ar.com modification questions

[knac67]

I have built the Ar.com speakers and as they break in I love them more and more. I have auditioned speakers from three internet companies and four others from the local stores and they cannot beat these speakers in overall sound (Even at four times the price).
The only thing that I could hope for is more "punch" from them. Would a sealed box be a benefit? If so, would there have to be any adjustments in the crossover?
. If I could get this speaker in a MTM design..I believe I would be done with speaker shopping for some time.

Once again, Thank you Ed Frias for the design of these speakers They will be the speakers that I compare all others to.

Thank you everybody for their feedback!
Chris

Ps. If anyone has a suggestion for a good center channel match or has a revised crossover for my Pinnacle 5.5( dialog is hard to hear at low volumes)..please let me know

[kexodusc]

I have built the Ar.com speakers and as they break in I love them more and more. I have auditioned speakers from three internet companies and four others from the local stores and they cannot beat these speakers in overall sound (Even at four times the price).
The only thing that I could hope for is more "punch" from them. Would a sealed box be a benefit? If so, would there have to be any adjustments in the crossover?
. If I could get this speaker in a MTM design..I believe I would be done with speaker shopping for some time.

Once again, Thank you Ed Frias for the design of these speakers They will be the speakers that I compare all others to.

Thank you everybody for their feedback!
Chris

Ps. If anyone has a suggestion for a good center channel match or has a revised crossover for my Pinnacle 5.5( dialog is hard to hear at low volumes)..please let me know

knac67: To add more punch to the bass, you might try toying with the amount of polyfill you include in the cabinet, or increase the cabinets volume. However, I expect this would have other side-effects, particularly in the midrange (which I feel is this speaker's strongest feature). Your best bet is to add a subwoofer.

FWIW, I get great bass response into the mid 40's in my room before a rather fast drop off, but there are very few musical passages where this becomes a problem. I've replaced my Paradigm Studio 40's and 20's with these and I absolutely love them.

For a matching center channel, look no further than the BIC America DV-62CLRS. You can buy this speaker dirt cheap (under $200) directly from Ed Frias, extensively modified with a whole new crossover, measured and matched drivers, and a few other tweaks. The voicing is a really great match to the DIY's. I recently purchased 2 for myself and my cousin, and we compared these to his Paradigm Monitor 5's. You will be incredibly surprised at how good these things sound. Not as good as the DIY's, but much better than the price suggest...Read my reviews on these compared to both the Monitor 5's and CC-370 from Paradigm. The DV62CLRS is a bit ugly, so I'm going to build a new cabinet for it, but other than that it's a steal.

Note, I can't comment on the non-modified, stock version of the BIC DV-62CLRS because I haven't heard it, but I'm told it's got some issues with brightness and in the midrange.

To my knowledge, nobody's come up with a suitable xo for the MTM version of this speaker, which really would require some work. Not sure the added performance would be worth the cost, either. Let me know if you find one though.

Good luck.

[MCH]

'..... If I could get this speaker in a MTM design....

I made a center channel with the AR.com design in the MTM configuration. I used some Peerless shielded speakers (but if you don't need the shielded speakers, use the same speakers as in the kit). I was very happy with the sound results in my complete set of 5 AR.com diys. I think if you're finding the bass on the weak side it's because you have over stuffed them. When I measured mine, the bass didn't drop off until about 38hz in my room setup. Which is very good for a speaker of this size. But a good sub can't be beat for a good bass response. I built a 15" Tempest Octagon that integrated very well with my system.
For the design in the MTM I built, do a search for MCH. You may have to go into the archives; I'm not sure if it's still in the active part.
Good luck

[knac67]

I have just removed the 4 pieces of foam that was included in the kit and replaced them with polyfil..The bass is much stronger. I still enjoy the soundstage and the ability to play louder of the mtm design. Is there a way you could locate the plan and crossover you used for your mtm? The search engine is this forum will not let me search for words under four letters. Thank you for your reply!!!
Chris

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I have just removed the 4 pieces of foam that was included in the kit and replaced them with polyfil..The bass is much stronger. I still enjoy the soundstage and the ability to play louder of the mtm design. Is there a way you could locate the plan and crossover you used for your mtm? The search engine is this forum will not let me search for words under four letters. Thank you for your reply!!!
Chris

Here are a couple of posts by MCH I found that may help.

First

Second

[MCH]

Use the "Advanved Search Button". In the "Search by User Name" type in MCH. That will get to the posts I responded to. You'll come across posts that will direct you to pics of my speakers. You may find these interesting. They are not the usual box design.

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MCH, I saw the pics of your speakers too when I was searching your posts... pretty amazing. I was awe-struck.