I received the new Powerline mids and Kiwame resistors. Installed the new mid in my one working (as of now) 501 speaker. I used one of my 8 ohm Klipsch Quartets (upgraded with Crites crossover and titanium tweeter) for my other channel and did a bit of listening. The Klispch has a horn midrange AND tweeter, as well as a smaller woofer, but it also has a passive backfiring woofer. Both were placed on a table in the middle of the room for a test listen. Not necessarily ideal positioning for both speakers equally.
The dip in the midrange seems gone now with the new Powerline. It was a perfect drop in replacement and I recommend this driver for anyone using this same, 6-hole rectangular horn. The Powerline seems cleaner, "bigger" and louder. I decided at this point to keep both Powerlines in the picture from here on out. They're the exact opposite of a "mushy" sounding mid and cover a
very large frequency range. I'm quite impressed with them. They're very detailed without being overly bright- I wish I could say the same for the Quartets.
After hearing this, I then installed the new Kiwame resistor in the same, working 501. It is in the direct signal path of the Powerline. At first it sounded bad, as in muffled. It's 220 ohm, just like the one I took out, but for whatever reason I had to re-adjust the speaker balance on the Proton D540 amp I'm using to get equal output from both speakers as the Klipsch is more efficient and gets louder on the volume dial quicker. After giving the Klipsch a little more de-emphasis than before, I found the perfect output balance between the two speakers once again.
I tried combos of speaker grills off/on versus one another and was surprised to find the Omega sounds better than the Quartet with its cover off and the Quartet's cover on. The Klipsch cover seems to be a dual layer job- plastic screen coated in fabric. The 501 is just fabric but also sounds a bit more muffled with it on. I'm going to re-cover the brown stretch fabric which has holes using more transparent fabric.
Even with its cover on, the Quartet is brighter, more forward and seems to be trying to push more HF information through a narrower soundfield which ends up sounding a bit muddied, busy and overly bright, but only when compared to the 501. The Klipsch has a good soundfield, but its HF information seems a bit too far forward and beamy in the center. I didn't notice this before as much when I was listening to both Quartets in stereo.
The 501 not only has better bass (more of it) but also it has more punch and definition at the very lowest frequencies compared to the Klipsch. To be fair, the Quartet could've been placed in front of a wall or in the corner for better bass and it could be using its original phenolic tweeter which might make it sound better in this comparison.
However, the 501 is not too forward or recessed sounding, but occupies a nice, comfortable middle ground. Now, I hear the mid doing the lion's share of work on the 501, whereas before I seemed to notice the bass and treble a little more. This is a good thing, because the Powerline mid, while covering a large range, is also one of the cleaner mids I've heard- especially at a higher volume, where it holds itself together much better than most. Sounds like plucks on stringed instruments and piano keys sound especially good and more lifelike than I'm used to. It seems like this piezo was almost
made to render these sounds as realistic as possible.
The sound is more spatial on the 501. Not in the sense of a bigger soundfield, but there is greater separation in between different instruments, which is odd since there's no crossover and every driver is just blending into and overlapping with one another. I hate to say it, but the Klipsch sounded a bit smeared here by comparison- mostly in the HF range, where different trebly sounds seemed a bit more undifferentiated on the Klipsch and were more muddled together.
The 501's are all-day listeners for sure. They sound very realistic and natural without trying too hard to shock or "impress" you. They just sound right. The treble energy on the 501 isn't as noticeable as before, because the mid has more output and goes right up to the tweeter with an even smoother HF blend.
These speakers look kind of cheap trying to be fancy- no insulation, plastic veneer, thinner particleboard cabinets, kind of light for their size, BUT their cabs are big and reasonably deep. I'll be selling my Quartets long before these. Of course, it helps that the Klipsch's are worth a
lot more. These ones are worth practically nothing in an amazing sounding state- aka "keepers". I do recommend the Powerline mid and resistor upgrade for anyone else with these speakers. I can't wait to refoam the other's bad woofer and get that one up to par for a proper listen.
