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[MOD]Z-5500 Rewiring satellites

post #1 of 104
7/13/07 at 8:17am
Thread Starter 
Inspired by a friend of mine who did the same mod... here it is...
Complete rewiring your Z-5500 Satellite cables for far superior audio quality.

needed parts:



start by installing pure silver cable to Front & Rear L/R satellites.



next, installing silver plated copper cable to center satellite.



Installing Y-shaped plug with the cables


ok... the hard part is done!
all you need to do next is hooking up all the cables.


thadaaaaa!!!!!
all done....

next project is Capacitors modding!
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post #2 of 104
7/13/07 at 8:21am
Can you hear a discernible difference?
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post #3 of 104
7/13/07 at 8:30am
Thread Starter 
Z-5500 Capacitors Modding

while completely opening and desoldering the original Capasitors was really complicated, i decided to add the capacitors by paralleling new capacitors with hi grades cables. (actually, completely changing the caps will give better result)

using Nichicon Gold Tune 15000uf 100V


finished:



not only it will give u more powerfull bass, it also make it deeper and less boomy.
not to mention the vocal clarity thus making it more revealing.
better not forget the sound staging

next project is... Z-5500 Panel mod!
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post #4 of 104
7/13/07 at 8:31am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by saxahonker View Post
Can you hear a discernible difference?
depends on how many glasses of beer u drank bruddah

all i can say is that.... it will start to show that your speaker is not all that good....
and eventually u'll start to spend more money on CDs too
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post #5 of 104
7/13/07 at 8:38am
  • CyberDruid
  • (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧·★゜・。☆゜。 ・ﾟ
I love tthis stuff...
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post #6 of 104
7/13/07 at 9:25am
Thread Starter 
currently pairing my modded Z-5500 with modded X-Fi Xtreme music.
now i believe that they are performing at max.

it may not beat other soundcard in music, but definetly beat others in movies and games!

it will take a while till the control panel mod is finished, still confused on which caps should replace the original ones.

unmodded:

Back side of the PCB


Front side of the PCB


well i could try changing the opamp to LM4562 or AD8599....

but... maybe later...

enough experimenting for now boys...
i'll post the final mod later
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post #7 of 104
7/13/07 at 9:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ.BigBear View Post
Inspired by a friend of mine who did the same mod... here it is...
Complete rewiring your Z-5500 Satellite cables for far superior audio quality.

needed parts:



start by installing pure silver cable to Front & Rear L/R satellites.



next, installing silver plated copper cable to center satellite.



Installing Y-shaped plug with the cables


ok... the hard part is done!
all you need to do next is hooking up all the cables.


thadaaaaa!!!!!
all done....

next project is Capacitors modding!
I don't know how to break this to you, but running new speaker wire to the speakers will not change the sq, unless you are running them over 100ft away. You are talking about AC current, and a small 18ga speaker wire will deliver 600+watts rms over 100ft easy. Changing the caps and coils could change the the frequency res..., but at a sacrafice of the speaker trying to do things it can not do at high volumes. If you listen to the system at normal or lower volumes you could drop the cut off frequency about 10-20hz, and be safe, and you could rebuild the sub sonic high pass on the sub if it has one. For x-over building check out http://the12volt.com/ or you can download this http://www.linearteam.dk/default.aspx?pageid=winisdpro box building program, and I think it has a x-over builder program in it. Other than gold, copper wire would be the best bet for quality of sound, but after the $ raise of copper, you will see it mixed with other metals to save $.
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post #8 of 104
7/13/07 at 11:05am
Thread Starter 
well.. actually u're right... i shouldn't say "improve", but it does lessen the distortion produced by lousy cables(which is quite significant).
i mean... that's exactly why ppl invented hundreds of dollard worth of audio cables, sunshine.
so basically you're right, it's not improvement if it's only regaining what is lost.

i think i should post about the differences in rewiring.
not only that u get less distortion, all the sound that was overbright before will become less "intoxicating", not to mention the center speaker will hold @ higher volume.

again u're right about the caps, it will insist the speakers to produce something they cannot produce at higher volumes, i did told ya earlier:
Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ.BigBear View Post
all i can say is that.... it will start to show that your speaker is not all that good....
but we're talking about Z-5500 here, is there actually someone uses 80% volume on it daily? LOL

as for your idea in x-over, that's a nice idea but as of now,i dun think it's necessary. thx anyway bro
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post #9 of 104
7/13/07 at 11:38am
Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ.BigBear View Post
well.. actually u're right... i shouldn't say "improve", but it does lessen the distortion produced by lousy cables(which is quite significant).
i mean... that's exactly why ppl invented hundreds of dollard worth of audio cables, sunshine.
so basically you're right, it's not improvement if it's only regaining what is lost.

again u're right about the caps, it will insist the speakers to produce something they cannot produce at higher volumes, i did told ya earlier:

but we're talking about Z-5500 here, is there actually someone uses 80% volume on it daily? LOL

as for your idea in x-over, that's a nice idea but as of now,i dun think it's necessary. thx anyway bro
To be more accurate, you will not hear a difference, buy yes if you looked at it on an o-scope, you will see a diff., however, it sure is fun to rewire if you enjoy the task.
If you can find it Radio shack used to have a book on speaker box building that used the cheap Radio Shack speakers, and I was amaized at the output and quality of sound I got after building the system with $3-$8 speakers.
BTW the reason they make all the expecive cables is because they have lowered the margin on electronics soo much, that they had to make $ somewhere else. I regularly install $5k+ systems in homes and cars, I will only spend the $ on high end low level rca cables for the uper end of the frequency band, but when it comes to subs, go cheap and save the $. Ever wonder why you can get a HDMI cable on E-bay for 1/10'th the cost of Best buy? That is how BB lowers the price on the electronic equipment, and that is how they install for "free"
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post #10 of 104
7/13/07 at 11:47am
Thread Starter 
well i guess u do have a point there mate.... not all of it... but indeed i got your point
but really... my ears are not fooling me.... it does make a significant differences. tried it on music, movies and gaming(not much diff in gaming tho).
if there's any way to let you hear the differences...
ofcourse i wouldn't suggest anyone to mod their speakers if the differences were too small.
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