Aerius tweeks

I asked a few questions about the Aerius and realized I should put everything in one place here in the tweeks section. I'm going to do some internal tweeks to my Aerius' in the next few weeks and I'll be posting on this thread until it's done.

The tweeks I'm looking at are:
1. Clean them...but I won't talk about that here as it's been talked about elsewhere enough.
2. Solder the stator leads to remove the screw-type junction(s)
3. Capacitor upgrade in the x-over.

Stator Leads
First off I was thinking about soldering the stator leads on the speakers. In the process of opening the back up to examine the x-over I realized that there is a screw-type junction not only on the front of the speaker, but also on the x-over itself.
Here's an image of the front junction from HK-Steve's Sequel cleaning writeup. When I start work on my Aerius' I'll get a pic.

Here is a picture of the Aerius x-over, ML indicates that the Aerius i should be almost identical.

Notice that there is a stator connector on the main panel, this means that the signal path for the stator is going through 2 cheap screw-on type connectors. Now, obviously soldering these would make maintenance, replacing the stators, and repair more difficult, but given the frequency of those things I think it's worth it.

I'll update here as the tweeks are done.

Crossover Mods
I labeled the values of each capacitor in the picture. I'll post details as I start the tweeks.

Very interesting,
Are your speakers the Aerius or the Aerius i ???
They look like the Aerius.

I have the Aerius i and my crossover layout is a little different to yours.
I can send a picture to you and we can work out if there are any improvements between the 2 designs, that are an improvment.

I don't have any way to host the picture and add the link, sorry


Cheers
Steve

you can attach the image to the message itself and it will then get uploaded to the server here...

give it a try.

Tom.

I tried posting a reply with the follow up images but apparently this forum has a limit on the number of images that can be posted so I put the details on the swap on a web page at: Stator wire solder tweek

James,
Any further updates on the Tweaks?

Have you ordered any capacitors yet?
or settled on a brand name?


Looking forward to some results soon,

I will be helping you soon, I just have to wait for my New Quest stators to get here, then I can get stuck into my Aerius i's.


Cheers
Steve

HK-Steve said:

James,
Any further updates on the Tweaks?

Click to expand...

I ordered the caps, I'm experimenting with North Creek Zen caps, as I've had good luck with them on my old Magies, but I've never used them exclusively before.

I haven't had time to install them yet. As a cost effective experiment I decided to get one 10mfd cap to replace the solen, and bypass caps for the remaining caps. This made the total cost for both speakers only $36USD but we'll see what the results are like.

Caps

Finally got around to doing the cap upgrade. I had originally planned to replace just the 10mfd cap in each speaker and bypass the other caps in the stator circuit (2). So I got 2 10mfd Harmony caps and 4 Zen bypass caps (0.22mfd). Total cost for both speakers, delivered was $36.

Unfortunately, when removing the 10mfd Solen (one speaker had a Solen, the other had an Aeon cap) I discovered that the 30mfd caps next to it have very fragile leads, and one broke off at the base, which meant I had to replace the 30mfd caps as well. I figured I'd have to order whatever I replaced them with so why not get something different, so I ordered 2 30mfd Solen caps. I went with Solen to keep the cost down, but still have a decent sounding cap. Plus, given that ML put their money in the 10mfd caps, I'm assuming that's where the best gains would come from. Total cost for 2 30mfd Solens was about $36 with 2-day shipping.

This image shows the new caps and the ones they replace or bypass (soldered in parrallel):


Now, since I was replacing the 30mfd caps instead of bypassing them as I had planned I decided to use the extra bypass caps on one of the caps in the woofer circuit.

Here is an image of all the caps soldered in:


Impressions:
For reference I'm using a Meridian 565 preamp in direct mode, a Bel Canto 200.2 amp, and a Cambridge Audio Azur 540D as a transport, with a digital connection to the Meridian.

Well, as with the stator wire upgrade, I wasn't able to really head-to-head the upgrade, but then that would really be hard to do without another pair of stock Aerius'.

Overall there is a noticable reduction in harshness in the treble, the speakers are clearer and smoother. However, what seems more noticable is that they have dissapeared much more. I don't notice any increase in the depth of the soundfield, but the speakers are less visible in the horizontal soundstage. The difference sounds like going from a decent amplifier to a high quality one. Given the price, it's a no-brainer upgrade if you don't mind doing a little solder work. The difference is much more dramatic than the stator solder tweek, and given the price I can't image anything you could do that would create anything close at the price.

