[thelostMIDrange]

a couple hours listening to the raw wood inner/shellac outer...it's not it. everything is fine, even sounding,  true instruments, natural. no obvious defects, but it's a little too dry sounding. It's missing some element of mystery and fun. missing a touch of compression and 'give' in the midrange. i.e. opposite of dryness.............
 
 
 
 
found something..
 
it's the tru oil that brings out the ortho type mid compression in the driver. 'bloom'.......apply with rag. wait 4 hours, use the scuff side of  a slightly damp sink sponge to wipe a few times around followed right away with a t shirt to wipe up some slurry and spread the rest around smooth....
 
final feel is very thin oil/wood look
 

 
sounds rich and musical. instruments are still true and natural. the oil also brings out the upper end character...that was the trick and what the other finishes couldn't do..... totally different than the dry raw wood sound inner. And it takes a total of 5 minutes in actual time to transform the sound....the finish matters. you can change the entire character of the sound with just a thin application to the inner walls. amazing....the problem is the bass gets less defined......
 
 
 

 

[thelostMIDrange]

I think burn in on these drivers is minor. I've been listening to these cups with drivers that have 2 hours on them and they sound rich and warm without a trace of harshness or uncontrolled bass.

 

[sluker]

Are you talking about the latest batch of blacks? 

 

[thelostMIDrange]

yep...
 
the power of cup tuning is too much. It's scary how much the sound can be influenced. Just this oil. If it's too rich of a sound, thin it some more and it goes back towards the raw wood sound.....I tried these cups with 300 hour drivers and 2 hour drivers and i can get them to sound almost identical. The new drivers want a little more oil the old ones less......these cups really shouldn't be made by anyone other than the maker of the driver imo. There's too much influence from the cup. The driver's total character can be changed by wood, cup shape and finish.

 

[thelostMIDrange]

too much oil left and the bass becomes a little bulbous and murky. So that's what I'm using to gauge how far to thin it back. Where there is a balance of mid compression and clear bass.

 

[thelostMIDrange]

not many will get this reference. but dialing in this inner wall oil is similar to the gradual change the old fender and marshall guitar amplifiers went through from the mid 60's into the mid 70's.....It went from thick fender bassman round sound with slightly loose low end to early marshall plexi jtm's with a little more cut, but still a nice balance of richness and dryness and then into the early 70's marshalls became more dry and had more cut and less body with tighter low end. This is the same thing that happens except in reverse with the inner wall oil. It goes from dry with cut and tight bass all the way to rich and deep with looser less defined low end. I always like teh '68 marshall plexi which was a nice balance of both and that is what I am going for with the cups. I wish I could find a way to keep the midrange compression without it messing up the bass......I've wetsanded away most of the oil at this point and am 90% back to a raw wood sound just to get the bass back in tune.

 

[stratocaster]

Have you ever tried the concept of wooden distancers, putting a distance of about 1/2 " between driver and ear, using G-cushs? this is the concept of the MS1000 or Ultimate as of in this thread? Could be another way to go.

 

[thelostMIDrange]

atten liamstrain...
 
Do you have any idea what the high frequency vs low frequency's look like as they are travelling thorugh the cup?  Meaning could I spread the oil thicker towards the front of the cup to get mid compression but leave it drier towards the back to keep the bass from getting bulbous?  I know this stuff sounds crazy at this point, but this is what i'm hearing....I want this midrange compression from the oil but do not want it's affect on the low end......

 

[thelostMIDrange]

I have tried that but not in a while and not with respect to this issue in particular.......the issue though is not that the bass is getting messed up in that way. It's more of a type of saturation that is totally the affect of the oil. I can't envision moving the driver away would take away the oils' affect on the low end. I've got a nice balance now at about 10% oil left, but i lost a little mid compression that was very pleasing and musical.

 

[thelostMIDrange]

I wonder if I just coated the bottom half of each cup or the top half of each cup....or just the near half or outer half....that kind of thing. something to let the oil affect everything except the lows......but' i'd need to know what a sound wave looks like as it is travelling through the cup, or if that's even how the sound wave works....i have no clue

 

[thelostMIDrange]

I may try the danish instead of tru oil, which I recall had a different version of the same affect.

 

[liamstrain]

My experience with the G-cush is that it will reduce bass overall, and tends to make all grado drivers sound tinny. Not recommended on any can, even the G1000/M1000/P1000. I think a spacer would have the same effect. 
 
thelostMIDrange, I'm not really sure how differential oil would affect the sound, but that sounds like it would be akin to a partial damping of that near area, which should attenuate the upper range more than anything else. Worth a shot, but I don't really know in this case - really you're dealing with all the soundwaves hitting all parts at (roughly) the same time - so its more a matter of changing how they scatter, reflect and resonate - rather than where.
 
I'm frankly surprised still you are getting this much difference from the finishes. 

 

[stratocaster]

It would seem logical to me that if your objective is to get some sort of interaction between the sound waves and the wood, this could rather be achieved by dealing with wood/whatever material between driver and ear, since this is what will predominantly reach your ear. That is why I suggested distancers. I recall the MS1000 sound as well textured and layered in the bass, slightly enhanced in the highs.
I tried G-cushs without distancers, the result was what liamstrain describes. But it was great with distancers. No bass reduction, bass enhancement!

 

[liamstrain]

Something to consider with the differential finish on the interior. I think it's not so much that highs are front, and bass is at the back or visa versa, but more of a percentage of coverage vs. raw wood... you could, for instance, use vertical stripes and achieve the same sound, I would think. 
 
That's my best guess. I don't have any access to acoustic modeling software at the moment (and of course, a complete lack of useful coeficients for this specific wood and finish options).

 

[thelostMIDrange]

oh, the affect of a light oil is quite large....and as i wetsand it away, I can hear it's affects disappear.