Zingali Client Evo 1.2 'make over'

[Legolas]

Hi all. I did a make-over on my Zingalis horn speakers.​

I have had them for about 8 years, and was never hot on the all black gloss finish. Too depressing. So... not for the faint hearted, I got my tools out and went to work. This is ongoing, over the last month, but getting close now.

So, I have been messing with my Zingalis, and started the make over as regards appearance. Before the, the Compression Driver is updated upgraded by using a bigger B&C unit, and crossover as upgraded with much better caps, resistors and hard wired with silver.

I wanted to get rid of the depressing gloss black, which shows all the dust LOL. The speakers are well made, quite heavy, and the chassis has very little resonances. They do need a stand though, and suspension feet to disconnect with the floor. They have a down firing bass port in the bottom.




Shaktie's Zingali he used to own, how mine looked.



Paint stripper!



Above is 120 girt, after this I went onto 340 grit before varnishing with spray cans. I followed the grain direction for the last sanding.


Chassis flatted back with 120 grit.



So there are 2 groves in the horn, and I couldn't clean up the paint here, so I used wood colour epoxy car filler and sanded it back. I kept part of the grove though to keep the look intact.



I used water based paint stripper. The original paint is acrylic I think, with a white filler / primer underneath.

The lettering is CNC cut, so when I sanded the face down we have the white primer left, looks great.

So few more coats poly spray varnish on the wood, and 2 more coats gloss white on the chassis. And will be done. The first coat of poly raised the grain slightly, so I will lightly flat that off with 400 grit, and then 4-5 coats gloss poly spray on top.

What do you think? This kind of project, you have to throw away any chance of resale, which I have.

 

[Legolas]

Here is the new B&C compression driver, changed from a 400 unit to the 550, which is 25% bigger, and has 140w handling up from 100w. It is also 107db up from 106db. The FR is flatter, and on listening, everything has improved, no downsides at all. Faster, bit more weight to the mids, and treble is super clean. I had already adjusted the T-Pad on the upgraded cross-over to increase the CD output v the bass driver a bit.

The cross over got best Mundorf Gold/Silver caps, and Path Audio resistors. I am amazed how much more performance can be had by upgrading the parts here. Zingalis used basic poly caps, which were passable I guess, but sounded flat and off to me compared. Sadly many speakers brands hide the cross-over savings as not visible. The parts cost me about 350 euros for both speakers, well worth it.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Very nice work! I interviewed last year the Zingali distributor in the United States. I thought the small Zingali speaker I heard sounded great!

 

[Sablon Audio]

Good work Julian, they look much better!

 

[Legolas]

Here is a pic of the crossover, it is hard wired on MBF board, so not pretty. Ha Ha. But works fine.

I had to adjust the resistor values, to tweak the level of the Compression driver, but didn't change the crossover point of design. It just has all parts upgraded, same values. I did add Duelund silver tiny bypass caps which I like the effect of. I dud that in my previous DIY DAC projects on the Gain stage.

 

[Legolas]

Polished the chassis wish car polishing paise and an electric buffer. Came up nice.Last stage this week fitting the xovers back in.Pity the base plate is pdf, but will look ok as white to match the sides.



So bit different to the original paint black finish. I tired of that look, and they showed the dust like crazy, drove me crazy lol.

Seemed a shame to hide the nice wood facias.

On performance, v stock Client Name 1.2, it is a big jump. The xovers was the first upgrade I did, which made them open up and faster, more definition in both bass and mids, the treble pond up as well. big upgrade. The original poly caps were junk really, peaky and sound congested / overloaded. The Mundorfs are super really open and smooth at the same time. I thought about Duelund, but they are too expensive and too big, plus I had some leak in a DAC I built once, so not so keen on those. The best Mundorfs are very close to Duelunds IMO. V-Caps Teflon too cold and odd treble, the V-Cap copper mix ones ok. I am happy with the Mundorf Silver/Gold. Parts matter, especially in a low part circuit like a crossover.

Then the B&C 400 Compression Driver was upgraded to the B&C 550 a few weeks ago, and that was also dramatic. It seems in this case size matters. The CD is 25% bigger, has 40% higher power handling and a smoother FR especially around the important 4-7k region. It also has more midrange weight, and bass details as it crosses over to the 12 inch driver.

Total cost to do both upgrades is about 600 euros. Made a 17K ok speaker sound like a 30k+ speaker in performance.

 

[Legolas]

So probably see me out! never sell then. I have plans this year to expand my audio sales, but will keep the Zingalis is another room for a second system. They don't make this model now, only the 1.5 Client Name, which I don't like as much, same 400 CD but bigger 15 inch woofer, does nothing for the sonics and costs nearly 40K euros. Not so keen on the 3 series using a bass and mid driver, and the smaller horn flair. If they are still using those cheesy caps in the crossovers in a 40K speaker they are idiots! Bet they are. Would look to see the insides to check. I tried to
talk to Zingali about various things and got brick walled. Odd company.

 

[Argonaut]

Great work there Julian, the lighter finish being much more room decor friendly than the original Darth Vader look.

 

[shakti]

great job!

 

[Legolas]

Great work there Julian, the lighter finish being much more room decor friendly than the original Darth Vader look.

Or maybe a Dalek?