer to how Nat Ps sound. I definitely want to get my 602s over (604s hurt my back moving ha ha) to see how they compare to the Nat Ps now! :T
Hopefully this will cure my itch to build a new set of speakers until I have more time to actually work and plan them out. Plus it'll give me a chance to finalize 'what' I want.
Anyone curious in wanting to do something similar to their speakers, I HIGHLY recommend it!!!! I also looked at a pair of 700 series (703s) and they use the same wiring in those. I'm looking at opening up a pair of 803s if I can get my hands on them and am guessing the wiring is no different in those from the few pictures I've seen. So I'd definitely be interested in upgrading the wiring in those to see how much better they'd sound.
Here's some pictures of the process.
Here's the speakers with using an Allen key to get all 8 screws out of each driver.
Drivers are removed, the acoustic stuffing is gone, and there's the cheap wiring.
There's the Crossover hiding behind the foam that sits in front of it. This is located behind the "upper" LF bass driver.
Here you see the back of the biding posts from the back of the speaker.
They used Silly Putty (well it looks and feels like it) to seal the two chambers.
Stock connectors on the binding posts.
Here's the connector they use on the tweeter. I had to remove the metal connectors from the plastic (they are held in by two flaps that stick out and just need pushed in with a small flat head screwdriver) to reuse. The plastic connection on the tweeter itself would have to be cut in order to expose the pins to solder the wire to. I didn't feel like going that drastic. So I cut the old wire off these and used silver solder to connect them to the new wiring.
Crossover with stock wiring.
Stock wiring is the black and brown on the left and the new Belden wiring is on the right (black & white).
Here's a closeup of the differences in the wire. Stock B&W wire is on the left and Belden is on the right. Don't mind my dried out finger from stripping the wire and soldering and doing all the work from the day. :lol:
New wire soldered into place. Dark marks are from the desoldering braid that I used to remove the old solder. I wiped off the crossover so the marks aren't there before I put them back.
Crossover with all the new wiring in place.
Crosover in place and proper wires coming out to go to the drivers.
Wires coming through from the bass cabinet into the midrange/high section with the putty around the wires completely sealing the sections.
All the drivers are sitting on the floor. Aren't they pretty!
This initially started out when I took my speakers over to the meet at WKHanna's house to compare. I noticed how much "warmer" these sounded over the Nat Ps and Line up Maxx. So I set out on a search to see what all I could do. My initial thinking (and still will eventually end up with doing) is to do a set of M8/12tas or Modula NeoD CCs.
However, in the mean time I thought that after looking at the B&W wiring, my spare Belden 5000UE would do a lot better than theirs. So I took it upon myself to do some work on the speakers. I used WBT-400 4% silver solder on all the connections (Binding posts, Crossover and Speakers).
All I can say is the difference it made in the speakers is absolutely huge!!! :E :E
It started off by doing the center channel and I never used to like it for music AT ALL. I always thought cymbals and voices sounded competely weak when compared to the 604s. I did this speaker first just for the heck of it due to the fact that I had damaged the tweeters dust cover and wanted to repair it... Well to my amazement, the change in sound was night and day. I played music in the Cinema setting on my 1098 and for the first time it sounded BETTER than my 604s. And it was a FAR better sound. So this lead to my 604s and 602s (one set of 602s to go).
Voices are definitely clearer and more distinguishable. I can't remember what song it was, but the group was harmonizing and I had never heard each voice separated from the others like they are now... Bass also has tightened up a lot, it's much quicker and has a punch to it that wasn't there before (sloppy or bloated would be there word to describe it before).
I can very easily tell that cymbals and instruments sound 100% more realistic, cleaner, clearer, and more lifelike. I honestly think they are very much closer to how Nat Ps sound. I definitely want to get my 602s over (604s hurt my back moving ha ha) to see how they compare to the Nat Ps now! :T
Hopefully this will cure my itch to build a new set of speakers until I have more time to actually work and plan them out. Plus it'll give me a chance to finalize 'what' I want.
Anyone curious in wanting to do something similar to their speakers, I HIGHLY recommend it!!!! I also looked at a pair of 700 series (703s) and they use the same wiring in those. I'm looking at opening up a pair of 803s if I can get my hands on them and am guessing the wiring is no different in those from the few pictures I've seen. So I'd definitely be interested in upgrading the wiring in those to see how much better they'd sound.
Here's some pictures of the process.
Here's the speakers with using an Allen key to get all 8 screws out of each driver.
Drivers are removed, the acoustic stuffing is gone, and there's the cheap wiring.
There's the Crossover hiding behind the foam that sits in front of it. This is located behind the "upper" LF bass driver.
Here you see the back of the biding posts from the back of the speaker.
They used Silly Putty (well it looks and feels like it) to seal the two chambers.
Stock connectors on the binding posts.
Here's the connector they use on the tweeter. I had to remove the metal connectors from the plastic (they are held in by two flaps that stick out and just need pushed in with a small flat head screwdriver) to reuse. The plastic connection on the tweeter itself would have to be cut in order to expose the pins to solder the wire to. I didn't feel like going that drastic. So I cut the old wire off these and used silver solder to connect them to the new wiring.
Crossover with stock wiring.
Stock wiring is the black and brown on the left and the new Belden wiring is on the right (black & white).
Here's a closeup of the differences in the wire. Stock B&W wire is on the left and Belden is on the right. Don't mind my dried out finger from stripping the wire and soldering and doing all the work from the day. :lol:
New wire soldered into place. Dark marks are from the desoldering braid that I used to remove the old solder. I wiped off the crossover so the marks aren't there before I put them back.
Crossover with all the new wiring in place.
Crosover in place and proper wires coming out to go to the drivers.
Wires coming through from the bass cabinet into the midrange/high section with the putty around the wires completely sealing the sections.
All the drivers are sitting on the floor. Aren't they pretty!
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