markshan
Sir Thrift a Lot
So, a couple years back I picked up ($15 for the pair at the thrift) a real "sleeper" pair of speakers, the Technics SB-L200. After replacing the speaker terminals (a broken representation of an ill-conceived design), they have been my daily drivers since. I've always liked them, but never loved them.
One thing with these speakers is the time alignment. It really seems to help the imaging. Technics did this with a staggered driver approach.
Note the foam on the "deck" between the woofer and mid. That foam rots and most people seem to just run them without the foam. At least that seems to be the case based on Google image searches. So I put them in place and didn't give it any more thought.
Recently my daughter was cleaning out her closet and was throwing out a knee brace from an old sprain. I looked at it and it was primarily a quarter inch of foam with a thin felt layer laminated on top to keep the whole thing together. I don't know why, but as soon as I saw it, I thought of my Phase-Linears. I grabbed them from her trash bag and cut away a strip from each. I then cut it to size and simply laid it on that deck. It is just the right thickness so that it wedges ever so slightly between the deck and the mid. It's not going anywhere.
Well, I guess the engineers at Technics knew what they were doing when they put that foam on initially. This one tiny mod took these speakers from a strong 7 to an 8.5. There had always been an upper male/lower female range "funkiness" that while not a deal breaker, had been slightly bothersome. That strip of foam seems to have completely corrected the issue. I wish I had done this back when I first got them.
Moral of the story; If you are one of those people who just scraped the glue off that deck and used them, go get a piece of foam. You will be amazed at the difference it makes.
One thing with these speakers is the time alignment. It really seems to help the imaging. Technics did this with a staggered driver approach.
Note the foam on the "deck" between the woofer and mid. That foam rots and most people seem to just run them without the foam. At least that seems to be the case based on Google image searches. So I put them in place and didn't give it any more thought.
Recently my daughter was cleaning out her closet and was throwing out a knee brace from an old sprain. I looked at it and it was primarily a quarter inch of foam with a thin felt layer laminated on top to keep the whole thing together. I don't know why, but as soon as I saw it, I thought of my Phase-Linears. I grabbed them from her trash bag and cut away a strip from each. I then cut it to size and simply laid it on that deck. It is just the right thickness so that it wedges ever so slightly between the deck and the mid. It's not going anywhere.
Well, I guess the engineers at Technics knew what they were doing when they put that foam on initially. This one tiny mod took these speakers from a strong 7 to an 8.5. There had always been an upper male/lower female range "funkiness" that while not a deal breaker, had been slightly bothersome. That strip of foam seems to have completely corrected the issue. I wish I had done this back when I first got them.
Moral of the story; If you are one of those people who just scraped the glue off that deck and used them, go get a piece of foam. You will be amazed at the difference it makes.
