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:
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):
)
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)
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)
)1000Pro (Matte Black), Lenehan Audio ML5 Reference's, FoilTek Speaker Cable's, Paradigm Sub1, Entreq Poseidon, Antipodes CX, Roon (Lifetime), Curious Cable USB, Aqvox Switch, Gigawatt PC-3 Evo Se, Mad Scientist Link Cable (RCA/AES), PSC Power Cords
Australia (Perth)
