CLSs bite the dust

[Brad225]

Well after 22 years of making myself and other owners happy my CLSIIZs have temporarily worn themselves out. During the fall I noticed the center image was moving to the left on all music I was playing and I figured it was the interface since the panels are only 6 years old maybe. I just kept adjusting the balance left to bring it back to center. I knew this would only work for so long before there was no left, left so to speak.

In November I contacted Ken Easley at Ken Ealey Audio in Olney, Il kenealeyaudio.com . He rebuilds a handful of amps, preamps and interfaces for speakers, one of which is all generations of CLS. I got on his waiting list which at that time he thought to be 3 months so I just kept playing them slowly moving the balance further and further to one channel.

Well the interface finally died last week I think the power supply along with other old parts just gave up. I had the same volume if it was plugged in or not so I packed them up and off they went. I still have a few weeks before mine will hit the bench so I will wait as patiently as possible.


In his words, he is a big fan of CLSs and very familiar with their strong and week points. His rebuild will address everything in the interface and will come back not looking anything like it did before. He feels his rebuild will also give more lower to mid bass than they originally had. Not deeper frequency but just more of it that has always been missing. He humbly believes they will sound much better than when the last generation of CLSs were manufactured.

Oh well back to the shop to spray the last coat of lacquer of the stands, cut some grass (way better than shoveling snow) then listen to some music.

I will update as progress happens.



So, in mean time from the old equipment storage closet I brought back from years ago (late 80s) my Spica TC 50s and everybody's envy 2 plastic folding chairs for stands (temporary, putting together some stands this weekend). I am still amazed after all these years how good these little speakers sound. They only go down to 80 Hz so I have the Depth i subs to handle the low end. These have always been know for a huge sound stage and nothing has changed. Being able to replace a pair of ML speakers and not be disappointed with what you hear is a good sign. Do they have the mids/highs and pinpoint image of my CLSs? No, but considering they were only $350 a pair then and you can still find them used for $150-200 makes them a lot of speaker for the money.

 

[sleepysurf]

Sweet! Your room, though, is now a little "overkill" for that setup!

BTW, my ex-wife (in another life!) had a pair of TC-50's that a former boyfriend had given her! She had them sitting on the floor, hooked up to a receiver, but they still sounded great! I had Apogee Stage's at the time, so we upgraded to those, along with my entry-level Adcom gear. Turns out, she's still the closest thing to a female audiophile I know in the Tampa area, but I don't think Ellen would be happy if I invited her to join our club!

 

[risabet]

I replaced some TC50's with ML Claritys and I have fond memories of those little Spicas. Why not use the subs as stands (I don't know if the tops are flat) but that would solve two problems at once if possible.

 

[slowGEEZR]

Sweet! Your room, though, is now a little "overkill" for that setup!

BTW, my ex-wife (in another life!) had a pair of TC-50's that a former boyfriend had given her! She had them sitting on the floor, hooked up to a receiver, but they still sounded great! I had Apogee Stage's at the time, so we upgraded to those, along with my entry-level Adcom gear. Turns out, she's still the closest thing to a female audiophile I know in the Tampa area, but I don't think Ellen would be happy if I invited her to join our club!

A friend of mine had some Spica TC-50's that were stolen and he replaced them with some Apogee Stages and I just visited him in Siesta Key, just south of Tampa. Do do do do...

 

[Brad225]

A friend of mine had some Spica TC-50's that were stolen and he replaced them with some Apogee Stages and I just visited him in Siesta Key, just south of Tampa. Do do do do...

You mean you were that close and didn't come visit any of us?

 

[FoxMulder]

I was a Spica dealer, back in the day, for almost the full time John made them. Excellent speakers and still sound good today. I have a couple of pairs also and listen to them on occasion. Fantastic buy on the used market.

Sorry to hear about your CLSes...

 

[Gordon Gray]

Brad,

Great story with a hopefully happy ending.

Nice room by the way.

GG

 

[C.A.P]

How do you know its the interfaces. Panels die as early as 5 years . Its not that uncommon. The CLS is a real panel burner. Anytime I had imbalance it was panel issues. Mine are shot now. At $2700 Im hesitant to get them. Not that $2700 for the sound they give is expensive as I think they rival speakers in the $10 k range. That being said I dont have the $2700 now..

Are you sure its not the panels? If so HOW ?

 

[Brad225]

I swapped the interfaces and the low volume moved with it. Checked the fuse and that was OK so my decision was the interface was done for it.

 

[C.A.P]

Interesting NEW panels and now a guy who can work on the interfaces. Mine were went through by Jim Powers and a few tweaks added .. but I still need new panels.. Its NOT on my high priority list

I hate to part with these Walnut frames as they were hand picked by the at the time sales manager who I got them from his son

 

[slowGEEZR]

You mean you were that close and didn't come visit any of us?

Sorry, but we were staying with friends and it would have been difficult. Personally, I would have loved to.

 

[User211]

Are the panels themselves still original i.e. 22 years old Brad? Be amazed if they were still as good as they could be if so.

I remember those Spicas from the mags & reviews but never heard a pair

 

[Brad225]

Replacement panels are at most 6 years old. I hope to get that many again if all goes well.

 

[Brad225]

CLS's are alive and better than before. I do mean better than before they bit the dust.

Things didn't work out with Ken Ealey as his schedule was still to crowded to give me an actual date they would hit his bench.

