Posted by BillEpstein on November 22, 2003 at 16:50:30

Remember last week kids when we built the chicken and wrapped a 15ohm Mills resistor across the Piezo's terminals and you still could hear it's "character" above the tone of the 806A's but less than before. It almost blended and soundtrack dialogue was clearer, cymbals sparklier (scrabble, anyone?) More air and other super tweeter stuff. Liked it better fired into the body of the woodhorn than facing rear or up.
Tonight I gave the cones a coat of 1 lb cut garnet shellac. That's a very dilute solution = 1 lb of shellac to 1 gallon of alcohol. Proper finishes use 3 to 5 lb cut.
Everything else the same I proceeded to play over and over and over some Chicago Symph Tchaikovsky, 1:45 to 2:15 of scene 1 Swan Lake. It has the very distinctive low brass pianissimo and then forte and finally the strings and woodwinds. Very revealing of many octaves of each instruments native tone.
The shellac seems to have attenuated more than dampened. Or more to the point, the Piezo is less an individual transducer from the listening position but it's character close up is unchanged. And that's a good thing. Soundtrack dialogue is still more intelligible, there's more a sense of the ambience of the venue, and sweet voices are sweet.
I don't know what this means for the 1038's use in a 2 way like the 2Pi. That would be a better test but I don't have the means. Anyone game?
You should consider, tho', that on the passage of the P.Ilyitch sited where the trombones enter pianissimo on what sounds like a tutti "D" below middle "F", I like the character of the sound better with the 1038 than without.

Creating is more like performing than listening