Allison Six refurb

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

I glue my bass drivers in screwing is too much of a faff. If you use Bison kit they come out readily if needed.

[jimbob]

Good to know

[kazam]

I glue my bass drivers in screwing is too much of a faff. If you use Bison kit they come out readily if needed.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

*Some* people got very upset when I relaunched the Cube 1s and said they were a development on from the Allison 6s, and Roy Allison was the designer I considered I was standing on the shoulders of, well of course I was insulted and sneered at. Mostly at PFM by Flatty, Wanker and the Bitch. As they say "the proof of the pudding....etc".

[Lazmo]

Mods to the Allison 6's where completed just before xmas but have had no real time to audion properly apart from an hour or two here and there so my immediate conclusion is just that immediate and i will update this and expand as i get more time in front off them .

So the spec at the moment is steel lined on both sides and the bottom with 5mm steel plate 6 and a half inches by 9 the biggest i could get through the hole! and doc's modded 8"bass drivers and the original allison tweeters with the doc modded cross over unit.

First off they are placed 3" from the rear wall and about 10 inches from the corners and towed in by about 45 degrees this was my initial first placing and mimic's the original placing of the speakers before modification and as the doc said with the old cross over in place on his modded units( this was purely the modded drivers connected to the original wiring dropped in place a driver swap out no mods) i lost some bass.

The bass is now back and very tuneful tight deep and warm and i am experiencing what i wanted to do the mod in the first place for a little more bass and depth but not booming and i will be able to tune this more by precise positioning as i have more time with the units and as the bass speakers run in initial thoughts on the tweeters is i am loosing a little high end clarity for example some cymbal strikes and other places in music where i know the tune off by heart dont sounds as clear but at the moment more time is needed to listen to them more and see how it all works together.

The next mod would be the fitting of the Visaton G20 tweeters but i will be spending some time with the speakers in this spec first to see how they perform before doing this.

[Lazmo]

Update.

The speakers have been on constantly since early new year if only radio when no one is here and are now settling in lovely after a few repositions as my ears become acustomed to the new sound as i first reported that i thought i had lost a little sparkle in the top end i was kind of convinced that the now better bass response was flooding a little of the top end frequency and initially i thought the allison tweeters runing with the doc mod drivers where not a good match as the top sounded veiled but having listened more and repositioned it was beginning to be apparent that maybe this was not the case

The bass now is much stronger and punchier than the old allison drivers and the initial placing was to boomy so out from the wall they came they are now 5" away from the rear wall equal distance from the corners about 12" and are towed in far less than they where before this has become an eye opener having nearly been nearly 45 degrees of tow in before the central image/voice came into focus the positioning is as i am learning becoming a little crucial at the moment and i may need to move them out a tad more to tune them to my taste.

The volume used to be set at 11 o clock for average listening levels but now is set at 12 so taking a bit more power to make them sing below 10 o clock not much happens in this respect i think the original allison spec was a little more revealing of course this may all change again when i swop out the allison tweeters for the visatons but at the moment i am enjoying what this configuration does

Each time i listen to them they reveal a little more" more so now as i am getting close to the optimum listening position the tweeters and woofers are working together well now and i think there is probably more to come as i continue to tweak them.

At which point curiosity will probably kick in and i will put the visatons in but as i need to modify the tweeter hole it maybe a little while yet.

[Lazmo]

It has been a month now since my last update on the allisons with the doc mods included to which now i think they should be called Nvaison6 or something of the like as they are no longer pure allison speakers they are hybrid.


I took a perfectly good pair of allison 6's (which were in constant use) and with help from the doc applied his mods this was a leap of faith in some regards but i had read from those here who had done these mods previously and have had great results i also thought IMO the allison's where just a little light on bass for me and there was no telling how the speakers had been treated before i got them 2yr ago so the decision was taken to mod them.


As such my conclusions are they are fantastic! as i reported earlier i had lost some of the top end sparkle that probably being down i suspected to the bass drivers ruling the roost and overbearing a little at first and my ears becoming atuned to the changes but being as i had changed drivers and crossovers and made the cabinet modifications i was uncertain as a lot had changed from a standard allison 6 and running a pair of 4ohm allison tweeters with doc's 8ohm bass drivers had me a little concerned.

What i now have is a speaker with depth smooth attitude and clarity and it just seems to get better with every listen for example i was listening to dave brubeck take 5 a few days back and the first thing i heard that was missing initially on construction was the drummers brushes on the snare drum was back and the sound now is richer and fuller and has more prescense to it then my ear was led to the ride cymbal and all around the kit what i am saying is that this now allows me more insight into the music but at the same time providing warmth and definition also the midrange of these speakers now is superb given the quality of the recording used this now shines out more so than ever.

Vocals are silky smooth with a level of realism in the room which is adictive the likes of Joni Mitchell" Eva Cassidy" Tim Buckley" all reproduced superbly the sound of a singer with just a guitar or in joni's case pastorius on bass "hejira" track Coyote and a little percussion is breathtaking.

Bass is really tight full deep and controlled especially and i am amazed that i have had floorstanders in the past that cannot match up to this level now it really brings out the tone of the instrument played be it electric bass acoustic bass etc

I am really impressed and very happy with the doc's mods and would like to thank him for the knowledge passed forward to help hifi fans learn a little and to be able to mod speakers for a greater level of musical enjoyment hats off to you Doc your a Star.

i still have to fit the visatons at somepoint but i am so happy with this sound at the moment it wont be just yet.

[jammy395]

Thanks for the in-depth write up Laz I enjoyed that.

Hows about "Navison 1's"

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

How about Allison6(Doc Mods). We are getting lots of different Doc Mod speaker makes out there now, and for all the ignorant dissers on the other forums ALL HAVE BEEN A SUCCESS - NOT ONE FAILURE!!!!! that the original speaker name with Doc Mods in brackets after would be the best way to identify them.

[jammy395]

Well cant you fukin patent "DocMods".....

Could even start a new Website seeing how successful this is.......DocMods.Com.