Dennis Murphy Pioneer SP-BS22-LR DIY Modifications

Not to be a buzz kill on this thread but I've had these stock for 6 months on two amps. I see no need to mod. But that's just me.

I'm with you, but I had some extra parts...

I had the Ascend Sierra 1, and just bought and installed the Sierra 2 upgrade kit. So I had an extra pair of excellent tweeters, crossovers and woofers and I remembered about the Pioneer ugrade thread. Long story short, I installed the Seas tweeters and it was a perfect drop in replacement! It sounded a bit off though.

So I removed the stock Pioneer crossover and also installed the Sierra 1 crossover that goes with the tweeter. I figured that since the stock Pioneer woofer was crossed over at 3000 Hz, it could also handle a lower crossover point( like, no duh). Also, since both speakers are quite close in sensitivity(86.5 to 85) it would be worth it to experiment with this frankenspeaker. And the results are an improvement for sure. Piano sounds nicer and imaging is improved with those nice tweeters.

Does anybody see any concerns?
 
I did the mod, following MCM's directions, about a year ago. I have had these in my garage powered by a diy amp based on TPA3118, TDA7498, and TA2020 since. All sound great on low to medium volume (these are not so great as to power handling), the mods are a definite improvement over stock. The sound is more natural and balanced. The stock Pioneer's have a definite "boomy" bass thing going to appeal to the Bose crowd, if you like that characteristic of the speakers, then the mod is not for you. Dennis Murphy does some great work, I heard his Philharmonic speakers at the Capital Audio Show a few years back. I bet the current Affordable Audio speakers he is selling are heavy hitters, I'd get them if I didn't already have like 20 pair of speakers cooking away in my attic. Those are reported to have far better power handling and if he says they are better than the Pioneers, then that's a fact.
 
Awesome find. I have downloaded and archived for posterity. I forgot to mention that I also bypassed all the caps with .1uF film and foils from Dayton and puttied up the stamped frame woofer. Really enjoy these, especially with the TPA3118 mono amp.
 
So you were involved in the Minimus 7 crossover mod way back? Congratulations on a great job. I installed that crossover into a pair of Minimus 77s that were my workshop standard for years, just recently replaced by the Pioneers. The mod sounds great on the 77s (at least my version of them, apparently there were several of the 7s and other similar speakers), I plan on taking some measurements someday.
 
Here’s a little update for anyone interested in the Andrew Jones pioneer line. I recently purchased another pair of the bs22 on sale, and the fs52 and c22 center as well.

I found a thread at audiocircle on these speakers in which two Dennis Murphy mods is discussed. The lessor known one is to install the same vita/peerless tweeter, but with just a 3.9 uf cap on the positive side of the tweeter at the crossover.

I did this with the center(c22) and also installed some one inch sonic barrier, parts express sells all of this stuff.

Anyway, with the tweeter, cap and sonic barrier, the center performance is markedly better. Previously the cabinet verberations affected clarity and the dialogue at times. Also the stock tweeter can be a little inexact with some music I’ve noticed.

So I did the tweeter cap thing with the fs52’s as well. But no barrier as I didn’t have enough. The better tweeter does make itself known, but I think the towers could still benefit from added sound damping.

Still, improved sound for sure and the center’s 4” drivers are so ideal for dialogue. I’ve owned 3 other centers and bigger woofers tend to add a sense of bass to voices that dont belong. maybe more expensive drivers don’t do this, but the $350 and under centers I’ve owned are not perfectly neutral, or at least Paradigm centers from a decade ago have this weakness.

The 4 inch drivers in the C22 are really something. Only weakness is the 90 watt rating, but I’m fine with it with my 150 wpc Denon AVR. At my seating distance of 12 feet, 70 decibels for typical dialogue is plenty loud, and at that level the C22 is probably seeing a watt or two except for action scenes.

Also, I prefer the bs22 for music over the fs52. Weird but true, the tower has a little haziness in the upper mids to lower tweeter range, but of course goes lower than the bookshelf model. Too bad they couldn’t have used the 4 inch mid in the tower, thuogh what I’m hearing might have been aleveated with a more expensive crossover network, something that just couldn’t happen at the price point Pioneer was working with.

Also, some say the Elac stuff is better at higher prices. That may well be true, but the very nice curved cabinets of the Pioneers is not matched by anything out there anywhere near the price. Edited to add: If Pioneer upgraded the color, improved the tweeter and cabinet damping, they could call the whole line Version 2 and easily add $50-75 to the retail price. I should call them!
 
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These are on sale again for $58 at Frys. I have really enjoyed these over the years with the Dennis Murphy mod, which is essential. An absolute bargain of a speaker for under $150.

https://slickdeals.net/f/12465853-p...hipping-using-sunday-promo-code?src=frontpage

I have since sold off all the pairs I modified, but sit here less than a mile from my local Fry's thinking these (modified, of course) would make a wonderful gift Christmas gift for a dear friend of mine...
 
Does anyone sell a knockoff of the Radio Shack 276-168 PC board? Those things were pretty handy. Wish I had stockpiled some before RS went kaput.
 
Does anyone sell a knockoff of the Radio Shack 276-168 PC board? Those things were pretty handy. Wish I had stockpiled some before RS went kaput.

Stores might be scarce (gone?)
They may still be available online.
There are other sources for that stuff.
 
I'm not sure what's unique about those.
If you Google breadboard you'll get a bunch of hits.
You should be able to find something similar
 
Having the boards does make the process easier. I believe they may stll be available at the RS site, believe I have seen them on eBay also.
 
Here is the BOM that is no longer showing. MY PE order was $65 total, but did not include the board, obviously. I see I paid $2 more back in 2015 for the tweeters. I think about $70 in parts for the pair would be a reasonable estimate.
 

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I got my perf boards from MCM electronics, appeared to be same as RS boards. Try a search on MCM web site.
 
Excellent! Well done... I haven't finished reading the entire thing, but it looks great and I'm sure everyone will appreciate the work you put into it. :thmbsp:

Seconded.

So, @MCM_Fan:

These Pioneer SP-BS22-LR -- can I drive 'em w/ a USB connection? Kidding, of course, but if I could... well, then I'd likely opt in for a pair.
 
Seconded.

So, @MCM_Fan:

These Pioneer SP-BS22-LR -- can I drive 'em w/ a USB connection? Kidding, of course, but if I could... well, then I'd likely opt in for a pair.

I just went back and fixed all the broken image links - again. At least I think I did. If I missed any, let me know.
 

I ended up using generic boards and jumpering as appropriate when I built my last batch of these, but the specced boards would have been useful. I can concur that it’s a lot easier to just follow mcm_fan’s excellent directions.

Thanks for posting.
 
can I use 8ohm version of this tweeter (VIFA BC25TG15-08) ?
Coz this is wat I get in my country, else I need to import it from parts express.
 
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