After talking with Phil Rastocny, an EE that also belongs to the local audio group (Suncoast Audiophile Society) I decided to have the interfaces shipped back and let him work on them. He knew way more about CLSs than I did especially the interfaces. He explained the evolution of the different generations of the CLSs which gave me an even higher comfort level with him.
I gave him the interfaces along with different schematics I had and the next day he had tested everything and made a game plan as to how we should proceed.

In the high voltage side there were a couple of bad resistors and numerous bad solder connections. He replaced all of the diodes and resistors on both boards. The switch to lower the voltage 10% to the panels was removed along with associated parts. The switch was always in the full voltage position so no since in have more parts than needed.

We kept the orange capacitor on the interface board that was part high voltage signal path since it tested fine and was a good quality. None of the traces on either board related to high voltage were changed.

With that finished he moved to the interface board. He showed me how the board had multiple traces for many of the pathways to different parts. Apparently this was necessary to be able to carry the current required. Phil's feeling was that the interaction of the traces coming back together was clearly a negative. There were places where a signal would split to 3 paths and come back together again so out they went.

The 2 main transformers tested fine so Phil said there was no since in replacing them.

I never used the switching available to soften the bottom and top end of the frequency range so that was removed along with the capacitor and 12"+ of wire that actually made it happen. All of the Dale resistors ( large gold ones ) were replaced along with the inductor coil which was changed to a Goertz foil. Most of the traces were replaced with point to point wiring. The only trace used were the 2 that came from the purple wire on each transformer, to the board and to the connector where each to the sator panel was plugged into.

I replace the binding posts with new Eichmann Cable Pods as I broke one of the old ones tightening when reinstalling. The wire from the binding posts to the Dale resistors and the transformers was also changed and shortened as much as possible. I also moved the binding posts from behind the transformers and spread them apart to make connections easier. Most fingers aren't made for normal spacing certainly not mine.

I moved the speakers back into the same place they had been before the breakdown. They received a through vacuuming and I tested the continuity to be sure no short existed that may have done in the resistors and diodes to begin with. Phil loaned me his meter that would detect a much smaller signal than mine. I tested all of the wires and found .5 to 4.6 Ohms on each wire paring. After a moment of concern I realized I was holding my fingers against the leads and wires and it was reading through my skin. So I guess I'm rated somewhere between .5 and 4.6. I always though I might score higher. Oh well.

With all of the power cords and interconnects removed I decided to change one of those things that annoy obsessive audio people. When I installed the electrical receptacles in the room during construction I didn't give much thought which way to face the ground pin. Since mine are all horizontal they could either go on the left or right. Well once I started plugging in the power cords I needed to force a 180 degree twist in them to make the connection on amps and speakers. That made them not lay flat on the floor and was more than a little annoying. I had avoided it since everything is wired with #10 and so I needed to pull the wires off each receptacle and reconnect them turned around. I'm sure I slept better last night because of the change.

Back to the speakers. I listen for a few hours on Monday and maybe a few last night. On Monday I plugged in the speakers that hadn't been charged in about 3 months and turned on the amps and pre for their normal hour of tube warming. I did sit down and start the CD player to be sure everything was going to work. Oh happy day both speakers were making music with an image centered where it belonged. Now it wasn't pleasing music though. Kind of singing accompanied by nails on a caulk board. Vocal and instrumentation were way in front of the speakers. So with that I left the room for a couple of hours coming back only to restart the player. Fortunately there is always grass and weeds to mow so killing time wasn't too bad.

So, at about the 2 1/2 hour mark I went back in to take a listen. I think I played Nora Jones "Nightingale". It is well recorded with piano, bass and guitar well place around and behind the vocals. My first thought was holy crap the sound stage is at least 7' high. Not every instrument or voice spread from floor to that height but previously placement had grown but still had plenty of depth and separation between them. Her voice was still centered from 1 1/2' to 4' above the floor and about the same width. The instruments moved around the sound image with cleaner presents than before.

As that track finished I new this was serious and I went down to the kitchen and poured a glass of Cabernet and headed back up.

In relations to the new found height of the sound stage I have know idea how much of that is from the high voltage bias or cleaner signal path in the low voltage. Is it possible the high voltage had weakened over the years, and that was how it was always meant to sound but the panels never were properly excited with enough voltage?

I played a selections like all of us do that we use when we make changes to our system. On a Kat Edmonson CD she has a set of drums playing stage right well behind her. There is very settle sound of brushes on the snare drum. A number of people have commented that they could hear the tape his from the master recording but I would point it was the brushes not tape hiss. Anyway, I had never heard the brushes making initial contact with the skin of the drum before.

Unfortunately, I need to mow some more of that green stuff but I will continue later.

I attached a picture of the new interface box layout. I will dig out the old picture later and post that also for comparison

 

[Rich]

Congrats. Sounds like a worthy upgrade.

 

[edwinr]

What a relief. I hope it didn't cost you too many $$$.

 

[JonFo]

Congrats Brad, glad it all worked out.

And thanks for the detailed write-up, I enjoyed reading that and seeing the pic of the finished interface.

 

[Duke]

I am glad to hear it is in working order. You will be hearing more inner detail than you can imagine possible. Does it sound fuller and more dynamic too?

 

[Duke]

Hi Brad,

The capacitor mod I did made as much or more of a difference in transients. You might panic if you proceed as I have because the burn in takes about a week. The first few hours will put you into a panic.

http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~timc/e/clsiiz/capacitor.html

Electronics really have improved with capacitors and even the simple capacitor Tim picked out for me trounced the one that comes with the speaker. Just as always, the playlist you have grown to love will not sound the same and other songs will come to replace the ones were fond of, maybe.