Douglas_Schroeder....I am a trained violinist and have played and recorded with the best orchestras of the world. I hear real music in real time almost every day. I can tell you when I sit on stage the sound is very much different than when I sit in the "seats". I want my system to reproduce music as I hear it from the seats. There are many times when if I close my eyes, my system tricks me into believing I'm at the hall. I have been making a living as a musician and teacher for about 40 years. I am confident of my musical perception.
A Perennial Debate For Which I Seek Help
Wire, Terminations, Dielectric, Solder, in summary, the linkages in our systems, the terminals in the path. Doubting your cabling can only lead to paranoia, and thus, fearing the snub of fellow audiophiles, you shun the Tuesday night shootouts, the gatherings that once made Tuesdays better than Fridays. Please, don't shun the shootout, I know of no gathering more intoxicating. They remind us we are alive and human, no mere beast in search of flesh and sustinance alone.
My Situation - I recently had a pair of speakers upgraded with new caps, chokes, posts, wire, etc... Not until I went to install the reworked crossovers, however, did I realize how cheap the connection was at the drivers. The woofer has a small terminal board mounted on the basket where the lead wires attach to two stamped rivets. The rivets and brackets are both loose. These clips are followed by a 3" wire to the woofer, some sort of tin-coated cotton or wiring of similar texture and tensility.
As for the tweeter, one of the even smaller pins used for the lead wires snapped off. I could try to solder it back on, yet more fundamentally, with all the money spent on speaker cables, IC's, perhaps hundreds on binding posts alone, aren't these shoddy driver terminations, hidden inside the cabinet, an egregiously weak link in the chain, or am I missing something specific about this particular connection? Any insight is truly appreciated.
My Situation - I recently had a pair of speakers upgraded with new caps, chokes, posts, wire, etc... Not until I went to install the reworked crossovers, however, did I realize how cheap the connection was at the drivers. The woofer has a small terminal board mounted on the basket where the lead wires attach to two stamped rivets. The rivets and brackets are both loose. These clips are followed by a 3" wire to the woofer, some sort of tin-coated cotton or wiring of similar texture and tensility.
As for the tweeter, one of the even smaller pins used for the lead wires snapped off. I could try to solder it back on, yet more fundamentally, with all the money spent on speaker cables, IC's, perhaps hundreds on binding posts alone, aren't these shoddy driver terminations, hidden inside the cabinet, an egregiously weak link in the chain, or am I missing something specific about this particular connection? Any insight is truly appreciated.
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- 31 posts total
Thank you all for your 'spirited' commentary in response to my query. My intent was not to single out the producer of the speakers for several reasons, namely that the junction of which I speak is similar to those used by many manufacturers, both high end and budget, and secondly because the producer/designer of these speakers is a company whom I respect highly and I know them to make some of the best products in the world. It was due to the aforementioned second point that I actually anticipated somebody informing me that this last junction was not, in fact, a critical one and for that reason such a system (as previously described) of connecting the wire at the internal wire/driver interface was more than acceptable. I anticipated this despite it not adhering to solid, deductive logic (although I aim to avoid arguments of logic in this forum as they so often are devoid of the one criteria that should be utilized in such debates above all others - mathematics). The speakers are made by Audio Note, and since acquiring my first pair of their speakers, a second-hand set of AX-2's purchased on Audiogon, I have never looked back, having owned a number of their amps, preamps, and speakers, from AX2's up through AN/E's. Nothing matches the sound, and I have no reason to second-guess the practices of such an industry juggernaut, yet given the importance put upon connections, solder joints, gauge of wire, braiding and dielectric of wire, etc., it seems curious to me that the final leg of the signal's journey would be through a solder joint onto a stamped rivet attached to a small terminal board that can become loose and rickety, which then leads out into two thin wires that attach to the actual woofer. A picture of this can be seen here: Photos of woofer terminals Again, I aim not to raise the ire of fellow owners, nor that of Mr. Qvorptrup, as what I seek here is clarification of how this connection can be so seemingly modest, while the rest of the chain is scrutinized so heavily it can leave one ready to throw out their entire system if their RCA terminations are anything shy of diamond-bedecked and gold-gilded. Thank you. |
- 31 posts total