Worthwhile 4312 mods/upgrades?

[slowburn]

My hifi pal talked me into ebaying what look to be a minty pair of 4312s. Seller claims alnico, unmodified, excellent cabinets, and my preference, all paper drivers.

I downloaded the service manual and noticed that in addition to bypassed caps in the crossovers, they increased one of the cap's value from the model 4311. What I believe was 8uF became 10uF in the 4312.

I'm not a bypass fan. Outside of power supplies, I prefer a single, quality film cap.

So, as I'm inclined to spice up classic gear with modern passives, I was wondering what some of you may have tried and liked. Fancy new caps? (I've had great luck in various electronics with Auricaps, Cardas, Dynamicaps) Resistors? Wire? How 'bout inductors? I think the 4312 has but a single small one. Heck, $20-30 probably gets an insanely-low DCR foil model.

I'm not at all adverse to spending a bit of dough if it turns out I like the speakers. In a world where some drop a grand on cables, I've no problem putting a hundred or two into great gear to wring out better performance.

Anyhow, what've you tried? Wha'd ya like? Aside from the drivers, any "hands-off, those are great" parts in these things?

Thanks in advance

[louped garouv]

welcome to the forum....

someone more technically advanced than I should be along shortly...

in the meantime, you could search the forums for: 4412 "upgrade" "caps" etc to get a head start...

good luck and enjoy the ride!

[Robh3606]

Hello Slowburn

Which 4312 do you have??? If you have paper tweeters they are the original mirror imaged monitors. They should not be alnico. All the drivers are ferrite from the reference sheet. All the drivers with an H are ferrite and the LE 5-10 are as well.

http://www.jblproservice.com/pdf/Sys...r%20Series.pdf

You sure you don't have 4311's??? The woofer and midrange are alnico but the LE-25 is ferrite. The only all alnico would be the 4310.

Rob

[boputnam]

Anyhow, what've you tried?

Try the 128H. Swaps right in.

Bingo!!

[Chas]

I'm not at all adverse to spending a bit of dough if it turns out I like the speakers. In a world where some drop a grand on cables, I've no problem putting a hundred or two into great gear to wring out better performance.

Anyhow, what've you tried? Wha'd ya like? Aside from the drivers, any "hands-off, those are great" parts in these things?

Thanks in advance

I have been doing DIY tube and solid state electronics (mainly) and modifying a few speakers longer than I care to remember -

When it comes to capacitors, I have a strong preference toward MIT/REL RTX and Hovland. Bear in mind, that my preference is toward borderline analytical, high resolution reproduction, i.e. to my ears, capturing whatever I can - of the moment - when a recording was made - warts and all. My personal goal has never been to reproduce live music, I know that will never happen in my lifetime, the various mediums being the main weakness to achieve that. I seek merely to hear as much as possible - what the producer and engineer, heard in the control room at the time. I am a happy camper when I can believe that is happening in my listening room.


I think the 4312 is a really nice monitor, I almost bought a pair, but the seller increased the price by $300.00 and I dropped out. I still regret not grabbing them. They are definitely worthy of some dollars spent on them, IMHO.

Good luck,
Charles.

[Tom Loizeaux]

I doubt that you'd ever hear heavier interior wiring. "Better" caps might be perceptable, but remember that the woofer in the 4312 plays full range so only the mid and tweeter see caps or chokes.
I love my 4312As the way they are. All I did was add a small subwoofer to help fill out the low end. The 4312s run full range while the subb adds to the very bottom.

Tom

[Ian Mackenzie]

They are a nicely evolved system.

As I recall these monitors with the Ti dome can sound a bit clincal and hard. I would put some felt around the tweeter to control early reflections, try it just for grins!

What are you driving them with?
SS or tubes.

Take it from there.

I would also look at the terminations if you plan to spend buck on caps suggest Sonicraft for all this.

Ian

[Fangio]

I doubt that you'd ever hear heavier interior wiring. "Better" caps might be perceptable, but remember that the woofer in the 4312 plays full range so only the mid and tweeter see caps or chokes.
I love my 4312As the way they are. All I did was add a small subwoofer to help fill out the low end. The 4312s run full range while the subb adds to the very bottom.

Tom

It might be inspiring to see this setup, including the sub. Have 4312s also.

[Tom Loizeaux]

It might be inspiring to see this setup, including the sub. Have 4312s also.

There's not much to see.
They are in the corners of the room in my avatar. The 4312As sit on top of the 4343s. The other 43XX cabinets are in storage. The JBL PB12 is behind the louver doors. I jump the speaker lines over to the sub and only dial in enough to begin to hear the low end build.

I will try to take a photo soon.

Tom