One thing that did surprise me, is that there seems to be more bass comming out of the speakers. But, to be honest I think this might just be a matter of position and recording. I can't imaging that a single bypass cap in the woofer circuit would have that impact.

I can't say how much of the difference is the new 30mfd Solen, the 10mfd Harmony, or the Zen bypass caps, but based on my experience I'd say the Solen probably isn't as big a factor as the bypass caps and the Harmony cap.

James,
Can I ask why you added capacitors in Parallel with the origonals, rather than replace?

What are the values that you are using? it isn't that clear in the picture.


I am interested in the woofer increase in output,
I will order some capacitors when I come back from Vacation in Spain next week, and get back to you on what I find.


Cheers
Steve

HK-Steve said:

James,
Can I ask why you added capacitors in Parallel with the origonals, rather than replace?

Click to expand...

Cost and size. Those are 100mfd and 170mfd and 30mfd caps. Replacing those would be much more expensive, and I wanted to experiment with the Bypassing that North Creek recomends.

What are the values that you are using? it isn't that clear in the picture.

Click to expand...

The bypass caps are .22mfd, North Creek sells 2 versions: .22 and 1.0.

I am interested in the woofer increase in output,
I will order some capacitors when I come back from Vacation in Spain next week, and get back to you on what I find.

Click to expand...

I can't promise you'll notice an improvement in the bass output, while I think I hear it, I can't image that it's really happening just with a single bypass cap. My thoughts at this point are that it's being caused by some other factor.

Post your thoughts when you do the mod, better to have 2 takes on it.

Arius filter schematic

Hello JJCar and others,

Thanks for the informative posts on the Aerius (i).
I'd like to tweak my own Aerius-i and would like to have a look at the schematics. I'm new to this forum, did a search in the archives but couldn't find a schematic of the filter.
Can any of you help me further, in this forum or off-list?

Best regards, Arjen.
email: vrhff04-at-xs4all.nl (replace -at- by @)

I think you can only do mods to the X-Over, and the caps as shown is clearly marked. Otherwise you may mess up with the x-over point.

JJ Carr,
Just wondering if you can use the old 10uF Solen cap to bypass the 100uF or 170uF caps? What is the general rule in the value of the bypass caps?
Cheers..

Andre said:

JJ Carr,
Just wondering if you can use the old 10uF Solen cap to bypass the 100uF or 170uF caps? What is the general rule in the value of the bypass caps?
Cheers..

Click to expand...

I haven't checked back here in a long time, just got this.

I think the general rule of bypass is 1% of the main capacitor, but generally a 1mfd cap can bypass just about anything over 50mfd. Cascading caps is a different story, but not really applicable here. Using a 10mfd to bypass a 100mfd is more of a cascading type thing, like a Multi-cap. I wouldn't recomend it.

I don't have a crossover schematic. That's part of the reason I did a 1 for 1 replacement on caps and bypassed those that I didn't replace. I had to make guesses based on my experience with the Requests. Look at the Request schematic, it's in one of the tweeks here that I did a while ago. You can extrapolate what the Aerius has. As Andre said, unless you have a full schemantic and really know what you're doing, probably not a good idea to mess with the cap values.

So, has anyone else done this and have feedback?

jjcarr said:

I asked a few questions about the Aerius and realized I should put everything in one place here in the tweeks section. I'm going to do some internal tweeks to my Aerius' in the next few weeks and I'll be posting on this thread until it's done.

The tweeks I'm looking at are:
1. Clean them...but I won't talk about that here as it's been talked about elsewhere enough.
2. Solder the stator leads to remove the screw-type junction(s)
3. Capacitor upgrade in the x-over.

Stator Leads
First off I was thinking about soldering the stator leads on the speakers. In the process of opening the back up to examine the x-over I realized that there is a screw-type junction not only on the front of the speaker, but also on the x-over itself.
Here's an image of the front junction from HK-Steve's Sequel cleaning writeup. When I start work on my Aerius' I'll get a pic.

Here is a picture of the Aerius x-over, ML indicates that the Aerius i should be almost identical.

Notice that there is a stator connector on the main panel, this means that the signal path for the stator is going through 2 cheap screw-on type connectors. Now, obviously soldering these would make maintenance, replacing the stators, and repair more difficult, but given the frequency of those things I think it's worth it.

I'll update here as the tweeks are done.

Crossover Mods
I labeled the values of each capacitor in the picture. I'll post details as I start the tweeks.

