Has anyone ever tried to modify 4311WX-A to be a mirror image pair ?

[4311]

:) Hi to all,

Has anyone ever tried to modify 4311WX-A to be a mirror image pair ?
It should be an advantage there and thinking about to modify my pair. Any idea / experience can be shared ?
Are the cut out of the tweeter and the mid-range the same ?

[bbrown]

I have thought about it. I figured I would just make a second set of cabinets to try out the idea, thereby leaving the originals intact. No veneer or anything, just see if they image better..:blah:

Too many other projects, of a larger scale that I am working on to get into it.

I've mixed enough on my 4311s to feel they never let me down, so I don't know if it would be worth the trouble.

Bruce

[Robh3606]

Hello 4311

I did it years ago and also took the front edge off the cabinets to help get rid of difraction effects. I thought they sounded better my friends thought I was nuts. If those cabinets are in really good shape I would think twice. You just killed your resale. I would build new and drop them in a mirrored offset inline. That way you can experimant and compare against the original and not loose your shirt if you decide to sell them down the road.

Rob:)

[GordonW]

Hello 4311

I did it years ago and also took the front edge off the cabinets to help get rid of difraction effects. I thought they sounded better my friends thought I was nuts. If those cabinets are in really good shape I would think twice. You just killed your resale. I would build new and drop them in a mirrored offset inline. That way you can experimant and compare against the original and not loose your shirt if you decide to sell them down the road.

Rob:)

I'd agree about not modifying a pristine pair of 4311 cabinets. In addition to building, there are pre-made options... here's one: Madisound's Woodstyle WS123 cabinet, on this page:

http://www.madisound.com/woodstyle.html

The WS123 is effectively the same baffle width (about 14.5", as opposed to just a hair over 14" for the 4311, which should be darn well close enough to not change the baffle effects on the drivers) and close in height (25" as opposed to 24" or so for a 4311), so the original crossover and such should work fine.

With these, you can do stuff that might well improve the sonics, such as flush-mounting the drivers (not just the woofer, but more importanly, the midrange and tweeter), possibly even straight-line mounting the drivers (offsetting the mid and tweeter slightly to one side in a mirror image, but with the tweeter DIRECTLY ABOVE the mid, to improve the soundstaging "focus"), and such. Since the cabinet is so close to the same size (1.7 cubic feet as opposed to about 1.6 cubic feet for the 4311), the factory port size will work... I'd just duplicate the factory port dimensions with some PVC pipe and elbows.

In any case, the cabinets aren't the cheapest thing... but at $195 a pair, with FINISHED VENEER and grilles, it's definitely a decent value for the cabinets themselves, compared to going through the time, effort and materials of making them. It's definitely about as close to a "turn-key" option as there is out there...

Regards,
Gordon.

[4311]

I appreciate everyone's kindly help.