ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
Hi Guys
Generally, I do prefer open baffles, horns and closed boxes. Normally I just walk by any vented speakers. Then a pair of pentas sort of where forced into my home. Thinking: "Since they are here now, and finallly, just to prove: vented is rubbish." I connected them to my amp in the living room.We do have some ole speakers there, three way, but really nothing special. Started playing them, and could not let go. Bass sounded rather tough, mids present and when on center high was nice too. Hello?! Finally my wife walked in and mentioned to nice sound. We had a great time listening to her favourites and ended up dancing, bouncing with ever higher levels. Yep guys, she opted for keeping these speakers (and so did I, I have to admit, although being "vented").
I probably should mention, in my listening room I do have a pair of Magneplanars (MG IIB, renewed by myself), a pair of Martin Logan Sequel II (completely overhouled and ameliorated by myself) and a pair of Eckhorns that I cannot let go, as these are my speakers for >45 years, that have seen so many upgrades since the first pair built by myself at the age of 15. The latest successful upgrade to my Eckhorns (there were a few, expensive non successful upgrades :-;), was using some Hifiberry Beocrete's (https://www.hifiberry.com/beocreate). They do have a nice ADAU 1452 DSP on them, that you can programm by yourself. Doing so, I could address time delays, crossover frequencies and roll off of the filters by a lot of thinking and a short time rewring the "profile". Room equalization is also possible. I got the Eckhorns to the point, that I thought, there is nothing more to do (off course I was wrong again, but hat's another story).
So, why mention the beocreate in this context? Wifey again: "You did such a great Job on your monstruous Eckhorns, why not on the pentas? At least these speakers do look appealing to me, much more than your Eckhorns!" Well. I gulped the comment about the Eckhorns and savoured the perspective about the pentas.
Meanwhile I own three pairs of pentas. There's the passive one (I don't know, if it is a 1,2 or even 3), a set of penta 1's with the beolab 150 (lacks power link) and the penta 3'ss with the penta 200 plus power link (now my wife's property). I did some of the stuff to upgrade the pentas that's indicated in this forum and the internet. All mid surroundings are replaced, and they do sound nice now, if they did not before. I did not upgrade the passive crossover at all though (reason see below). I should mention, my wife has the penta 3'S in her room playing at levels, she used to yell at me in the past :-] (beleive me I measurred the levels py SPM meterjust to have a proper reference).
Knowing the effect of digital crossovers, I thought to myself: "I really have to give the pentas a chance. There is definetely space enough to place the beocreate somehwere." Looking at the different rants on the pentas, spread here and all over the internet, my own hearing experience, I started to things in gear.
My aims are all that should be state of the art (imho) by todays standards::
Hi all
I am currently testing a truly active version of the penta using hifiberry beocreates with a custom profile, that I am yet to finetune for each set.I struggle somehow with the bass section.
In my setup the bass chassis are all OK, I have four sets of mids, one with original mids (put them together by strapping good ones from 4 Pairs of pentas), one with foam surrounds, one with rubber surrounds an one with visaton tfr8s.
I also plan to have the mids replaced on a fifth pair by some high end dome mid and tweeter in the near future, at least as a test.
The four "close to" or original pairs are showing nice sound, but I am not satisfied with the bass part. While they do sound similar to an original beolab penta with the beolab 200 speaker, I would have expected the bass to be even more precise and faster (despite the reflex enclosure).
So I intend to follow up on the enclosure using simulation techniques. However that would require the knowledge of the Thiele Small Parameters of the 130 mm bass chassis. Does anyone happen to know these or have a reference to these?
Looking forward
greez
chris