My pimped up classics...
I had the very great pleasure today of delivering my old Goodmans Goodwoods into the hands of their saviour, Paul of RFC.
Paul has built one of the finest pairs of speakers I've heard - the RFC Fidelos, and he continues to tweak and tune these, and push them with a variety of super amps. Intetestingly, as we examined the base of the Goodwoods this afternoon Paul remarked that they shared the same metal dome feet as do the Fildelos, so i presume that they will sound identical once he's finished with the Goodwoods. ;-)
On the list of overhaul jobs that Paul has drawn up for the Goodwoods are new tweeters, new internal wiring and attention/renewals to the crossovers, oh and relocation and replacement of the binding posts (currently tiny screw-downs on the underside of the cabinets).
I'm chuffed with the prospect of what might happen to the Goodwoods' performance, but more than that, i am delighted that as decent and as talented a human being as Paul will be working on the speakers.
He had talked me through (very reasonable) pricings for the various options and we have agreed a budget. Future developments have been discussed (e.g. new mid range drivers), so further investments in the 1973 units may be made if the old boys respond well to the first raft of attention.
Thanks Paul!
Meanwhile Colin has revamped my old Claymore (again at a generous price), which was sounding amazing before it had to return to its kind, genius and thoughtful maker for a second bout of tlc.
So soon i'll have 2 pieces of classic kit, revitalised and renewed. The sound of these pieces of equipment is the main issue, but also important to me is that 2 good friends, and brilliant human beings have given to them their time, energy and expertise.
:-)
Paul has built one of the finest pairs of speakers I've heard - the RFC Fidelos, and he continues to tweak and tune these, and push them with a variety of super amps. Intetestingly, as we examined the base of the Goodwoods this afternoon Paul remarked that they shared the same metal dome feet as do the Fildelos, so i presume that they will sound identical once he's finished with the Goodwoods. ;-)
On the list of overhaul jobs that Paul has drawn up for the Goodwoods are new tweeters, new internal wiring and attention/renewals to the crossovers, oh and relocation and replacement of the binding posts (currently tiny screw-downs on the underside of the cabinets).
I'm chuffed with the prospect of what might happen to the Goodwoods' performance, but more than that, i am delighted that as decent and as talented a human being as Paul will be working on the speakers.
He had talked me through (very reasonable) pricings for the various options and we have agreed a budget. Future developments have been discussed (e.g. new mid range drivers), so further investments in the 1973 units may be made if the old boys respond well to the first raft of attention.
Thanks Paul!
Meanwhile Colin has revamped my old Claymore (again at a generous price), which was sounding amazing before it had to return to its kind, genius and thoughtful maker for a second bout of tlc.
So soon i'll have 2 pieces of classic kit, revitalised and renewed. The sound of these pieces of equipment is the main issue, but also important to me is that 2 good friends, and brilliant human beings have given to them their time, energy and expertise.
:-)
Comments
It's like the first 16 week ultrasound scan photo.
Thanks for your time and care with these Paul.
Paul is a tweakery addict. Spare the poor man your heartless opiate wafting.
Seriously, Mr RFC is a music loving engineer. Utterly thorough in his quest to achieve the best performance possible. Thoroughly decent chap to boot.
BTW how much would placing a "Fidelos-LITE" badge to the grilles add to the overall cost...?
Badges made from telurium copper are they...? ;-)
Thanks for the blog and photos.
And i appreciate (tho am unsurprised by) your honesty re the new v old tweeters.
We'll see/hear over time whether a more sensitive tweeter is something i want to try.
Will report in full soon, but initial response is that i've been a gibbering emotional wreck for the last 10 minutes.
Love music, love these speakers and love Paul's work. :-)
When I dropped them to him they were a...hmmm...interesting proposition. Wonderful bass, but with a very messy and ragged sound beyond that, especially upper mids where all snare drums sounded the same. The speakers that I collected yesterday retain all the bass impact, but are otherwise unrecognisable: smooth, natural, transparent and *literally* tear jerking.
Paul is extremely thorough and painstaking in his approach, using both expert engineering knowledge and a keen ear. At the outset he
worked with me to establish an efficient budget within my means (indeed acted a few times to disuade my spending more on the speakers), throughout kept me constantly up to date with his work and was open and honest when he felt that a planned alteration would not offer the best sound for pound performance.
All in all a hugely gratifying customer experience, resulting in an above-expectation result.
I gleefully recommend his speaker renovation services. I wish him all the best with it.
My X-overs are from 1973, so got some replacement capacitors & binding posts a few months ago. I'm sure I took some pre-molested pics though.
So, if memory serves, I disconnected the Din socket & replaced the pins with proper sockets. The large cap in the middle is now a matching value 10uF ClarityCap (it's much bigger, and is cable-tied to the clamp), and the two smaller 5uF caps are replaced with some Solen Fastcaps. Only they were 4.7uF I think, so outside tolerance (but way better than previous).
The Magisters aren't without issues TBH, I still wouldn't give them house room over my Royds. I may have another play in the winter, and get the correct capacitor values in there. I think I used similar OFC multi-strand to Paul for internal wiring, but I only soldered it to the bass drivers (as I'm still unsure about the mid & tweeter).
