[thelostMIDrange]

Then with that logic, paint should be great on the outside as it would dampen any resonance. Maybe, who knows, as einstein said, condemnaton without investigagtion is the height of ignorance.....never hurts to personally investigate things. I've done alot with guitars' finish's that I've made, but it's a different animal with different end goals.

 

[stratocaster]

At this point thelostMid might be the only person on this planet to both have the ability to work the lathe AND the devotion to sound to give us "raw" wood data as to their synergy with the Magnums. Too much focus is placed on fancy wood looks and business interests. We might have to re-think this approach and base our wood choices on the different sound implications of different woods/finishes to finally see our sound expectations and preferences be met on a more objective or data-related basis.
 
In my view there are two approaches that stand opposed to each other. Firstly, there are those who look for neutrality, the "raw" sound without any change or color coming from amps or drivers or sleeves. As a result they shy away from wood because it definitely does something to the sound. Secondly, there are those who are out to tune the sound to hear the warmth, body, bloom or whatever they like to hear when listening to music. As a result they go for wood, certain drivers, amps, eq-ing, modding and tweaking. I guess Rhydon, using alu sleeves, would fall into the first category. Others, myself included, may love the "wood sound" more. When tuning the drivers to my preferred sound signature by experimenting with woods, diameters, profiles, tweaks etc. I am doing something to the music myself getting it to please my ears and soul. That's a big part of the fun for me. That's the way I like it and I do not really worry about what others think about it. To each their own. 

 

[thelostMIDrange]

totally agree if neutral is what someone wants, stay far away from any wood.......the problem with wood, or the challenge in my mind, is how to reduce it's non-musical properties and let it's musical affects come through. Instead of neutral, searching for natural. two different things. To me neutral is never enjoyable for music. but neither is un-natural 'wood color'.............The issue for me is, wondering, is there a wood I haven't tried that is the perfect fit for a magnum, or is limba and mahogany the closest I can get and will have to find a finish for each to maximize their potential. I'm tempted to keep on trying woods since they all sound different. every darn one of them has. So it makes me wonder? I saw an olive board today, but it was $150. So many woods, so little gas left in the tank.

 

[stratocaster]

I do like my olive cups. Yet they are really low profile and carry flats. I do not know if it is the wood that helps that much to create my preferred sound signature or the whole setup.You might arrive at completely different impressions, though. 150 bucks for an experiment? Would be too much a risk for me, even more so if I already arrived at awesome sounding Limba.

 

[thelostMIDrange]

it was a 'burl' olive so it was unusually expensive. But even limba has it's issues. All wood does. I'm sure there is no wood that doesn't the more I think about it. I might be better off using my remaining energy in dialing in the finish since it's just as big a variable if not more than the wood itself. I think limba is about as good a platform to jump off of than anything else and it's alot cheaper to make a bunch of limba cups and try a half dozen differnt finish combos than to keep on buying boards and trying other woods.....I think i've just made my decision.......but still a nagging wonder? Maybe one of lifes great mysteries.  I'll go to my  grave, thinking, maybe that peruvian walnut would have been perfect !

 

[stratocaster]

Experimenting is fun, no doubt. Yet, there are so many variables. Even if you use the same wood, the same finish, the same cup design, the same cable,the same jacks, the same mesh, the same driver. You would still not take any driver construction and material differences into account. Who says that all V4's sound absolutely the same? Even those from the same batch?
Rarely anybody is A/B-ing several RS1's, let alone in different setups. But that's part of the fun. Owning several magnum sets, gotten hold of at a very fair price, enables me to do just that and build or fine tune MY perfect sets of headphones. I am loving it.

 

[chrislangley4253]

Quote:

At this point thelostMid might be the only person on this planet to both have the ability to work the lathe AND the devotion to sound to give us "raw" wood data as to their synergy with the Magnums. Too much focus is placed on fancy wood looks and business interests. We might have to re-think this approach and base our wood choices on the different sound implications of different woods/finishes to finally see our sound expectations and preferences be met on a more objective or data-related basis.
 
In my view there are two approaches that stand opposed to each other. Firstly, there are those who look for neutrality, the "raw" sound without any change or color coming from amps or drivers or sleeves. As a result they shy away from wood because it definitely does something to the sound. Secondly, there are those who are out to tune the sound to hear the warmth, body, bloom or whatever they like to hear when listening to music. As a result they go for wood, certain drivers, amps, eq-ing, modding and tweaking. I guess Rhydon, using alu sleeves, would fall into the first category. Others, myself included, may love the "wood sound" more. When tuning the drivers to my preferred sound signature by experimenting with woods, diameters, profiles, tweaks etc. I am doing something to the music myself getting it to please my ears and soul. That's a big part of the fun for me. That's the way I like it and I do not really worry about what others think about it. To each their own. 

yup, yup... I finally agree with mr. stratocaster
 


Quote:

  I'll go to my  grave, thinking, maybe that peruvian walnut would have been perfect !

