Bad news guys. One of the stamped nuts locked onto the screw post which broke loose from the baffle after a few terns. Now the old driver is stuck in the second box until I have time to extract it. Unless anyone knows any sweet tricks. It's in a corner, and there isn't much more than a 1/2" of post to grab onto with vice grips, or something.
You're having a comprehensive tour of what can go wrong with a simple speaker project. That sheet metal nut can be cut with decent side cutters or snips. Also turning the nut back in, righty tighty, would allow a dose of the corrosion defeater of your choice. Then be careful not to ding up the threads on the stud in the attempt to keep it from spinning. Good times!
I wouldn't worry too much about the horn. Usually these speakers have nasty cone breakup issues being light and stiff to raise efficiency to almost match the HF unit. Yes that phase plug looks wrong to me too but it works well enough as is. Glad to see someone else pouring hours into a $5 thrift store speaker.
I wouldn't worry too much about the horn. Usually these speakers have nasty cone breakup issues being light and stiff to raise efficiency to almost match the HF unit. Yes that phase plug looks wrong to me too but it works well enough as is. Glad to see someone else pouring hours into a $5 thrift store speaker.
Should I cash in my abundance of newly found experience points for stamina or speed I wonder... Haha sorry, that was nerdy.
I couldn't get an angle to cut or saw the nut, and I was seperated from my PB blaster, silicon, AND vice grips. I ended up drilling the nut out! I was even able to go back on the post with a real 8-32 screw, somehow. Interestingly enough, when I was drilling in a normal clockwise rotation, the drill caught onto the nut and screwed it down very tightly onto the post, which somehow re-tightened the post to the baffle. From there I was able to actually spin the stamped screw off, and the post remained in place from then on. Super lucky!
Needless to say, I got the second new old speaker in! Listening to them now, there is no comparison. The new old drivers are obviously superior. In my last post I described the old old speakers as possibly being more "translucent," but a pair of the new drivers they have superior fidelity and soundstage, so I have zero complaints about any such "translucency" or supposed lack thereof.
For grins I did a sweep on the old old driver in free air. It does in fact have a lower Fs, but I noticed horrible audible artifacts (I think from the motor itself) during the sweeps.
Alright, my worry is lessened by that much, but I still think I'll try removing that phase plug/grill/waveguide within a waveguide. I'm really curious to learn what would happen!
Haha, it looks like I paid 3 times too much!
I'm not entirely sure what you mean by that my friend, but there is a metal horn with a nice smooth "bend" bolted to the interior of the box. Then, inside of that horn, there is placed the plastic grill/phase plug thing. If you study the interior behind the grill, there is no transition at all from metal to plastic. To me it looks as if they simply stuffed a "grill" into the mouth of the horn with no consideration of smooth transition.
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I didn't manage last time, but I finally got a good picture of the pole piece on the driver which I broke the magnet off of. You can noticeably see scratches. I'm pretty certain I didn't do that when I dislodged it from it's proper alignment.
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Successfully made one of the grill thingies go away! What an improvement! I also added polyfill to the one I modified. The other still has a grill and is empty. I'll be busy again until after the weekend.
I think once I update the capacitor I'll have a really good sounding pair of speakers. In a much better way than I ever dreamed when I first picked them up off the self.
I wanted to keep the gold trim to keep the vintage look, but the thing was one plastic piece. So I had to use the dremel. You can see in the picture I'll have to add some type of filler back in to make the transition from horn to gold trim as smooth as possible. Any suggestions on type of filler? Or technique?
P.S. I also added a sub underneath! Good advice
I think once I update the capacitor I'll have a really good sounding pair of speakers. In a much better way than I ever dreamed when I first picked them up off the self.
I wanted to keep the gold trim to keep the vintage look, but the thing was one plastic piece. So I had to use the dremel. You can see in the picture I'll have to add some type of filler back in to make the transition from horn to gold trim as smooth as possible. Any suggestions on type of filler? Or technique?
P.S. I also added a sub underneath! Good advice
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I'm back after an extended run of life-other-than-speakers. The right now has a modified grill along with the left, and both are filled with polyfill. I also bi-wired the speakers for bi-amplification and active crossover configuration.
In terms of crossovers, by ear tuning with the DSP I can't get anything more from them than what was provided by simple first order cap on the horn, and no crossover on the upward radiating 6" driver. I'll be buying that 2.2uf cap very soon.
I have yet to fill in the cracks around the horn/gold trim. I think I'll do it with black silicone.
Nice! I won a contest I didn't know I entered. One day the universe will bless you with a splits in two horn grill thingy, phivates. One day...
I would love to see it!
In terms of crossovers, by ear tuning with the DSP I can't get anything more from them than what was provided by simple first order cap on the horn, and no crossover on the upward radiating 6" driver. I'll be buying that 2.2uf cap very soon.
I have yet to fill in the cracks around the horn/gold trim. I think I'll do it with black silicone.
Nice!
I won a contest I didn't know I entered. One day the universe will bless you with a splits in two horn grill thingy, phivates. One day...I would love to see it!
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