Dennis Murphy Pioneer SP-BS22-LR DIY Modifications

I thought I'd bump this thread as I'm considering these speakers and mod. It's something I could tackle, and these little Pioneers do get lots of praise for the price. I've been watching Amazon for price drops without success though. Yesterday they went from $129 to $99, but they are back up to 129 today. I'm hoping Black Friday will help. Any thoughts?
 
Fry, BB, and Amazon. Watch and wait . Picked mine up for $77.00 P T.
 
runnin' check out... www dot camelcamelcamel dot com for THE best way to monitor Amazon pricing. :rockon: :deal: :beerchug:
 
I dont have the pioneer speakers.. but after reading this thread, i feel compelled to start looking for a good deal.
 
I really do love my partially modified (No Crossover Mod) Pioneer BS22 speakers, which I will never get rid off it.

Also they look great with new color, I'm paring them with Denon PMA2000MK-IV, TEAC TN-300, Marantz CD5001 & Macbook Pro for HiRes files.

A few pictures of my BS22 inside and after new color.









 
Nice pics! I can see it's not too hard to mod the crossover, but the color change may be too much for me.
 
Very interesting thread. I would never use "universal component board" for crossovers though. Just hot melt glue the components to a piece of Masonite and hard wire them.

Lee.
 
Very interesting thread. I would never use "universal component board" for crossovers though. Just hot melt glue the components to a piece of Masonite and hard wire them.

Lee.

Any technical reason not to use a universal component board for a crossover, or is it just a cost issue? If it's the latter, they were $3.49 each at my local Radio Shack. So, it's not like they broke the bank. I've done it both ways, but in this case the universal PCP was a good fit size wise and resulted in a very clean solution.
 
I really do love my partially modified (No Crossover Mod) Pioneer BS22 speakers, which I will never get rid off it.

Also they look great with new color, I'm paring them with Denon PMA2000MK-IV, TEAC TN-300, Marantz CD5001 & Macbook Pro for HiRes files.

A few pictures of my BS22 inside and after new color.










You've already put a lot of work into these little speakers, and seem to have the skills necessary to do the job. I urge you to try swapping the tweeters with the full crossover mod. It really does make a difference in the sound. Not that they sound bad in unmodded form, but the Vifa tweeter and Dennis' crossover take them to another level of refinement.
 
Any technical reason not to use a universal component board for a crossover, or is it just a cost issue? If it's the latter, they were $3.49 each at my local Radio Shack. So, it's not like they broke the bank. I've done it both ways, but in this case the universal PCP was a good fit size wise and resulted in a very clean solution.

It depends. Are you using much of the copper tracks? At higher power, peaks of several amps might be flowing through here, maybe more?

Lee.
 
You've already put a lot of work into these little speakers, and seem to have the skills necessary to do the job. I urge you to try swapping the tweeters with the full crossover mod. It really does make a difference in the sound. Not that they sound bad in unmodded form, but the Vifa tweeter and Dennis' crossover take them to another level of refinement.

Yes, I will try full Dennis Murphy mod when I have more time, thanks
 
Well I picked up a pair of the Pioneers, and they really are a nice speaker. When I think of the old budget line by Paradigm, the Titans, the Atoms and Phantoms, those old speakers had laughable cabinets and crossovers, and went for about $200 and up. The Pioneers have a much better cabinet and crossover. The old Paradigms went with a cast, not stamped driver, but the sound quality is MUCH better on the Pioneers.

I notice that the highs can get a bit sharp when cranked up, and the imaging though good, is not as precise as my $600 Tannoys. I'll do the mod in a couple of months or so, and see what improvements it makes in these areas. But so far, I just love these speakers! Powered with a Nad c326BEE, they are quite nice. I've got about 30 hours on them so far, not sure if they break in somewhat or not. I had some Totems that would actually distort until broken in according to Totem specs. We'll see, but the Pioneers sounded good out of the box.
 
i have pioneer bs 21 on desktop, looking for upgrade. should i mod mine or buy bs 22 and modify or elac b4? heard bs 21 midrange is better than bs 22..ideas? Thanks!
 
Thanks MCM for the plans and the tutorial.

I have a pair of these speakers and I think I'll do the mod. But if I go with a point-to-point crossover with a 1.5mH inductor should I still use a 20 AWG or would I be better off with an 18 AWG? Or another AWG?

Anyone?
 
OK. Whatever.

I've ordered my parts and I'll skip 1.5mH inductor. Since we know that DM's original design works great I'll wire the old and new inductors in a series and I'll just make them both fit on my point to point board.
 
Thanks MCM for the plans and the tutorial.

I have a pair of these speakers and I think I'll do the mod. But if I go with a point-to-point crossover with a 1.5mH inductor should I still use a 20 AWG or would I be better off with an 18 AWG? Or another AWG?

Anyone?

I'm not an expert in crossover design. I know which end of a soldering iron is which, but I leave the design to the pros like Dennis Murphy.

That said, I would think you'd want to stick with 20 AWG for the inductor to keep the DC resistance the same. Changing from 20 AWG to 18AWG would reduce the DC resistance, but I don't know if it would have a significant impact on the crossover frequency

One thing I do know is that reusing the stock inductor paired with the 0.5mH air core inductor (Parts Express PN 255-036) will save you a couple bucks per speaker. The 0.5mH inductors are less expensive than 1.5mH to begin with, plus by using two of the 0.5mH inductors per crossover (one in the woofer circuit and one in the tweeter circuit), you qualify for a quantity discount from Parts Express. It's not a big deal, but it helps keep the costs down a little.

Of course, you'll save more by hard wiring your crossovers instead of using the perf board approach. So, it's all relative.
 
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