Here's another interesting quote about the crossovers:I have a couple of pairs. They are surprising performers. I recently replace the tweeter on one pair and they are in rotation at this very moment (in the man cave). They sound great and the tweeter replacement provide a significant improvement.
Any one here aware of a 5b crossover modification? Or, what is the crossover design of the Nova 8s? The 5bs have a very simple crossover. I suspect that the 8s (with the very same drivers) have better crossovers. I would like to experiment.
That said, I loved the Nova 8Bs when I had them and thought they did equally well with all types of music: Jimi Hendrix, Firesign Theater, Andre Segovia, Les McCann, Tangerine Dream, Alan Parsons, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Lennon, Beatles, etc. I gave away the Nova 8Bs because the lattice grills were perfect for a family of finger poking youngsters. I still look upon them as the reference. Are my current speakers better or worse, detail and sound wise?I had the Nova 8B 12" woofer 2 midranges and another acting as a tweeter. The Optimus 5 has the same configuration but I never had the pleasure of listening to them, but they are highly regarded.
the main difference between the nova 8b & the optimus 5 besides furniture appointments, was the crossover
the Nova 8 crossed over lower from woofer to mid speakers, and the Optimus 5 had a higher crossover point, making it a little dryer .
The rock crowd seemed to go for the Optimus while the easy listening and classical crowd seem to flock to the Nova
Other than that they are identical .
Rob
I wonder if resistor values are any different. The 8B has, left to right: 6Ω, 4Ω, 4Ω & 6Ω. Can't quite make out the 5B values.Here is the 5b crossover, very similar. 4.7 microfarad cap on the left (for tweeter) and 10 microfarad cap on the right for the mid. Different resistors, but probably not a significant difference.
Noticed that the 5B in the '76 catalog's picture has the cast alloy basket woofer of the 5 (and 8) rather than the steel basket of the 5B and 8B. I wonder if they just didn't have an updated picture yet when they put the ad copy together, or if the later woofer was introduced mid-production. Anybody had/have cast woofers in "B" models?They were "inspired" by the KLH Five.
pg 46 of http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalogs/1976/
AFAIK, differences are in the woofer and crossover.I have a pair of Optimus 5's, what's different from these and the 5b's?