Other day I found these budget Sony SS-B1000 speakers for $55 a pair, so I bought two pair (5.25" 2-way ported, 120 w/rms 80hz-50khz). These were very popular speakers that used to sell for $80 and up a pair but have now reached the end of the product life cycle and are now being sold for as little as $50/pr.
The sound is bright,cool, and more bass than expected from a 5.25" woofer, but sounded like they were in a closet. They have a nice heavy MDF cabinet with shielded drivers. They were OK for little inexpensive speakers, but I had a feeling that they could be improved quite a bit. So the cabinet was opened and inspected to see what could be done to jack up their performance. There was no dampening, and the crossover was just a 1.2uF cap on the tweeter and nothing on the woofer. Put the multi-meter on them and they registered 7.2 ohms .
First change was to put in a 1" x 4" x 5" piece of open cell high density foam that covered half of the cabinet back right behind the woofer. This did a good job of cutting down reflected sound, and warmed up the tone quite a bit. Bass was improved probably because the speaker didn't sound so bright. But there was still a huge hole in the upper mid-range where vocals and acoustic guitar should have good presence. This was probably caused by the 1.2uF capacitor. It effectively crossed the tweeter at 16khz! Way too high for my liking. Went to ebay looking for cheap crossovers and to my surprise I found INFINITY REFERENCE 2000.5 2 two way passive crossovers that cross at about 5khz (based on the values of caps on the board). A really nice looking piece that has 3 chokes, 3 ceramic resistors (one on bottom) and 3 capacitors. I think its a 3rd order Butterworth design, but not sure. Not bad for $4.75 each!
After installing the crossovers, the multimeter showed 7.8 ohms on all 4 speakers. The change to sound quality was amazing! The mid-range and upper mid-range really jumped out and cymbals really sizzled. Acoustic guitar has so much more definition its not even funny. The clarity jumped up and the speakers performed well even at full output.. The difference is night and day. My 22yr old son couldn't believe they are the same speakers after the modifications.
I thought that a real crossover would help these speakers a bit, but I am totally surprised at how well responded to such a basic mod. They sound so good, I'm now using them for the front and surround speakers in the family room. Used with a BIC 12" sub crossed at 100hz, they really sound nice. Fun and inexpensive project.
The sound is bright,cool, and more bass than expected from a 5.25" woofer, but sounded like they were in a closet. They have a nice heavy MDF cabinet with shielded drivers. They were OK for little inexpensive speakers, but I had a feeling that they could be improved quite a bit. So the cabinet was opened and inspected to see what could be done to jack up their performance. There was no dampening, and the crossover was just a 1.2uF cap on the tweeter and nothing on the woofer. Put the multi-meter on them and they registered 7.2 ohms .
First change was to put in a 1" x 4" x 5" piece of open cell high density foam that covered half of the cabinet back right behind the woofer. This did a good job of cutting down reflected sound, and warmed up the tone quite a bit. Bass was improved probably because the speaker didn't sound so bright. But there was still a huge hole in the upper mid-range where vocals and acoustic guitar should have good presence. This was probably caused by the 1.2uF capacitor. It effectively crossed the tweeter at 16khz! Way too high for my liking. Went to ebay looking for cheap crossovers and to my surprise I found INFINITY REFERENCE 2000.5 2 two way passive crossovers that cross at about 5khz (based on the values of caps on the board). A really nice looking piece that has 3 chokes, 3 ceramic resistors (one on bottom) and 3 capacitors. I think its a 3rd order Butterworth design, but not sure. Not bad for $4.75 each!
After installing the crossovers, the multimeter showed 7.8 ohms on all 4 speakers. The change to sound quality was amazing! The mid-range and upper mid-range really jumped out and cymbals really sizzled. Acoustic guitar has so much more definition its not even funny. The clarity jumped up and the speakers performed well even at full output.. The difference is night and day. My 22yr old son couldn't believe they are the same speakers after the modifications.
I thought that a real crossover would help these speakers a bit, but I am totally surprised at how well responded to such a basic mod. They sound so good, I'm now using them for the front and surround speakers in the family room. Used with a BIC 12" sub crossed at 100hz, they really sound nice. Fun and inexpensive project.
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