Upcycling Old Stuff

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Further to yesterday's post, I do feel a bit of jazz speaker building coming on: I need colouration, warmth, and a bit of over-emphasised bass. As I said yesterday, accuracy is relative, and in most circumstances unobtainable: the dynamics of real life musical situations are far too complex. There are exceptions, but for the most part you are making technology produce its own performance at best: which system sounds 'better' is entirely subjective, just as in real performance.

Harmonic distortion in the audio reproduction chain - in small and controlled amounts - can modify and often enhance that subjective experience: a little even harmonic distortion gives the impression of brightness, whilst odd harmonic distortion offers a sense of 'hair' or warmth to the sound, mediating harshness. All musical instruments, acoustic or electric, including the human voice, rely on rich harmonic content - non-linear distortions, effectively - for 'character' and emotional content. Fuzziness and noise are what enhance the aural world: humans are analogue entities, after all.

However, as I don't have access to huge slabs of timber or even plywood or even chipboard, I thought I might start with a slightly more modest proposal for a project. A good while ago, my dad's old Wharfedale Linton 2 speakers from the 1970s were in service in our dining room, until a since-moved-on ginger tomcat we housed, managed to knock one of the cabinets down off its shelf and stoved in the baffle. Fortunately the speaker drivers were unharmed, so I stripped all the gear out of the cabs and put the drivers and crossovers to one side for a rainy day project. I think that time has, at last, come. But I've got a couple of retro-tech twists I'd like to throw into the mix: I just need to do some experimenting. Keep you posted...

NB: the image is of Linton XP2s, but what the heck, the boxes were the same...

Comments

  1. Anonymous16 October 2023 at 14:51

    I have a selection of Wharfedale speakers if you'd like to borrow a pair mate. Seems that you don't need another "project" mate>
    ATB
    Joe

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16 October 2023 at 16:09

      I want to try a couple of really old ideas out; I've got three sets of Tannoy Sixes for actual day-to-day use. Projects keep me going, matey ;0)

      Delete

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