Sorry guys for getting so frustrated…
My life/work is full of hyper complex stuff, decisions and fast pace, that’s my ‘’normal’’. In this thread I have found myself repeating (to me) very simple things over, and over and over, that is frustrating in itself. But what’s insanely frustrating for me, is not having the words in English to go into the details, and get things right. And if what I say is not understood the first time, it does not make anything more understandable to use the same words 5 or 10 more times for the same question/concern/scepticism.
I designed this upgrade, and from the beginning of this thread I have promised you to help you all I can succeed with the upgrade of your speakers - if you decide to upgrade them. I stand by that, so I’m here, but I can’t go back into repeating myself on all the why this, why not that, what about etc etc. I don’t have the words, and I’m getting too frustrated not being able to express things.
I’ll try one final time
If it does not make sense, or if you don’t believe what I say… Then I have done my best, and I can’t do any more.
I have mentioned many times in this thread, that the T Ref’s are very well engineered, but build to a price point. Maybe that last part ‘’build to a price point’’ does not make sense to all?
In the case of the T Ref’s it means a lot of different things, some we can not change/update easily, others we can. The cross over parts, the internal wiring and those terrible push-on connectors are some of the worst I have seen in a speaker at this price point. Very bad, but it’s cheap to build speakers this way, both when it comes to the price of the parts, and this way of assembly. It does not really take special skills, just push on connectors, mount drivers etc, and it’s fast, and time is money. So cheap parts, and cheap assembly process.
For instance, when I took out the woofers, on two out of the six woofers, the push on connectors fell off as soon as I just lifted the driver a few centimeters. The connection was hardly there, and we must replace stuff like that to get the best out of our speakers.
When we look inside much more expensive speakers, that are not ‘’build to a low price point’’ we see much, much better parts quality: Crossover parts, cables, binding posts etc etc. We also see a much better process / assembly where parts are point-to-point wired/soldered, that goes for the crossover components, and for the cables, soldered to the crossovers at one end, soldered to the drivers at the other end. These parts are seriously expensive (compared to stock inside T Ref), and the assembly takes more skill, more tools/equipment, and more time. And time is money….
This upgrade is about getting to the full potential of the T Ref, so the parts and process/assembly is the best possible, similar to much more expensive speakers. No cutting corners, no compromises. So no longer ‘’build to a low price point’’.
Because the T Ref’s are so well engineered the decision was NOT to change the function of the crossover. Much work has gone into simulations and measurements to make sure these new crossovers perform indentical to stock. Same crossover frequencies, same slopes, same, same, same… Just upgraded parts and assembly. This is a different approach, that what we often see from Danny/GR Research, where they design a new/different crossover for the speakers, but that was because it was designed bad in the first place. With a new/changed filter, a speaker can sound totally different. Not needed with the T Ref. If you saw Danny’s videos on the Golden Ear - BRX you will see, that he tried designing a different/better cross over, but could not. The original was as well designed for these drivers as can be. So he kept the crossover design the same, and upgraded the parts. Same as we do here with the T Ref.
So basically ‘’the same speaker’’ just with ‘’build to a price point’’ eliminated on the critical places. (And now I almost prey this makes sense this time)…
