bozzchem

I'm curious about your Terminator Mod. My degree is in Biochemistry, so the EE stuff goes over my head rather quickly!!!

You suggested using this mod on ALL speakers home and car alike.

If you've answered my question in another post, I'm sorry and I'll try searching again.

Let me give you a quick breakdown of my home system and maybe you could let me know what "difference" I could expect by performing this mod to the speakers.

Receiver: Denon AVR-3802

Main speakers: Klipsch RF-3II
Center speaker: Klipsch RC-3II
Surround speakers: Klipsch RS-3II
Subwoofer: Klipsch KSW-15 (I can't do the mod to this one)

This may seem Off-topic but I think knowing this is important for car audio as well.

Again, I apologize if you've gone into this in great detail elsewhere. If you have, could you remember the approximate date and I'll do another search?

Thanks. Whether you like it or not, you're one of the "big boys" on this board!!
bozzchem

bozzchem

Southbound,

OK, somehow I found your post explaining the theory and applications behind your terminator mod.

Incredible.

I'm not much of an a$$ kisser but I have to admit that your knowledge of electronics is very impressive. If you need any biochem tips in return, let me know

Now, what I really need to do is work on my soldering techniques... I saw a post by someone who got flamed hard for his soldering technique. I felt for him. It looked like some I have done in the past.

I'm sure you could answer a question/fear I've always had about soldering...

OK, I know you always heat the component with the iron rather than using the iron to melt the solder to the component which would result in a "cold" soldered joint.

My fear has always been that that heat generated by holding the iron to the wire/speaker lead/etc. would damage the voice coil, melt the insulation, etc. Am I completely off base here? I've always used crimp connectors due to this fear.

Any tips you have would be greatly appreciated. Your opinions are highly valued.

Thanks.
bozzchem

Southbound

Hey bozz,
Yes, I have posted SEVERAL threads on the theory of the terminator mod. There have been several explanations and several debates about the subject. I'm not sure which thread you read, but believe me, there's more than you would ever want to read about it somewhere on this server.

But since a picture is worth a thousand words... check out this thread. It has some scope photos of audio waveforms with and without the mod. It's fairly evident that there is a difference. Just how audible it is... or how precise a particular set of speakers can chase the changes is a case by case situation.

http://www.acura-tl.com/forum/showth...of+performance

In my experience, Klipsch speakers have been really nice, especially in the high frequency range where this mod's affect on clarity would be most noticed. The mod is not so great as to hear the difference by simply attaching it on and off instantly, like when you switch between different speakers. It's a subtle improvement with overall clarity. You have to take the time to listen to a few minutes of a particular nicely recorded song with no interruptions, (i.e. your eyes shut and the lights dim) get used to how things sound without the mod... then use clip leads to quickly hookup the terminator mod across your speaker terminals. Then re-listen to the same exact song at the same exact volume and the same exact listening position. You will notice right away the improvement. It's subtle... but you will find that you NOTICE things that you never heard before. Like you will finally understand the lyrics of a difficult song... or you will hear a breath between vocals... or the piano will sound MUCH smoother. Then go back and forth with the mod on and off a few times. With the mod off, a piano tends to all of a sudden sound "sour"... vocals are harsher and it just tends to "blare" when really cranked. With the mod, you will find that you can turn things up louder, before they become annoyingly loud. Given these testing conditions, I can tell you if the mod is on or off blindfolded.... I understand your skepticism... I've debated the subject with many EEs who have called me nuts... until they listened... One fellow EE member of this forum kept debating that it couldn't possibly do anything. He even had some professor PHD in electrical engineering tell him the same thing. Yet, I would say about 80% of the people who have tried this mod, have noticed an improvement. It just depends on how well you listen. If you enjoy hiphop/ rap with very exaggerated bass and you're going after more and more volume to make yourself happy... chances are, you won't have the resolution to notice the change. But if you truly appreciate clarity, and audiophile listening techniques... I'm willing to bet that you'll notice a pleasant improvement.

