Big speakers move in. With help of handtruck! UPDATE!

 Gentle reader,

Once again, thanks for taking the time to look at my blog. The count as of this typing time is 49,047 page views! Closing in on 50,000!

Let me start off with some pictures of the den/listening room prior to the arrival of the big black beasts. Below, note the latest never-needs-water-Bonsai partially blocking the clocks on the left. Also, note that the ACUTEX speakers are gone. Now being enjoyed by someone else.

Above, on the left, I was quite excited to find another Michael Bedard print! This being a spoof of the painting of long-dead Hollywood icons all getting coffee in a corner diner late one night. The title is Window Shopping. Again featuring his cartoon-like ducks. The bicycle print is now appropriate as I've moved my Univega Metroprix into the den for the Winter.

Above is a better photo of the two Japanese paintings that I added a while back. Note the "tree" I made back in the 1990's of sliver wire and jade stones, sitting atop the new "S" shaped CD rack.

Now, below are photos of the two sets of large speakers that I found on consecutive stops at Salvation Army.

 Above, after desiring them for DECADES, I finally found some Cerwin-Vega speakers! These are LS-12 models made in 2000 which retailed for $369 each, or $738 for the pair. That's $1018 today. The LS series were the last CVs made in America. Since these, they are made in China. Rated to handle 300 watts, response of 28 to 20,000Hertz with a sensitivity of 98 decibels. That is with one (1!) watt of input, they produce 98 decibels. No wonder CVs are a favorite of dorm rooms and party animals. They are similar to the DCM KX12 speakers I once had. Also American-made.

Above are the ones that I found the prior week next to the CVs for size comparison. These are one of the latest of the infamous "white van" speakers. I suspected as much when looking at them and they were priced 1/4 of the CVs. When I researched them, I confirmed my suspicions. More on this, below. But first, below is the left CV with grille. Badge reads: "CERWIN-VEGAS!" Which is pretty much what I said when I saw the badge.

Above is the rear, which is similar to the DCMs. Below is a close-up of the labels and terminal cup. They come with the preferred 3-way-binding-posts which also incorporate banana plugs.

Above is a better view of the two side-by-side. Below, face on. Driver cones look just like aluminum which is what they wanted. 12" woofer, 4" midrange and large horn tweeter. I think they came with grilles, but they are missing. Note "Digital Audio" badge. NO speakers are digital, sound is analog and has to be so to drive a speaker. First hint of white van. By the way, the cones are some kind of plastic made to look like metal. Very convincing.

Below is the label and terminal cup. Their goal was to make them look like professional speakers which is why they have 1/4" inputs. The gold ones I replaced the factory ones so that banana plugs can be used. 

If you know me by now, you know I can't resist changing things. Aside from above, I was determined to improve what wasn't bad sound at all, but lacked Bass. Go up two pictures, see the two round ports at the bottom? Those are reflex ports or are supposed to be. In their case, they are WAY too shallow, thus allowing the woofer's rear sound waves to mix with and cancel out the front wave's sounds below a certain frequency rather than enhancing it as is what they are supposed to do. 

Once I removed the woofer, I found it has a real crossover, cheap-looking, but it works, the midrange has a sealed back as it should, there is a reinforcement below the horn front-to-rear. Minimal insulation/absorbing material inside. So, I blocked the rear of the "ports" with thick foam rubber tape and loosely filled the cabinets with polyfil. This "tricks" the woofer into "thinking" it is in a far larger cabinet. A long-time trick once called "Acoustic suspension". 

Did my changes work? Very well. Much better, deeper, tighter Bass. They could benefit with a better 3-way crossover and if I were keeping them, I'd do so. 

Now, some photos of the long-gone DCM KX12 speakers to show you the similarities to the Cerwin-Vega LS-12:

The DCMs use a horn tweeter verses dome of the CVs. Plus is is closest to the woofer with the slightly larger midrange being at the top. I have not looked inside the CVs yet (you know I will!) but the DCMs are called "Semi-transmission-line". There is a panel inside that is side-to-side traveling up from the rear of the woofer, but NOT to the bottom. Google "transmission-line speakers" to see what a true one is. 

The dual 6"wide reflex ports on the rear are not loaded by the vertical panel, so I'm not sure why they put it there.  I also had some true transmission-line speakers, also DCMs that were called TF275s. Here they are:

One cannot see as they are covered on all sides, but there is a single coaxial driver, like aftermarket car speakers. The rear waves follow the ever-widening transmission-line all the way to the bottom where they exit enhancing the Bass from the front wave. Since sound travels over 650 miles-per-hour, it just works.

UPDATE!

I spent some time after posting this, actually making permanent room for the Cerwin-Vegas. It took a while, but if you compare this photo to the first two photos, you can see what I did. Don't see it? I eliminated the left subwoofer since it is not needed with the CVs. I removed all the books and slid the teak cabinet to the left, being careful to make sure the wiring wasn't catching or binding. I added the never-before-shown TECHNICS SH-GE70 stereo graphic equalizer that I scored the same time/place as that CARVER preamplifier that I wrote about, same $10 price too. Gotta love thrift stores! Unlike traditional equalizers with their sliding tone controls, this TECHNICS does the changes electronically so no static or other distortions are injected into the sound. Doing far more than traditional Bass and Treble tone controls, with the right test CD one can tailor the sound to the room and your ears' happiness. The ADCOM preamplifier has an "External Processor"  button and input/output terminals. I'd bought some long Monster Cable M550 RCA interconnects and used them and the length of the unit's power cord and said terminals to adjust the sound from my listening chair. Today, I placed it inline between the ADCOM preamp and the DYNACO power amp. I raised it with rubber feet to clear the cooling fan. In the former location, the display lights bounced up and down with the music. In the new physical/electrical location, the lights are only visible if the music is really loud, which with the VCs still isn't using much power. Plus, I put the LED power meter atop the TECHNICS.

I also, rearranged the Asian art objects. The huge dragon looks better on the subwoofer and the top of the component shelves are less crowded. The AXIOM speakers are still usable by simply unplugging the VCs and plugging the bananas into the AXIOMS. After all that, with the many new Classical CDs that I scored at Salvation Army, I had to rearrange those two shelves to make room. Now I have room to buy more!

WHEW! That was quite a discourse. Thanks for your patience. Oh, how do the CVs sound? Fantastic! They are keepers. Now.................

Thanks for looking,

Scott