I didn't measure the inductors (I wouldn't know how to proceed), but it is small - the whole thing looks the same as the Magnum K2/SL series. Interesting about rotating one of the side inductors - I'll be sure to next time I open them up. TBH, just getting them out of the cupboard is a mammoth task.
I agree they are in need of bracing, the cabs sing along way too much for my liking. There is plenty of internal foam - perhaps too much - this needs a good period of experimentation. It appears to be cheap mattress type foam. I would actually criticise the bass as being slightly 'tubby' at the moment. It also has issues as it rolls off into the mid - this may be because of the incorrect capacitor values. As for the midrange, if I remember correctly (I haven't removed the mids in several years) it has an enclosed rear, rather than it's own chamber.
I'd quite like to get a local sheet metal worker to make up thick new baffle plates one day, which could be bonded & bolted to the existing baffles. 4mm steel ought to do it.
So pleased was I with Paul's work on my Goodwoods, that I asked him to use his undoubted talents and expertise to push them even further.
So phase 2 is underway. Some new tweeters, with associated crossover tweaking, additional bracing and other assorted malarkey.
As his his wont, Paul sent me some photos of the work today and I want to share them here.
I'm not sure there's any more room on that crossover board...!
As I said to Paul, those waveguides for the new tweeters look like they've been nabbed from the Batmobile.
As Paul said (moaned (deep down he loves it really...!)) to me, refurbing speakers to this extent is a bit like designing new speakers.
I am very much looking forward to hearing the old Goodmans/RFC when the stage 2 refurb is complete.
When does a waveguide become a horn then?
I'll post something more detailed soon, but suffice it to say initial judgement is...
de·ment·ed
adjective \di-ˈmen-təd\: not able to think clearly or to understand what is real and what is not real : crazy or insane
From here like.
I like the bit about a diffiulty in understanding what is real and what is not real in the context of my newly refurbed speakers.
There's a cymbal strike towards the beginning of "Let's Get it on" (high res) that is, in sonic terms, the high point of my entire music collection. Sounds even more bloomin marvelous today, with the final incarnation of my Goodwoods than it has ever before. All extended, sweet and smooth but metalic and raspy at the same time. Extremely realistic. Which is what I'm always after with my hifi.
On their return from their first visit to Paul's the speakers were revolutionised. Paul did however suggest that if a further piece of work were to be carried out it would be to the tweeters, which he felt were letting the (very good) side down. I seem to remember Paul mentioning something of a drop in sensitivity in the upper registers.
At first I was so blown away by the improvement in sound quality after the original refurb (mainly cross over work and new internal cabling) that I was completely satisfied that the speakers were where I wanted them. However, over time I did sometimes find myself thinking the speakers were just a little mid-forward and that I would occasionally hanker for a bit more detail and high-frequency sparkle.
Paul agreed to take them back and complete part 2, which was led with the new more sensitive, large magnet, bat mobile tweeters. Also included were accommodating tweaks to the crossovers, more bracing to the cabinet, adjusting internal wadding, cleaning up of the bass and mid drivers and sealing them in place.
When I heard them last night at Paul's it was immediately apparent that the exact progress to the trebble detail that I had wanted had been achieved. And more besides. They sounded more dynamic, more separated and more realistic. Absolutely terrific across the whole frequency range. Tremendous.
The bracing has had a remarkable effect too. Just tapping the panels is enough to signal how much more rigid they are. And, previously, when stopping loudly played music, there would be a definite reverberation for perhaps a second or so. I had assumed that this was all to do the room echoing to the efforts of the woofer. Well apparently it wasn't, as now most of the post-stop reverberation has disappeared. More importantly, the effect of this in normal listening is that the speakers sound more accurate and cleaner.
One unexpected effect (unexpected by me that is, rather than by Paul, who actually predicted it) is that of the wave guides on stereo image. I am subconsciously used to the sound of the system changing as I move about. By moving about I mean incidental moving such as reaching for a cup of tea, bending forward to pick up a book from the floor, or standing up. It was really startling this morning when I lent across the sofa to reach for something on the side table and the sound remained utterly unchanged. This isn't a major issue under normal listening conditions, but was really weird when I experienced it.
Any comments on Paul's work must include his methodical genius. He blends artistic creativity with scientific rigour to achieve the best possible results. All too often in the hifi world, the "subjective" and the "objective" are presented as alternatives. Well, Paul clearly shows what a crock of arse that is. Paul is both an objectivist and a subjectivist (a realist..?). He talks eloquently about the musical qualities of a particular design feature and then pulls up a graph that might indicate a particular measureable aspect that tallies with perception. This of course enables his engineering knowledge to work in tandem with his creative intuition during any design process.
I feel a little uncomfortable bigging up Paul's refurbing work on my speakers. I am aware that he is soon to launch his own second speaker model. I am sure they will be superb. However, the work that he has carried out on my Goodwoods has gifted me a pair of speakers for £700 (including the original ebay purchase price) that are better than speakers that I have owned costing a grand more than that. I fear his outstanding refurb work has, in this case, done him out of one customer for his forthcoming Rhapsodies... Sorry Paul.