Dual Electronics LS205EB Main / Stereo Speaker
Out of stock |
Similar in Home Theater Speakers and Subwoofers
- Speakers Function: Main / Stereo
- Construction: 2-Way
- Connectivity: Cable
- Magnetic Shielding: Not Magnetically Shielded
- Nominal Power: 80 Watt RMS
- Peak Power Handling: 160 Watt
Similar in Home Theater Speakers and Subwoofers
- Overview
-
Reviews
-
Compare Prices
User ReviewRead All Reviews »
Sounds MUCH better once you modify the crossover
Pros
Very cheap. Good bass for the size. NOT boomy. Small size = high WAF.
Cons
Low efficiency. Bad crossover design, but easily fixed. Not shielded.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Decent low cost speakers that can be made to sound very good with a few modifications.
I bought these from Circuit City mainly because they were small and cheap, and because they were getting decent reviews in the CC web page. When I got home and wired them up, I was immediately impressed with the amount of CLEAN bass for such a small speaker, and the treble sounded loud and clear, but these speakers also had some obvious flaws. The upper mids were too weak. This made vocals sound distant and muted. Also, the treble was too bright, so extended listening gave me lots of "ear fatigue"
Out of curiosity, I decided to open them up and see what, if anything, I could do to fix this. Immediately I noticed the cause of the problem. The tweeter crossover is a single 2.2uF non-polar electrolytic capacitor. This put the crossover frequency fairly high, around 9KHz range. Knowing that 5 1/4" woofers of similar design typically roll off around 3-6KHz, this meant that there was LARGE gap in the upper mids. Also, most tweeter crossovers have some amount of attenuation (resistance) to match the naturally lower efficiency of woofers. These speakers lacked any tweeter attenuation, which explained the overly loud treble.
Thankfully these flaws are easy to correct. I replaced the 2.2uF NP-lytic cap with two higher quality 2.2uF polyester film capacitors in parallel, for a total of 4.4uF. I then added 3.3 ohms of resistance in series with the capacitors, using three 10 ohm resistors in parallel. These two changes brought the crossover frequency down to about 4KHz to fill in the upper mids and attenuated the tweeter by about 3dB to eliminate the excessive brilliance.
The changes had their intended effect. The sound is much more balanced than before. The upper-mids are vastly improved. Vocals no longer sound distant and muted. Treble is no longer ear-piercing. I think there's still room for tweaking of the crossover a bit. The crossover frequency probably should be a bit lower and I feel that I may have attenuated the tweeter a touch more than it should be, but for now I think I'll leave it as it is.
BTW, despite what the product description says in the manual and on the web page, the speakers I received do NOT use piezo tweeters. This is a good thing since piezos are known to be even more overly bright than typical magnet-based cone/dome tweets.
Out of curiosity, I decided to open them up and see what, if anything, I could do to fix this. Immediately I noticed the cause of the problem. The tweeter crossover is a single 2.2uF non-polar electrolytic capacitor. This put the crossover frequency fairly high, around 9KHz range. Knowing that 5 1/4" woofers of similar design typically roll off around 3-6KHz, this meant that there was LARGE gap in the upper mids. Also, most tweeter crossovers have some amount of attenuation (resistance) to match the naturally lower efficiency of woofers. These speakers lacked any tweeter attenuation, which explained the overly loud treble.
Thankfully these flaws are easy to correct. I replaced the 2.2uF NP-lytic cap with two higher quality 2.2uF polyester film capacitors in parallel, for a total of 4.4uF. I then added 3.3 ohms of resistance in series with the capacitors, using three 10 ohm resistors in parallel. These two changes brought the crossover frequency down to about 4KHz to fill in the upper mids and attenuated the tweeter by about 3dB to eliminate the excessive brilliance.
The changes had their intended effect. The sound is much more balanced than before. The upper-mids are vastly improved. Vocals no longer sound distant and muted. Treble is no longer ear-piercing. I think there's still room for tweaking of the crossover a bit. The crossover frequency probably should be a bit lower and I feel that I may have attenuated the tweeter a touch more than it should be, but for now I think I'll leave it as it is.
BTW, despite what the product description says in the manual and on the web page, the speakers I received do NOT use piezo tweeters. This is a good thing since piezos are known to be even more overly bright than typical magnet-based cone/dome tweets.
See Related Products
Recently Viewed
Most Popular In Home Theater Speakers and Subwoofers
