D
djmika
Guest
I was reading through a previous thread about tweaks to the Aerius and wanted to throw my 2 cents in. I just did the same few mods on my speakers but with a slightly different approach.
First, I bypassed the Barrier-strip connection to the panel which everyone does. Nothing bad can possibly come from getting that out of the circuit.
Most importantly, I did the capacitor more as well but here are a couple of things those who are modding Logans might find handy...
The values on both the Aerius and the Aerius i are the same. It appears that the original used one more lytic cap where the i model went to a mylar in it's place. At any rate, the three important caps are the 22uf, the 33uf and the 10uf.
The Aerius I used the 22uf was a Bennic Mylar cap. Fair quality, but not great. The 33 is a lytic which is junk and it is bypassed by a 10uf Solen. All three are directly in line with the panel and none is more important than the other. Unless I'm missing something (which I can say with a good amount of certainty that I'm not) it's a 3rd order high-pass.
In essence what you have is a 22uf and a 43uf in line. With that in mind, you can create those values however you wish. I spent a few more bucks on my mods than did others. Here's how I got to the values:
The 22uf Mylar Bennic was replaced by a 15uf Solen bypassed by a 7uf Hovland Musicap. The Original 33uf Lytic & 10uf Solen were replaced by a 35uf Solen & a 8uf Hovland Musicap.
When bypassing a cap, the higher percentage of value you dedicate to the greater quality cap, the better. In other words, a 40uf Solen bypassed by a 3uf Hovland would basically be a far less effective mod than the 35uf Solen and the 8uf Hovland. Beware though, the Hovlands (and other good caps) get real costly as their values increase.
Obviously there are several options as far as what brands you chose. The Hovlands are great but each one was over $35 so this was not an inexpensive mod. They are also very large... They will not fit on the factory boards.
To solve the size problem, I bought 2 perf-boards from Radioshack and glued the 4 new caps to it. I then soldered the leads as necessary for the Hovlands to bypass the Solens and attached about 18 inches of wire to each of the 4 leads. I then removed the existing caps and soldered the leads in their place. I mounted the new boards to the inside wall of the cabinets.
The silicon drying was the most time consuming part of the project. Actually doing the work took less than 2 hours.
Now for the result...
Basically everything improved from 450hz up. (I didn't do any bypass caps on the woofer circuit seeing as how the percentages would have been small and nothing is directly in line anyway) The highs are far more extended and smooth than before which was my main goal. Along with that, the speakers are far more transparent. Center image is locked in, far less hazy than before. Midrange has more texture and detail. All of the harshness I heard before is now gone. I'm thrilled with the result and feel like I got my money's worth.
There are ways to spend less and go to less trouble than I did, but remember that all three of the caps you see in the original circuit are directly in line with the panel and all are equally important. Mix and match however you like as long as you end up with collective values of 22uf and 43uf. This is a great mod and I reccomend it to anyone with electronics/soldering experience. Just don't shock yourself on the circuit that charges the stators. That wouln't be good at all.
If anyone has questions that I could answer about what I've done, I'd be happy to help. You can e-mail me directly at [email protected].
Happy Listning!
First, I bypassed the Barrier-strip connection to the panel which everyone does. Nothing bad can possibly come from getting that out of the circuit.
Most importantly, I did the capacitor more as well but here are a couple of things those who are modding Logans might find handy...
The values on both the Aerius and the Aerius i are the same. It appears that the original used one more lytic cap where the i model went to a mylar in it's place. At any rate, the three important caps are the 22uf, the 33uf and the 10uf.
The Aerius I used the 22uf was a Bennic Mylar cap. Fair quality, but not great. The 33 is a lytic which is junk and it is bypassed by a 10uf Solen. All three are directly in line with the panel and none is more important than the other. Unless I'm missing something (which I can say with a good amount of certainty that I'm not) it's a 3rd order high-pass.
In essence what you have is a 22uf and a 43uf in line. With that in mind, you can create those values however you wish. I spent a few more bucks on my mods than did others. Here's how I got to the values:
The 22uf Mylar Bennic was replaced by a 15uf Solen bypassed by a 7uf Hovland Musicap. The Original 33uf Lytic & 10uf Solen were replaced by a 35uf Solen & a 8uf Hovland Musicap.
When bypassing a cap, the higher percentage of value you dedicate to the greater quality cap, the better. In other words, a 40uf Solen bypassed by a 3uf Hovland would basically be a far less effective mod than the 35uf Solen and the 8uf Hovland. Beware though, the Hovlands (and other good caps) get real costly as their values increase.
Obviously there are several options as far as what brands you chose. The Hovlands are great but each one was over $35 so this was not an inexpensive mod. They are also very large... They will not fit on the factory boards.
To solve the size problem, I bought 2 perf-boards from Radioshack and glued the 4 new caps to it. I then soldered the leads as necessary for the Hovlands to bypass the Solens and attached about 18 inches of wire to each of the 4 leads. I then removed the existing caps and soldered the leads in their place. I mounted the new boards to the inside wall of the cabinets.
The silicon drying was the most time consuming part of the project. Actually doing the work took less than 2 hours.
Now for the result...
Basically everything improved from 450hz up. (I didn't do any bypass caps on the woofer circuit seeing as how the percentages would have been small and nothing is directly in line anyway) The highs are far more extended and smooth than before which was my main goal. Along with that, the speakers are far more transparent. Center image is locked in, far less hazy than before. Midrange has more texture and detail. All of the harshness I heard before is now gone. I'm thrilled with the result and feel like I got my money's worth.
There are ways to spend less and go to less trouble than I did, but remember that all three of the caps you see in the original circuit are directly in line with the panel and all are equally important. Mix and match however you like as long as you end up with collective values of 22uf and 43uf. This is a great mod and I reccomend it to anyone with electronics/soldering experience. Just don't shock yourself on the circuit that charges the stators. That wouln't be good at all.
If anyone has questions that I could answer about what I've done, I'd be happy to help. You can e-mail me directly at [email protected].
Happy Listning!