Click to expand...

Hello,
I am a new member .
I have two used EL panels ( + bias supply circuit ) of the Aerius and I would want to make myself a pair of loudspeakers.
Please , do you know the values of the resistors , the ratio of the output transformer?

Thank you

Roberto

JJ Carr,
After lots of procastination and getting the parts and equipments ready, I finally did the mod last Saturday. I used 30uF Black Solens and 10uF MIT MusiCaps for caps replacement, and 0.33uF White Solens to bypass the 22uF caps. Did not alter anything to the 100uF and 170uF caps.

Results: better hi-freq output and extension....yes speaker vanishing act improves
Images are more palpable now. Details improved such that you can hear the singer's occasional 'sticky lips'.
Bass is more extended and relaxed, not boomy.
Overall definition is simply a notch up.

Thanks for the write up JJ! Found a new and exciting life for the Aerius i now.
Just wondering what would bypassing the 100uF and 170uF be like?

(BTW, the Black Solens and MIT Musicaps were purchased 15 years ago to mod my Maggie IIIs (from Michael Percy), and didn't get to do it even until I sold the Maggies).

I live in Houston Tx. I am interested in doing some of the modifications listed here, but do not feel confident enough to try them myself. Has anyone found an electronics store that would do mods on speakers? I have the Aerious i's and they are approximately 6 yrs old.

thanks

If you have done some soldering before, just DIY. It's simple enough. You can get the caps by mail order. Getting the back-plate off may be more tricky. I removed the iec inlet and inserted a metal rod attached to a rope and then pull them out.

Have anyone change the air core inductors with a better one like this: MUNDORF CFC 16 CU-FOLIENSPULE there shut be a lot to gaine in bas and mittel.

http://www.hifisound.de/oxid/oxid.p...1b1c7.63798052/MUNDORF CFC 14 CU-FOLIENSPULE/

Regarts Tonny

This thread also inspired me to do some modding on my Aeriuses.
The things I set out to do were;

1. Soldering all wires in the cross-type junctions with silver solder.
2. Replace a resistor to make the auto-on feature more sensitive to my Class-D amps input.
3. Upgrade all ESL-caps and bypass the woofer Caps.

After some investigation I found some High quality Caps for a reasonable price..
The upgrade for both speakers cost me about 140 Euro's, which is quite cheap considering the quality of the caps.

Because the dutch distributor of this specific capacitor brand (Clarity Cap) only started his business recently, and had no stock yet.. it took some time to get them to be delivered...
But they finally arrived this weekend and I could start the mods..

I've included a nude shot of the capacitors without their wrapping.
Per channel I got a 33uF, 10uf and 22uf cap for the ESL circuit and two 1uF's to function as a bypass for the woofer caps.

It took some effort to open the back plate, but with the help of Tube60 and jhorowitz128 I overcame this problem (see thread 'Aerius back panel' in the discussion forum)

Because these caps are significantly larger then the standard caps (see pic), it is impossible to mount them in the same place.
Therefore I glued them on the base board with some hot glue, after I soldered some nice pieces OFC monster cable ( approx 30 cm) to the leads
The other end was soldered in place.
Then I soldered the bypass-caps (1uF) in parallel with the woofer caps.
A total view of the result is included..

After this I replaced R15 (printed on board) which is a 499K resistor with a 1 Meg resistor to get the auto-on to trigger sooner. I anyone wants to know more about this , just let me know..

After 3 hours of soldering I was finished and is was time to put them to the test..

Eventhough they weren't burned in yet, the improvements where clear instantly.
The main improvments where: deeper soundstage, some harshness in the mids-highs had completely disappeared and the focus of the individual vocals and instruments was now more precise and smoother.

The bypass caps at the woofer circuit seem to have the effect of a more controlled presentation of the mid-lows; a overpronouncation of the 200 Hz region I earlier accounted to the acoustics of my room has now largely disappeared.

I also feel that this mod was worth the money....
If anyone wants more info just let me know.

Now back to the music

Aerius Crossover

I ordered the caps to upgrade my Crossovers. My Aerius are 1995 models, according to the serial numbers, but my crossovers have a different layout and capacitor values are different. Because of these changes, I was not able to use the 33uf, instead I need to get a 15uf.

I used Dayton 1% audio grade caps as well as Jantzen 5% audio grade caps for the upgrade. I have used these caps many times in the past for crossover upgrades, and have found both to be excellent as compared to sonicaps and auricaps, at a percentage of the price.