Def 2 / Thanks Dave
One of our fantastic and seeker-man customers David Maletz ripped a pair of original Definition Pros up a few years back and tweaked the hell right out of 'em. Full-on refab (Dave, I still need to charge you for all that engineering time…..) For sure, Dave has to be a custom man through and through, with a good sense of mechanicals and electronics, he worked his original Defs into custom perfection. A few months back he got his order in for the Definition Mk2, he was totally worried that the Def-2 wasn’t going to stomp on his Dave Signature model Defintion Pro… He had to check on my confidence a few times a week, he really loved his originals, plus there were little bits of Dave in 'em. Well, we finally got his Definition Mk2 shipped out and in his hands a week or so ago, and with his permission, here’s how they stacked, Def2 against the totally built and reworked Definition Pro Dave Maletz edition.
“My new Definition versus My old’… Feedback”
Man the Box has basically disappeared all together, and found total bass integration!
But some things just can't be put into words and that’s the audio game anyway, you have to just experience it.
I knew the new Mundorfs would be great due to having them in my old pair on the super tweeters along with some of the other mod’s I played with... But you did get them just that higher percentage better no doubt with the new values on the caps and eliminating the resistor’s all together.
However the truth lies in the cabinet, you guys did a serious re-engineer on these! Its fine, keep your secrets... But damn I never heard or felt the control and impact this cabinet has to offer for the in-room listening experience. I know the internals of this cabinet are a different world now.
You can easily tell the quality put into these, the parts are all better, something is even different about the FRD drivers... They seem slightly beefier, and the finish materials are nicer on these...
I am getting scary realism out of these suckers... These hold together like no speaker I have experienced. I pushed them pretty hard too! The room will fall apart well before these floor standers.
In comparison to the originals, these are Far less clumsy sound, and physical feel, these excel at "Presence" no pun intended toward your new model.
The new split octave tuning…
Whatever you did here don't consider this a side note at all! This might be the true key that was missing all along to be honest.
Any "One Note" Bass now has more impact in the punch, not just the Growl down low. But the growl down low is totally running its course like it should still.
The ATTACK of this speaker also improved.
Well of course here we have no worry about crossovers so the cabinet is our crossover, and I have to give a standing ovation to the results, you totally blew me away with the type of tone, and control via the new tuning you got out of these now.
THE NEW GUTS
-Better impact
-Better transfer capability filling a room with a huge, and distinct soundstage, floor feeling vibration now feels like it’s a real part of the system as one.
-And they are DEAD silent cabinets with all this going on!! Somebody went above cabinet 101 thinking on this project really making the old MDF shells bow down.
-Super low distortion, far less or even Zero reflection or slight beaming sound that came from the original cabinets.
-It still keeps that full deep impact, yet is still so clean, and has kept perfectly nimble sound and speed. You guys pulled off something very, very IMPRESSIVE with this. Now this is what eight 10" subs should feel like!! I think your description on the new cabinet work is never going to convey how much better they really are.
THE FRD’s
Although you did not from what I understand make any mechanical or electrical changes to these drivers from the originals, now I believe you found a perfect home for such an FRD driver with this new cabinet structure. They truly behave and perform as smooth as glass and sweet as butter.
Quick example of some different music response:
You guys have this band Kyuss in your user guide line up, interesting because these guys are pretty heavy very grungy, I swear you used some of these albums to help voice these speakers to make sure they perform under super distorted stress and deep bass.
Now with these kinds of albums I can pretty much tell every vocal perfectly smooth and separate with the new Mk 2's! I own the vinyl versions, and so I was pretty shocked to see them recommended!
This music style, and the vocals specifically still retains that darkly mixed, and crunchy value, with an added type of inner resolution and sweetness, the sound is not as lost as it was in the original speakers. And yeah they can crank it up for some real fun!
As for more standard Vocals and really good recordings, just more of the same for the Mk 2's so not super shocking in this respect vs. the originals which were already excellent, but the midrange blended far better with zipping guitars etc…
I could go down a list of bands and music, lots of Jazz and rock, but the Mk 2's are the ones to go with for the more confusing mixes especially VOCALLY challenged rock type music as mentioned above, or very complex dynamic and punishing passages. These still retained warmth, a little color with excitement, but also kept all the air and sound space, maybe even more of it. Good move on the new Silver/Oil capacitors I knew these would really open up that throaty slightly compressed sound that the old' Solen capacitors produced. These sound like BIG speakers, however don’t get too forward sounding at all, just 3D and smoother as the volume goes up, not just in your face.
You have injected a very delicate balance of Hi end audio sound with the natural raw music lover’s sound still intact, and you guys are right that is extremely rare to hear in some products like this.
A friend of mine was over and we were in awe of the actual detailed sound, attack, and speed vs. how they still stayed very full and warm sounding.
If you do come out with a Mk III driver I guess I will have to dig into the bank account and give them a shot now right, but I refuse to ship them back so I guess I will need to do the swap myself on site. :) I honestly don't see what can be advanced at this point, but I am sure you will come up with something. I think the cabinets have been built and designed to the limits of this design already.
Conclusions,
They act much more like a Tuned instrument, reminds me of how a Gibson guitar has that feel, sound, and quality… This character shows in both the Sonics, and physical build over the originals.
These seem FAR less picky and a LOT more fun to tune in which really takes very little to make them do their job. Very clean and versatile package having the option of the internal amps or by user choice some pro external gear.
Due to I am familiar with the originals, the actual subtle physical changes will not be noticed by anybody unless they owned the actual originals, however they much finer materials used in the new ones, thicker back plate, Glossed Grill frame for the rear drivers, and even you used a little different grill cloth, on top of the new wood hybrid cabinet and tuning chambers which we don’t get to see.
But it’s all about the sound so who cares.
Oh and the whole thing worked AWESOME plug and play, I was shocked that my setup basically blended perfect off the bat.... A few albums told me some tiny adjustments needed, but nothing big, and was able to get a giant soundstage with no issues. So far I found the 50 hz Low pass set for the back drivers are pretty accurate in capturing everything we can hear and feel. Of course the front drivers don’t need anything now, and have no crossovers accept the caps on the tweeters.
I only did this early report because after an hour everything was stable and burned in already, no where near the burn in time the last new ones took trust me, so that 160 hours or whatever you guys are putting on them now really works out :-)
I bet we get a little more out of them in another 100 hours, but not worried about it, they are stellar right now.
Thanks"