Bottom line... It only cost a few bucks per mod... and a piece of cake to install. YOU CAN'T hurt anything... so you have nothing to lose in trying it. But it will gain you the equivalent improvement of replacing ordinary zipcord with several hundreds of dollars in audiophile speaker wire upgrades.

As far as soldering... There are some tips and tricks... but it's not that hard to learn.

1. First make sure that you have a wet sponge to clean the tip of your iron with between solder joints.

2. Make sure that you "tin" the soldering iron TIP first! Heat up the iron, apply some solder to its tip and keep wiping the iron on the sponge until the old solder has been cleaned off. Do this a couple of times until you have a nice shiny tip with no solder blobs hanging from it.

3. Next "tin" BOTH SIDES of your solder connection. Your fear of the heat damaging anything is fairly minimal. It won't damage any components or the voicecoil... unless you keep the iron there WAAAAY TOOOOOOO long. In that case, you'll have a COLD joint from boiling out the flux. Shrink tubing used for insulation WILL SHRINK and run away from you if you don't do things really fast... Therefore, I'd advise all novice solderers to strip off some excess thick insulation from some larger spare wire and use it to sleeve the resistor and capacitor leads. I use TEFLON sleeving that DOESN'T MELT... I don't know if it's available at Radio Schlock or not? It is really handy to have though, because you can put a direct iron on it and it won't melt at all. Anyway, if you do things correctly... ordinary thick gauge wire sleeving won't melt enough to worry about during this job. Look how good of job Y2K did WITH shrink tubing... But to make it easier for you, strip something from like 16ga wire and use it. To tin both sides of the connection... Use an iron with a tip of around 700 degrees (although this isn't essential, but it's the temp that I work with) Apply the iron to the lead or terminal to be tinned first. Hold it there for only a second or two and then apply solder to the junction of the iron and the tip. KEEP ROTATING the tip of the iron around instead of just leaving it in one spot. This will produce even heating and keep the flux from the "tinned" iron from boiling away from the joint. CLEAN the iron on the sponge between EACH process. Once the lead(s) or terminals have been tinned.... they will take to each other READILY! Go back over each tinned joint BRIEFLY and add just a bit of excess solder. Position the two parts together and touch the iron to the junction. Keep the tip moving just a tiny bit and add a BIT of solder. Things will flow together like butter at this point! The KEY is to have each part tinned first. This removes the oxidation on the parts and applys a layer of solder and flux to the parts that are going to be joined. YOUR WORST ENEMY IS TOO MUCH SOLDER! You should have a nice shiny smooth joint when finished. You can tell if things "flowed" or not. During the original tinning process, make sure that everything flowed nicely before even trying to make the final connection... or else you will end up holding the iron in place too long and burning up insulation. A resistor will get too hot to touch during this, but it won't cause any damage. YOUR SECOND WORST ENEMY IS HOLDING THE IRON ON THE JUNCTION TOO LONG! Actually, that is probably your first worst mistake. If you hold the iron in one spot too long, you will boil the flux out of the solder, and no matter how much longer you keep trying to make things stick.... they won't! In that case, clean the iron all over again... re-tin it, and heat up the bad solder enough to remove it. Do the process over and over until you have a clean surface to work with. Just keep rotating or moving the iron a tiny bit on the part you are heating and you will be fine. Unless you are dealing with excessive corrosion... (and you're not!) things will tin just nicely with resin core 60/40 solder (60%tin/40%lead) the flux is inside the hollow center of the solder. NO NEED to buy extra solder paste. That is only required for BIG JOBS where you are trying to heat up something like a water pipe or giant terminal, etc. If the joint is cold, it will be "cratered" looking and dull. The joint should be shiny and smooth. You will get this if you tin both parts first, then don't keep the iron on the junction for longer than it take to flow nicely. If you don't hold the heat there long enough you will get a cold joint, and if you hold it there TOO LONG, you will get a cold joint... It just takes practice... Practice on the bench with some components first until you get the "feel of the flow"...

Hope this has helped? As for the DX6s... yes you got a real bargain! As I've always said about this upgrade... It's cheap enough to be expendable in the future if you decide to really go all out on an upgrade

Good luck!
Southbound