Not The ProAc Forum But...

Posted by: Greg Beatty on 18 December 2001

...I have a question for those in the know regarding ProAcs.

I'm currently running a pair of ProAc Response 2 speakers - these are the original Response 2 - not the 2's' that came a bit later. I'm running these on Atlantis stands (made in Canada ) that are about 1/3 way filled with lead shot.

Anyway, my complaint is about a boxy honking effect to the midrange and vocals in particular.

Is this typical of this speaker? Is there a mod or tweak that fixes this? I suspect it is a box resonance thing but am really not sure. I also have coins between the speakers and stands at the moment and preferred this to the standard blu-tak setup.

All help appreciated.

- GregB

Insert Witty Signature Line Here

Posted on: 21 December 2001 by Top Cat

Having hooked up the Petites (mkIII) to my girlfriend's Nait-2 (chrome style), whilst it drives them it doesn't have enough juice to really do them justice - the Petites like to be spanked by a dominating amplifier, and good though the Nait-2 is, it isn't quite stern enough to discipline the Neats.

Disagree totally about a previous poster's experience with the Petites, but then my pair were Neat's ex-demo pair and so I expect they'd have been run in long before I ever got them. No problems at all with them, in some ways they are the most open speaker I've yet heard, and are anything but 'hard' in the treble.

How were they setup? What kit was further upstream? How about positioning? Bearing in mind that they do like a dominatrix d'amplifieur, perhaps your amplifier (and this isn't a dig, as I have no idea which amp you have) is a bit, ahem, limp... ???

TC '..'
"Girl, you thought he was a man, but he was a Muffin..."

Posted on: 21 December 2001 by Greg Beatty

Last nite I ventured into changing the setup of my ProAcs. Only took a few minutes.

1) Loosened the driver bolts and re-tightened to less than Linn-tight,

2) replaced spikes between stands and speakers with Blu-Tak, and...drumroll please...

3) biwired.

Did everything but replace the lead in the stands with sand.

The biwiring was easy as I had a second set of wires sitting around from a previous four-speaker setup.

I checked for differences at each step and the big change came with biwiring. Better dynamics, more open sound, cleaner and deeper bass, clearer highs, better imaging and things sound more 'real'. Helped with vocals too. The music just flows and kicks more freely. Ended up listening to music an hour longer than intended.

I searched the forum for biwire notes and was reminded that Naim do not recommend biwiring with their amplification. Don't know the verdict with Naim amps and speakers like ProAc that like biwiring.

And let me extend thanks here to Naim for allowing this very non-Naim thread to be. This is the best place for exchange of audio info on the net

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Posted on: 27 December 2001 by airness

quote:
Originally posted by Tony Lonorgan:

I think Neat Petites, definitely not Dynaudios. The Neats have really impressed me when ever I have heard them, they have a lot of Kan traits (fast, tight, tuneful, fun), but are probably much better balanced tonally. I have never used a pair at home (yet!), so there are plenty of questions left unanswered, especially in the area of efficiency / amp requirement. Kans work quite happily with my 20wpc Nait 2, I am not convinced the Neats would. Royds deserve serious attention too.
To my mind Dynaudios are a completely different thing, perhaps better looked at as a slightly better ProAc rather than a worse Kan. The Dynaudios use the reflex port as a method for boosting the bottom end, and IMHO this is audible in a negative way, the Neats use their port just to reduce pressure in the cabinet, not for boost. As such the Neats seem to play bass pretty much like a sealed box speaker. Do a search on my name plus 'port' to see how much I love bass reflex designs! I am not a massive Dynaudio fan at all.
Tony.

Tony,

So if I put the foam plugs back into my Dynaudio, will it get the effect of a non-ported speaker?

Posted on: 27 December 2001 by Tony L

quote:
So if I put the foam plugs back into my Dynaudio, will it get the effect of a non-ported speaker?

Probably not. I remember stuffing some socks up the ports of my ProAcs at one point to see if it helped, but it had the reverse effect and just lost a lot of what they did well. Speaker design is way more complex than that unfortunately.

Tony.

Posted on: 27 December 2001 by Dev B

Airness,

Avoid socks but experiment with straws. Get a bunch together to fill the diameter of the offending port in question. Tie together with a rubber band, put in the port. Now experiment with the length of straws (cut off the length) and listen. It works. and I used this technique very sucessfully when I mucked around with ported speakers in my mispent youth (Rogers LS2a/2, Epos ES11, Epos ES14). It can tame and tune the dreaded ported bass that we all hate.

regards

Dev

ps. You can experiment with felt around a tweeter to change it's behaviour. It's amazing how changing the treble affects the bass. Active users know all about this I would imagine!

Posted on: 27 December 2001 by Justin

I'm now increasingly suspicious of loudpseakers with ports. Having lived for 8 years with a sealed box speaker, I switched to a pair of proac monitors and them them generally pretty good on balance. But having lived these past 6 months with sbl's, I can't get any other speaker to sound as good in the bass. Always boomy.

BTW, anybody familiar with the mordaunt short line. My best friend in high school had a pair of stand mounted two way monitors which had threaded bottoms for direct coupling to ther dedicated stands. The mid/bass driver was a kind of bluish-grey color and it was protected by a "posatech" driver protection circuit. Can anybody identify these speakers from that. I remember these sounding quite good.

Judd

Posted on: 27 December 2001 by Martin Payne

quote:
Originally posted by Dev B:
Airness,
Now experiment with the length of straws (cut off the length) and listen. It works. and I used this technique very sucessfully when I mucked around with ported speakers in my mispent youth (Rogers LS2a/2, Epos ES11, Epos ES14). It can tame and tune the dreaded ported bass that we all hate.

Dev,

it is also worth experimenting with different diameter straws.

Larger diameter is more similar to the open port sound.

cheers, Martin

Posted on: 27 December 2001 by airness

quote:
Originally posted by Dev B:
Airness,
Avoid socks but experiment with straws. Get a bunch together to fill the diameter of the offending port in question. Tie together with a rubber band, put in the port. Now experiment with the length of straws (cut off the length) and listen. It works. and I used this technique very sucessfully when I mucked around with ported speakers in my mispent youth (Rogers LS2a/2, Epos ES11, Epos ES14). It can tame and tune the dreaded ported bass that we all hate.
regards
Dev
ps. You can experiment with felt around a tweeter to change it's behaviour. It's amazing how changing the treble affects the bass. Active users know all about this I would imagine!

Dev,

Thanks for the advice. I am already using straws to tame a little of the boominess. However, I have not experimenting the different length. I will try it during the holidays.

Cheers,