The limba sounds too good to do that to yourself.. You'll go to you're grave rocking out, no doubt. 
 
 

 

[thelostMIDrange]

I wonder too about 'batch' variation of drivers and/or individual variation. Would seem such a delicate creation (if you look inside a driver - that how its made video shows one similar- you know it's a fragile little wonder) could easily vary? Maybe a batch of driver material was made in a different humidity environment or something. I have no idea really how such glorious sound even comes shooting out of one of those drivers. It may as well be magic to me. totally baffles me.....that being said, I recently bought 3 sets at once and they all sounded pretty darn similar to each other. I then proceeded to use them for different amounts of time and they immidiately started to sound different from each other. My guess is different timings as they are each on their way to their final destination tone know as 'burned in'.......I've also heard two sets at about 250-300 hours and they were pretty darn identical. So it is a possibility than there is very little to no variation in the drivers once they see a certain amount of time in use.............and one more possibility. They continue to change even after 300 hours. Hopefully not.
 
I also can add that guitar speakers sound different in different environments. The same guitar cab played in the arizona desert sounds different than in soggy seattle. But that's because the surface area of the paper cone (driver) is so large and is reacting to the humidity and temperature. The driver in a magnum is pretty small in comparison, so I think it's safe to say location wouldn't be an issue with them?

 

[Chris_Himself]

What are these limba cups I keep hearing about and who do I send my hard earned money to to get them?

 

[dorino]

I'm still wondering how a burned in magnum in mahogany compares to a pair of RS1i's or likewise. This is a very informative thread.
 
 
Quote:

So it is a possibility than there is very little to no variation in the drivers once they see a certain amount of time in use.............and one more possibility. They continue to change even after 300 hours. 

 
I believe it's normal that there's variations in burn-in time, even with two of the same kind of drivers.

 

[thelostMIDrange]

painted hond mahog outside only vs raw hond mahog    v4 300 hours
 

 
Paint on the outside only, is certainly no liability and possibly an asset. The difference between these two is subtle, but If forced to choose one, I would pick the painted set. In fact I will finish painting these and make a set out of them with standard oil on inside-  even didn't get all the paint off and still they sound quite nice. So paint on inside. Big no no. outside, I don't see why not .

 

[thelostMIDrange]

identical limba cups except inside finish:
one has wetsanded gunstock oil with no top coat the other has gunstock oil inner with inner topcoat of paste wax         v4 300 hours  the waxed is a little artificially 'smooth' sounding. Things are a little smeared together and snare drums are artifically 'fat' sounding. I was already familiar with the affect of wax on the inside because I made 2 sets with this formula a while back, when I placed less importance on the inside surface. I was waxing the outside, and said, why not wax the inside too. It's not that the wax on inside sets were terrible sounding, just a little artifical and smeared. It became irritating after listening for longer time periods when all the songs had a carry-over of some quality. That's when I knew something is up and traced it back to the wax. I don't recognize any ill affects from wax on the outside however and have made many sets with it.
fec
 
 

 

[thelostMIDrange]

I don't mean to hog this thread but might as well post some of this stuff since this is what i've been doing for myself. I can even reference back later myself. I should have written down this kind of stuff starting a couple months ago when I had a dozen or so different wood species. Instead I just listened to the raw woods and if there was some obvious annoyance that seemed too much of an obstacle to alter with the finish treatment, it got tossed it on the floor and swept up at the end of the week. That was a mistake thinking back. From memory, I had tried : koa, indian rosewoond, wenge, cocobolo, hard rock maple, tiger maple, cherry, jatoba (brazilian cherry), domestic walnut, claro walnut, indonesian mahogany, african mahogany. Several of these I had already in the shop from past projects. This is how I stumbled on the limba actualy. I had cutoffs from a guitar I made several years ago and I knew it was acousin of mahogany which grado uses and figured that would be a great candidate.

 

[chrislangley4253]

Quote:

So paint on inside. Big no no. outside, I don't see why not .

I had a feeling.. 


Quote:

 This is how I stumbled on the limba actualy. I had cutoffs from a guitar I made several years ago and I knew it was acousin of mahogany which grado uses and figured that would be a great candidate.

You make guitars? neat!
 

 

[dorino]

I knew he worked with something stringed the moment he mentioned limba... That's all it's really used for is string instruments.