vivek.saikia
Active Member
Hi All,
Finally, the DIYer inside me woke up and laid it's hand on my Sony speakers.
I just wanted to see what is inside this speaker and finally ended up modding the speaker to sound relatively better. Sharing the pictures here in the forum for the ones who finds the dismantling stimulating
I opened up the outer plastic cover of the speaker. The plastic cover was glued to the faceplate which was again made of thick plastic. Cheap material everywhere. Once the outer plastic cover was out, revealed the four eyed ugly monster in front me.
I unscrewed the woofer from it's plastic faceplate and there awaited a shocking revelation for me. There is no crossover in this speaker and the mid frequency driver was being fed the full frequency sound. I guess that explains a lot about the boominess of these speakers. Only the tweeters were having electrolytic capacitors connected in parallel to the tweeters, to act as high pass filter.
The cabinet is made up of particle board. Not the best material for speakers, but again it comes cheaper than MDF boards.
After removing the woofer, I stuffed the cabinet with polyfill fibre material generously (obtained the polyfill fibre from an old kurl-on pillow
).
Have a look at the woofer. A cheap driver which is made in Malaysia. Also have a look what the basket is made up of. Thin sheet of tin stamped into the basket shape. Really poor material.
I never had imagined that this speaker contains five drivers! one woofer, three tweeters and one super tweeter. After looking at the quality of the tweeters I knew whom to blame for the shrillness in the sound.
The secret behind the super tweeter - Cheap piezo speaker, which in my opinion produces the worst higher frequency response. Shame on Sony for using such cheap components.
Finally, I applied some mobil oil on the cone of the tweeters. Idea was to reduce the mid frequency interferences by loading.
After all these operations I covered the outer plastic cover back to the speaker.
Now was the time for the real outcome, the sound. I connected these speakers to my NAD amp and played the track Electric Six - Dance pattern. The immidiate thing which I noticed was that the boominess in the sound was reduced to a large extent. The bass was there but in a very controlled manner and was not wandering around uncontrolled. The shrillness was also gone to a considerable extent and the high frequencies sounded relatively softer.
So, after all these surgery on the speakers, the sound really improved relatively. The mid frequency response was improved but wasn't near to what I would call good (blame it on the cheap woofer).
So, at the loss of an old pillow and some sweat, I am listening to a sound which is relatively better than the pre modding sound. Wasn't a bad experiment at all. :clapping::clapping:
PS: Please note that this post should not be considered in anyway as an instructible. I have done this out of my sheer craziness and interest towards music. Any damage caused by following my actions would be entirely the responsibility of the person and I am in no way to be blamed.
hyeah:
Cheers!
Vivek
Finally, the DIYer inside me woke up and laid it's hand on my Sony speakers.
I just wanted to see what is inside this speaker and finally ended up modding the speaker to sound relatively better. Sharing the pictures here in the forum for the ones who finds the dismantling stimulating
I opened up the outer plastic cover of the speaker. The plastic cover was glued to the faceplate which was again made of thick plastic. Cheap material everywhere. Once the outer plastic cover was out, revealed the four eyed ugly monster in front me.
I unscrewed the woofer from it's plastic faceplate and there awaited a shocking revelation for me. There is no crossover in this speaker and the mid frequency driver was being fed the full frequency sound. I guess that explains a lot about the boominess of these speakers. Only the tweeters were having electrolytic capacitors connected in parallel to the tweeters, to act as high pass filter.
The cabinet is made up of particle board. Not the best material for speakers, but again it comes cheaper than MDF boards.
After removing the woofer, I stuffed the cabinet with polyfill fibre material generously (obtained the polyfill fibre from an old kurl-on pillow
). 
Have a look at the woofer. A cheap driver which is made in Malaysia. Also have a look what the basket is made up of. Thin sheet of tin stamped into the basket shape. Really poor material.
I never had imagined that this speaker contains five drivers! one woofer, three tweeters and one super tweeter. After looking at the quality of the tweeters I knew whom to blame for the shrillness in the sound.
The secret behind the super tweeter - Cheap piezo speaker, which in my opinion produces the worst higher frequency response. Shame on Sony for using such cheap components.
Finally, I applied some mobil oil on the cone of the tweeters. Idea was to reduce the mid frequency interferences by loading.
After all these operations I covered the outer plastic cover back to the speaker.
Now was the time for the real outcome, the sound. I connected these speakers to my NAD amp and played the track Electric Six - Dance pattern. The immidiate thing which I noticed was that the boominess in the sound was reduced to a large extent. The bass was there but in a very controlled manner and was not wandering around uncontrolled. The shrillness was also gone to a considerable extent and the high frequencies sounded relatively softer.
So, after all these surgery on the speakers, the sound really improved relatively. The mid frequency response was improved but wasn't near to what I would call good (blame it on the cheap woofer).
So, at the loss of an old pillow and some sweat, I am listening to a sound which is relatively better than the pre modding sound. Wasn't a bad experiment at all. :clapping::clapping:
PS: Please note that this post should not be considered in anyway as an instructible. I have done this out of my sheer craziness and interest towards music. Any damage caused by following my actions would be entirely the responsibility of the person and I am in no way to be blamed.
hyeah: Cheers!
Vivek
Last edited:
).... for the Sony tapedeck, integrated amplifier and SS-S-440 speaker pair.
