Mortite

[emac]

Wanted to pass along the results of playing w/ Mortite (aka Frost King Fingertip Rope Caulk from Lowes) w/ my Mini's. One thing that I have noticed for a while about the Mini's is that the sounds tended to blur somewhat. The speed of the attack and the decay just weren't as good as I'd have hoped, and in this area as well as in microdynamics, the Mini's were easily surpassed by my Dali Mentor Menuet monitors. So, I started to try to figure out what I could do about it. I noticed that the baffles for the planar drivers tended to shake quite a bit. Turned out that this was due to the Mid-Bass Coupler (MBC) and not the powered woofer (that cabinet had already been treated w/ No Rez from my Ninja mod upgrade). So, I went about trying to reduce the vibration, which I felt could be the cause of the smearing of the sound. Adding No Rez to the MBC cabinet area didn't help. Seemed to have resulted in a hole in the midbass. Frustrated, I tried to figure out what I could do.

One thing my Mentor Menuets do is decouple the drivers from the cabinet. So, I looked to see how I could do the same thing w/ the Mini's. Turns out that people have been using the Mortite, which is something like BluTak, to decouple of the drivers. Figuring, what the heck, I can always take it off if I need to, I tried it out first w/ the MBC, then the planars, and finally the powered woofers. Turns out that the stuff is pretty easy to use and works as hoped. The speed of the attack and decay for the Mini's is now better, there's less smearing, and the dynamics (both micro and macro) are better. Still not quite at the level of my Mentor Menuets (which are amongst the best I've heard in these areas), but now the Mini's aren't put to shame.

Overall, not 1/2 bad for a cheap tweak, <$6, for a box. Will have to try it with some of the other speakers I have.

[Jason]

That's pretty cool!

Might try that on my woofers as well.

[emac]

Probably wasn't as clear about this as I could have been. In order to add the Mortite, I unscrewed the driver from the baffle, added the Mortite to the area in between the screws, and put the driver back on. One thing you may find is that you may need to use a slightly longer screw than what was originally there in order to get a good fit. You want the drivers to be as close to being flush against the baffle as you can. I need new screws for the planar drivers, but not the others.

[Jason]

Oh, I knew what you were talking about. It's kind of a pita to take these woofers out cause there's silicone between the driver/spacer/box. :toilet:

I'm also thinking about putting it (or something) between my woofer cabinet and the frame that hold's my planar mid and tweeter. The frame really has a lot of vibration. (Don't know how that's affecting the sound) You can see where the frame is attached to the woofer enclosure here:

[emac]

Now that I finally picked up a replacement woofer for the Mini's (bad voice coil in the last one), I feel I can post my full thoughts on the Mortite trick. This tweak is the real deal. First, everything, from top to bottom is faster. Sounds hit and are gone. No more smearing or overhang, which is exactly why I wanted to try this trick in the first place. Second, there is more space between the sounds/notes. For example, I use a drum & bass track by Cyantific called Little Green Men to assess bass. There's a fast bassline where the notes can easily blend into each other. The Mini's were okay w/ this before, but now I can easily hear each note and the split second shift between them. Third, it's easier to pick up movement across and within the soundstage. If a sound is supposed to swoosh, it obviously swooshes. I've always liked the Mini's ability to do this, but it's even better now.

All in all, the Mortite for the Mini's is a terrific tweak, especially when one considers the price. It's not quite at the level of the Ninja mods or adding Platinum bypass caps, but it comes pretty close. And those mods cost me $100s. The Mortite takes less time and it costs under $6. Definitely going to have to try this on my other speakers.

[tthurman]

Probably wasn't as clear about this as I could have been. In order to add the Mortite, I unscrewed the driver from the baffle, added the Mortite to the area in between the screws, and put the driver back on. One thing you may find is that you may need to use a slightly longer screw than what was originally there in order to get a good fit. You want the drivers to be as close to being flush against the baffle as you can. I need new screws for the planar drivers, but not the others.

All around the speaker frame like the foam is inside or just at the screws themselves?

This is my kind of tweak....

Thanks for the tip!

[emac]

All around the speaker frame like the foam is inside or just at the screws themselves?

This is my kind of tweak....

Thanks for the tip!

Around the speaker frame. The best way I can describe it is the I pulled off pieces of Mortite long enough to fit between the screw holes, shmushed it onto that areas (being careful that it didn't cover the screw holes), and then reattached the driver. Takes a little bit of time to do, but nothing difficult. You just want to make sure that the screws are in as tightly as they can go. If not, you're going to lose a lot of sound.

[tthurman]

Around the speaker frame. The best way I can describe it is the I pulled off pieces of Mortite long enough to fit between the screw holes, shmushed it onto that areas (being careful that it didn't cover the screw holes), and then reattached the driver. Takes a little bit of time to do, but nothing difficult. You just want to make sure that the screws are in as tightly as they can go. If not, you're going to lose a lot of sound.

Cool!

I thought that's what you meant. I'll have to give that a try when time allows.

[emac]

Very interesting. I had a lot of Mortite left from adding to the Mini's, so I decided to see what happened if I added it to my electronics (CD player, Squeezebox Duet, and amp). Basically followed the suggestions from this website: http://www.soundstage.com/maxdb/maxdb200007.htm

Took some time to add the Mortite to everything that I could, but the effects are very clear and very nice. Clearly noticeable improvement in hearing background info. For example, I had an album (Plej - Electronic Music from the Swedish Leftcoast) on while my wife and I were watching football this weekend. We both like the album and are familiar with it. Even while watching the games, we we both pleasantly surprised that we were hearing more of the low level details that were obscured before. Also, w/ the Mini's, more relaxed sound and better fills out the soundstage.

No idea why this stuff works in the electronics, but I guess it's the same as adding dampening material. But, it's also nice because the tweak is completely reversible.