10 September
I declared I could live without the 20% sound improvement that sir Anthony promised in a new tweak that he had discovered.
I had several reasons.
The foremost was that I was already enjoying the speakers I had bought and I was skeptical that there would be that much improvement. Going through the hassle and stress of bringing 5 large speakers from Baguio down to Manila for some minor improvement in sound quality, which I was not even sure I would notice was not just worth it, I decided.
Learning of my predicament, sir Anthony informed me that they would soon be coming up to Baguio for their kids' field trip and that he could do the tweak at night. Unfortunately typhoon Ondoy chose that time to wreak her havoc on Metro Manila and other neighboring areas. Typhoon Pepeng followed fast on her heels and decided to do the same to the Cordillera region including Pangasinan and La Union provinces and with no less damage to life and property. They say that upon catching up with each other far out in the south china sea, these two were still quarreling with each other as to who had brought the most misery to Filipinos. But I’m digressing. In short, the trip of sir Anthony to baguio did not push through
Fast forward half a year later. Sir Anthony did not forget his promise and spent precious hours of his vacation installing the tweaks he had discovered. He spent the better part of two hours performing the tweaks on 5 speakers. After seeing him back to their hotel (it was already 10pm by that time) I rushed back to my quarters to listen for any difference in the speakers.
I played some of my favorite music tracks that I had listened to countless times using the same (unmodified) speakers:
Mozart symphonies
Songs of Dan Fogelberg most of which have a prominent acoustic guitar background
Paul Simon songs - again a lot of acoustic guitar
Celtic Woman concert
On the highs I noticed a significant and positive improvement. There was more detail. One example of this is the sound of a xylophone type instrument that I had not noticed before in the Celtic Woman concert. It was only now that I could easily pick it out. Plucked stringed instrument also acquired a more realistic twang; they became more defined. Soprano voices became somehow more extended and caressing. I also notice this in the classical music tracks especially in relation to the stringed instruments and other instrument with high notes.
When I consider the improvement of the speakers because of the tweak, what comes to my mind as a comparison is the use of a microphone. It was as if the singers and musicians (in the music) had beforehand been using decent but ordinary mics (those light ones) and exchanged it for a Shure mic so that their performance is now rendered with greater fidelity and strength.
For the mids and the bass I did not notice any change.
Sir Anthony mentioned that he has implemented the tweak on all his offerings, from the Proacs clones (1sc, tritower, 2.5s, D2s, etc) to the coaxials.
I’m thinking that a lot of speakers could benefit from this tweak. So for those who are not quite satisfied with highs of their speakers you might want to consider dragging your transducers to sir Anthony’s place and convincing him to perform his miracle tweak. Of course I cannot be blamed if upon going to his place and hearing his speakers you might decide that you want to totally replace your speakers after all. I hear the coaxials are really something.
Sir Anthony a million thanks again.
Pag ma-afford ko na, yung open baffle orion clones naman.
