Dismantling Wharfedale Diamond 8.2 speakers

[omishra]

If you think the cabinet is leaky, you can use hot glue to seal the edges. Do it from inside due to obvious reasons. Cheap hot glue gun costs less than 200/- and each stick is less than 10/-. This is such a useful item in the household that you will end up using it for a million other things.

+1 to that. I have glue gun which cost Rs 350 on SP Road when I lived in Bangalore.

 

[vivek.saikia]

vivek

you probably like the sound now. No doubting that

but what you have done ( by increasing the polyfill/dacron) is basically changed the enclosure characteristics (something contrary to what the original designer had envisaged when these speakers were designed and tested)

im pretty sure the mids have changed.Debatable for the better or worse ( though you have found what your looking for at the lower freq spectrum im pretty sure something is lost in the mids and upper mids)

There is another easier way to remove the boom (extended bass notes ) if you do not like the way it sounds
Stuff an old sock into the port ( some speakers even provide port fillers for this purpose keeping in mind different audiences)
This tweak doesnt change characteristics of the speaker mids


however i do encourage and respect your DIY route.You always learn something.
Keep it up.

yes, the SQ has definitely changed after stuffing. And in my case it was for good. I am a firm believer that not all systems are perfect and there is a fair deal of improvements possible.
In my case, the speakers had a considerable bump in the lower mid region. The resulting sound frequency response was definitely non linear. The stuffing helped in suppressing that hump and hence made the freq response more or less linear. The midrange become much cleaner.

 

[omishra]

yes, the SQ has definitely changed after stuffing. And in my case it was for good. I am a firm believer that not all systems are perfect and there is a fair deal of improvements possible.
In my case, the speakers had a considerable bump in the lower mid region. The resulting sound frequency response was definitely non linear. The stuffing helped in suppressing that hump and hence made the freq response more or less linear. The midrange become much cleaner.

Yesterday, I got hands on Wharfedale Diamond 9.2 (purchased from fellow member). After my initial listening, they too suffer from same effect. Bass is like boom-boom and intruding to mids. I connected to TRIPATH TA2022 based 100+100W amp, sourced input from monitor out of Panna Plasma. Even human voices are sounding like spoken into boxes. Specially channel ads like 'Discovery Turbo'.

I will give more attention after I add stands + neutral DIY speaker cable which is waiting for nice connectors. May be some careful doctoring will be needed.

 

[gobble]

Yesterday, I got hands on Wharfedale Diamond 9.2 (purchased from fellow member). After my initial listening, they too suffer from same effect. Bass is like boom-boom and intruding to mids. I connected to TRIPATH TA2022 based 100+100W amp, sourced input from monitor out of Panna Plasma. Even human voices are sounding like spoken into boxes. Specially channel ads like 'Discovery Turbo'.

I will give more attention after I add stands + neutral DIY speaker cable which is waiting for nice connectors. May be some careful doctoring will be needed.

Hold on ... You could be confusing incorrect speaker placement with speaker defects. I heard the WFs (both 8.2 and 9.2) sound muddy too until I placed them 18 inches away from side walls and rear minimum and put spikes below the speakers (you can also try some heavy books on top). Better than spikes use lumps of stick-on or blue-tack below speakers. These speakers do not sound muddy - only there is internal reflections audible. Otherwise they are perfect budget gear (8.2 more than 9.2).

I would like to know if Vivek also tried speaker positioning mods before hacking it.

--G0bble

 

[omishra]

Hold on ... You could be confusing incorrect speaker placement with speaker defects. I heard the WFs (both 8.2 and 9.2) sound muddy too until I placed them 18 inches away from side walls and rear minimum and put spikes below the speakers (you can also try some heavy books on top). Better than spikes use lumps of stick-on or blue-tack below speakers.

I would like to know if Vivek also tried speaker positioning mods before hacking it.

--G0bble

You are right, I am not telling speakers are defective. They are misplaced & hence misjudged. They are Just 10" away from rear wall, w/o any spikes. Separated by 5 feet. I am waiting for stands from SoundFoundation (hopefully comes with blue-tack). They will be given fair chance to perform. Till that time I would like reserve my opinion.

P.S.: Companies like Wharfedale do have better equipments and environment to test these things. Hence I believe them until I disagree.

 

[vivek.saikia]

I connected to TRIPATH TA2022 based 100+100W amp, sourced input from monitor out of Panna Plasma.

I so much wanna know about this tripath amp. Can you share a pic please

I would like to know if Vivek also tried speaker positioning mods before hacking it.

--G0bble

I have tried all the permutations and combinations of the speaker position in my 20x13 sqft hall. The sound definitely improved when I kept them where they are right now but I still felt the need to tune them further (internally) to my taste.

 

[omishra]

I so much wanna know about this tripath amp. Can you share a pic please

I have to take pics once I get it down. Please wait for some time. Till then I can rearrange it with new cables and of course new RCA socket & banana posts.
I used this DIY kit from 41Hz-dot-com to build my amp. This is not my pic but forum.

There are complete range of products.
http://www.41hz.com/forums/content.php?106-All-the-AMPs

So far I built 1 Amp1, 1 Amp10, 1 Amp-9-Basic(in my car).

 

[vivek.saikia]

I have to take pics once I get it down. Please wait for some time. Till then I can rearrange it with new cables and of course new RCA socket & banana posts.
I used this DIY kit from 41Hz-dot-com to build my amp. This is not my pic but forum.

There are complete range of products.
41Hz Audio - All the AMPs

So far I built 1 Amp1, 1 Amp10, 1 Amp-9-Basic(in my car).

That's quite a tiny little amp. I love to hear it sometime.

 

[omishra]

That's quite a tiny little amp. I love to hear it sometime.

Don't go on size. IT has SMD parts soldered underneath. Parts measuring 0802 size [approx. 2.1(L) x 0.7(H) x 1.3 (W) mm] are soldered on other side of PCB. It took me 4 hrs to complete for ~50 parts(SMD resistors and caps). If you sneeze while working they are gone. It puts enough power to lightup 100watts filament lamp, powered with +/- 33VDC with 6 amp current capacity.

You are in Pune, make some time to audition.

 

[vivek.saikia]

Don't go on size. IT has SMD parts soldered underneath. Parts measuring 0802 size [approx. 2.1(L) x 0.7(H) x 1.3 (W) mm] are soldered on other side of PCB. It took me 4 hrs to complete for ~50 parts(SMD resistors and caps). If you sneeze while working they are gone. It puts enough power to lightup 100watts filament lamp, powered with +/- 33VDC with 6 amp current capacity.

You are in Pune, make some time to audition.

I was going through the 41hz.com shop and saw some really nice amp kits there. Though, the higher powered ones needs certain level of technical and soldering expertise. Your amp seems like a bit doable for a novice.
How much you paid for it?
I am from Pune too. So we can patch up sometime to see your DIY efforts.