I will say such: I do not regret doing it. However please note that I do not any tracking of loud instruments and nit run a pro studio where clients might want it at 120 dB.

You still get the results your heart desires.

It really just puts you back where the entire world was before the active monitors with limiters on board: an amp connected to a speaker. You can abuse any piece of gear in your studio and break it, speakers have limits like anything else. Pushing a speaker with an amp with no limiter is nothing new, it's the way it always was. We have played these limiter bypassed modified HS80M's back very loud while testing, and again it just sounds like an amp pushing a speaker without that limiter folding up the mix!

War

Warren, I can say, perhaps it is placebo effect, that the sound is more mellow and less edgy. Does it relate to your experience anyhow?
BTW guys I plugged the ports in mines with socks tightly so that was more of a discovery to me than disabling the limiters, so my case might be not an example and there might be some bias towards finding some positive things in hs80m WITH SEALED BOX. Nevertheless HS80m can WORK PLUGGED AND WORK BETTER then they are ported.

Very true about the ports... Plugging them on the HS80m. More accurate low - low/mid .. Gets rid of that not so needed bump in the 80MHz.
But remember the mod includes other modifications.

I learned the 8" monitors are not the best or a all in one solution. 5-6.5 woofers seem to work better, an with a sub, better way to work... 5-6.5 provide a more accurate representation of what really goin on!!! That's why sticking a sock kinda does. You loose low end buy you gain in the end. I miss my HS80's but I love what the EmotivaPro Airmotiv6's are doing for me..

U dont buy gain and loose low-end, just the highpass filter order changes from 4th order to 2nd order plus the group-delay\transient response gets better.

You loose some low-end but GAIN because it's a way better response accurateness.. That's what I meant by that...

I meant but you gain..

One of the reasons I have NS10's..

I meant but you gain.

Me either. As long as they can handle some volume though! heh

Unleash those hs80s! heh

Yes!!!!!!!!

Warren,
What monitors would you say compete with the hs80's after the mod?
Thanks

I think the hs80m is a good low end monitor as it gives you some bass with good mids and highs if a sub is not an option, considering the price. I planned to add a sub when i got mine, haven't decided yet but this mod could change things. Anyway i plugged the ports as it's been a while since i tried it and now i hear truer sound, the mids and highs are where the yams really shine imo. I'd really like to hear the sealed unleashed hs80 with a sub in a well tuned room...

That would be awesome....

Monitors are so personal, its the one item that can be equally loved or hated by any individual as its the only thing that interacts with your ears directly (and has a relationship with room and position).

Oh, I get you now. You loose some low-end, but actually, the lowest bass is louder on sealed box due to smoother roll-off.

you lose some low end but this is usually good, because the low end that remains is more transparent. you can also increase distortion, however, by plugging your ports. it's easy to do A/B comparisons and spend some time with each to decide what's best for you. when I plugged my ports I could hear bass guitar tonality a lot better, but, there did seem to be a slight increase in distortion, which I decided I could live with. (KRK V6 II). I'd like to build some membrane bass traps and try them unplugged again, but, that won't be for a while

Hi!

Since i own a pair i got to mod them myself.
I already swapped dozens of smd opamps and i can confirm that hs80m's pcb are very very fragile, so take care.

I only made "half" of the mod for now. Swapped input opamp to LME49722, swapped some 10uf/50v coupling caps for Pana FMs 220uf/25v (Panasonic FM 220uf was all i had...), and the limiter snip.
I have currently one monitor modded and the other in its original state.

My modded monitor has much more bass than the original. Not just a little. Did i gone too far with the 220uf value for coupling caps? Were the 10uf coupling caps in place to take away some unwanted bass? I'm not worried with the 25v value cause a low level signal will never reach that value right? Anyway, it's been working perfectly for 48 hours now.


I must say that with just half of the mod done, the difference is a big one.

thanks.

it doesn't sound like you are sure that you made an improvement or not

I would not swap to different specs caps\resistors\opamps unless knowing exactly they fit by design.

Just blindly plugging ports in a vented speaker system can often do more bad overall than good. You need sufficient damping inside the speaker in order to make it worthwhile.

When the Q of the cabinet + driver system is higher than (if I remember correctly around) q=0.707, then the air mass inside the enclosure will be increasing harmonic distortion levels from the midbass driver. Anything below that, and you should be fine.

Most naturally ported enclosures are way higher than q=0.707.

The 12 dB\octave roll-off measured at the woofer verifies the 0.707 Q achieved by plugging the ports in HS80m.
I think it is a good idea by itself for monitor manufacturers to design their products in such a way that they can be used either plugged or sealed. Of course that is a compromise. I prefer sealed for life.

After listening at decent levels, modded the second one and another listen... oh yeah, the mod is good

cool... there's no satisfaction like a successful build, repair, or mod!

Warhead How can i get mine modded in oz? Would you share the mod via pm? i have a tech that will do it just need an idea of what else to do. Thanks mate!

Cheers - Aussie Jr

Can you explain this to me? In mixing secrets mike senior writes about the pitfalls of ported monitors and plugging them under certain conditions but doesn't mention the Q. Anyway i use Arc which gives them a more linear response and clears up some mud in the lower midrange so the low end is clearer and more defined anyway. I don't know if you've tried arc but i think you would like the results on the hs80s.

Ok it's been a while since i've done elctronics but how do you remove and replace pcbs? Also would you be willing to share info on what how to do it? I'd like to know what's involved if you wouldn't mind sharing as there's a couple of people that could probably do it. I'm not planning to do it myself but if it's relatively easy then i might. heh

The mod is not so easy, you got to be really careful with hs80's pcb's. I disconnected the speaker cable and the front led cable from the mainboard. The led connection has to be unsoldered. I didn't replace all the parts like the zenpro mod. For now i just swapped the 10uf caps directly in the audio signal path (six or seven of them) for 220uf/25v Panasonic FM's, swapped just the input opamp (see schematics) for LME49722 and did the limiter cut.

There is a clip connector for the LED that can be disconnected carefully