Devialet Chat

Hi All

Well I've not had many speakers in my short Hi-Fi Life (wouldn't call myself an Audiophile). My short list of speakers has been:

• Quad 22's
  
• Paradigm 100's
  
• MLT3's
  
• ML3 Ref's
  
• ML5 Ref's (my newly upgraded speakers)
  

For those not from the Land downunder ML speakers are from Mike Lenehan who is based on the Gold Coast, Queensland (Ashmore). He's a small time manufacturer, but is extremely well known in the Australian Hi-Fi industry, has a pretty loyal following (me included) and sells his speakers 99.99% by word of mouth (if you looked at his website you would know why as it looks like it came out at the same time as Noah's Arc).

Well as he's a one man band (his sons help, and believe he may have one more person helping periodically) he changes (tweaks) his designs regularly - if he tinkers with something and it works then that goes into the next speakers, with a relatively small uplift to cover the additional costs. He's actually his own worst enemy as he should be charging so much more for his speakers, and especially for all the tweaks he keeps building into them, but he's an honest bloke who is dedicated to what he does and is proud of the products he makes (nothing wrong with that, along with all the other small manufacturers around the world).

Ok, enough of the history story, Mike said he could upgrade my current ML3's to the new ML5's. He only does 3 sizes of speakers - ML1, ML2 & the ML3 floor-standers, with these now becoming the new ML5's (what happened to the ML4 number, who knows). The first big change was the tweeters, now SEAS Exotic T35 X3-06, with Alnico Magnet, then he had to change the crossovers (have a look in my older thread for more info on the 'New Crossovers Thread'). He's also changed the faceplates on the SEAS Exotic tweeters to a Copper Faceplate (he says this helps change unwanted vibrations to heat, all double dutch to me) and also incorporated spring footers with 3Hz isolation (no doubt I've quoted the wrong Hz frequency here). He also changed the the Tweeter & Woofer internal connections getting rid of the cheap brass connectors and making new direct copper connections (I can add photos of these later if anyone interested).

So enough talk, here's a few photos of my new (upgraded) ML5's 

Cheers
John

PS  Forgot to mention Mike is very particular in making his speaker enclosures as inert as possible (cost restrictive to an extent):

• 36mm HDF
  
• 4mm steel plating, with 2 additional steel L brackets on the enclosure roof and 1 additional L bracket behind the baffle
  
• 3 x 35mm solid cast iron rod differential braces
  
• 3 additional silicone filled copper tube braces (one of these braces is placed just behind the woofer magnet to help clean up a moderate energy storage issue)
  

The speakers are approx.70-75kg each, so not easy to move around (or get out of the shipping box )

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Awesome speakers!

(16-May-2018, 20:19)maxijazz Wrote: [ -> ]Awesome speakers!

Celts

They look great, what do you find in the change in sound

Brian

John, you forgot to mention the material on the baffle that absorbs reflections. It's a bit like early Wilson and Duntech speakers used to have (felt around the tweeter) but much more elaborate. Mike seems to have thought of everything.

Gotta get myself to his workshop one day.

Very nice, @Celts88.
Are they ported or infinite baffle?

(17-May-2018, 01:01)Axel Wrote: [ -> ]Very nice, @Celts88.
Are they ported or infinite baffle?

@Axel

Bottom ported (photo with a pair of Townshend Seismic isolation bars being fitted before Mike had completed his own Spring isolation footers). Now what else does it have regarding porting who knows???

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(16-May-2018, 23:21)Pim Wrote: [ -> ]John, you forgot to mention the material on the baffle that absorbs reflections. It's a bit like early Wilson and Duntech speakers used to have (felt around the tweeter) but much more elaborate. Mike seems to have thought of everything.

Gotta get myself to his workshop one day.

@Pim

Mate, if you get a chance to call down to Mike's workshop in Ashmore you'll find he's just a right down to earth guy, and when you get him talking about Hi-Fi, Speakers, etc. you'll be there all day (when he get's started talking technical gobbledygook about the speakers I'm totally lost, but he's a wealth of knowledge). Mike just keeps tweaking and tweaking, which means his speakers are only the exact same for a few here and there, but we (the customer) are the winners. He'll put in whatever Caps you want in the crossovers, I mean quality wise from the lower Jantzen Superior all the way up to Dueland Casts (my ML5's have Jupiter Copper).

I'm not 100% sure of the full technical story behind the acoustic foam front baffle, but from a distance you would never know it was there, and even if you do it just looks like it's meant to be there. I've added a photo of a red pair where it's easy to see the front foam baffles (the top baffle is the where the techno is for the tweeter isolation, bottom foam is just to make it all look in sync). These few photos below might explain part of it, and I'll see if I can find more info on SNA from previous threads by Mike et al

Ok, what I could find was the following; it's 52mm acoustic foam with the tweeter itself also isolated from the enclosure on the ML5 and is actually mounted on a rubberised foam mount - I think the 2rd/3rd photos are it (thats a tweeter with standard front plate where mine has the copper faceplate). Regarding the front baffle foam Mike says "In a conventional loudspeaker the solid baffle simply reflects energy forward with a time delay producing a particular type of distortion". I think he said he tries to partially isolate the tweeter from the large enclosure so it can image and soundstage like a mini monitor, with the bass woofer still powerful and extended to also play loud.

I've also included a photo of an ML2 speaker at the bottom (his mid-size speaker), and how the tweeter attaches normally.

Now I'm really getting myself lost in the technical jingo and I may have went curlywurly ways with the info, but hopefully this explains the concept behind it (talk to Mike on SNA and he'll explain).

PS in case anyone asks all the photos I've added are taken from Stereonet (a public Australian Hi-Fi forum), no private photos included, only those that Mike himself has added to his posts on Stereonet.

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(16-May-2018, 23:08)BrianT Wrote: [ -> ]

(16-May-2018, 20:19)maxijazz Wrote: [ -> ]Awesome speakers!

Celts

They look great, what do you find in the change in sound

Brian

@BrianT

I'm not great with all the "Audiophile" lingo, but below is what I posted on Stereonet (an Australian Hi-Fi forum). I get a bit silly with the wording, but you'll get the gist of it:

Mike, what have you done to my speakers?, I send over a pair of ML3’s for an upgrade (and reference one’s at that) and they come back totally unrecognisable ?. I keep having to turn down the music (easily 8-10dB less than the ML3’s), and what’s with all the other sounds in the music that wasn’t there with my ML3’s ? – how did you manage to throw in all those extra notes (magic dust I suppose?). The bass is much cleaner (did you do a bit of spring cleaning on the Woofer), and with more weight too. Also with guitars, pianos, violins, etc. who knows how you managed to add a couple of extra strings to each instrument (now that really is clever)
 
Sorry to be a bit rude, but the phrase “**** in **** out” was never so true with these ML5’s – whatever you feed them they spit it out with a vengeance (be that good or bad). If you want to hear how good (or bad) your system is then get a pair of ML5’s.
 
Whatever magic dust you sprinkled on these baby’s you better start making some more as they’re bloody addictive. I’ve never heard a pair of speakers like them - Mike, you keep making speakers better and better, I really haven’t got a bloody clue where it will all end (sorry for keep saying bloody, but that’s what these speakers do to me).
 
I’m no good at spelling out all the nuances of what different sounds these speakers can produce, but I can say it sounds bloody good (there I go again with that word). Another thing that stands out to me (except for all the extra sounds I never knew were in my recordings) is that they’re sharp as a tack and stop on a sixpence (dime) .
 
Only 2 words to say mate - BLOODY RIPPER!!!!!!!!!