Reengineer What I Already Have?

Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
I have a set of BIC America DV62si speakers. Walmart type speakers that are about 110/pr. They obviously don't send shivers down your back with their sound but the tweeter is atrocious.

I am wondering if re-engineering the crossover might make it work better. The crossover looks like they cut more than few corners.

I don't know exactly what the drivers are. I think this is the tweeter:

Vifa D19TD-05 3/4" Poly Dome Tweeter | Parts-Express.com

I have no idea about the woofer. It's OD is 6.5" and it looks to be a poly cone. Maybe some one recognizes it.

Pictures:
imgur: The Simple Image Sharer
 
I don't think any work on the boxes is in order as they are covered with vinyl.

I know there was a guy, Ed Frias, who did crossover mods on these for like 20 bucks. I contacted him a couple years ago to no avail.

The bottom end isn't a problem at all. The highs suck donkey balls.

Modifying the crossover. Rebuilding the crossover. Replacing the tweeter with something not expensive and rebuilding the crossover. I'm open to all that.

If you need info let me know what. If you need more pictures than the 7 I already posted above let me know.

I have no sound measurement equipment but a little electronics knowledge. Soldering components is no problem whatsoever.
 
frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
Paid Member
Here is what we have from the info at hand (the lable on the LF inductor looks like 1.5 in the pic, but if you think it 0.5 just verify that (one of the XO guys can tell what value makes sense)

Resistor is labeled 1.5 ohm. A realistic value of the plastic cap is 2.75 uF.

Knowing DCR of the drivers wouldn't hurt (specs say 8 ohm nominal)

dave
 

Attachments

  • BIC-America-DV62si-XO.gif
    BIC-America-DV62si-XO.gif
    5.6 KB · Views: 148
Resistor is labeled 1.5 ohm. A realistic value of the plastic cap is 2.75 uF.

dave

*My best GUESS*, if cap is 2.75 then L maybe .56mH, for XO around 4k.
.5 mH with c=3.3, Woofer low Q crossed around 3.5k.(?).

Again XO guys could verify, but it seemed logical at the time!:confused:

Mick.

Could the problem be woofer cone break up? 4k could be a bit high for this woofer, no?

Mick.
 
Last edited:
frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
Paid Member
What do I need to do to tame this thing?

unbraced 5/8" MDF -- you might want to glue some edge on 0.75"x1.5" battens (vertical) on the 3 largest surfaces & then coat the inside with some sort of fiberglass/epoxy resin.

Perhaps a bit more radical (but also a nod to Mick's comment about the mid-bass) is an approach i've taken a number of times... toss the tweeter, run a 4" chunk of PVC from the tweeter cut-out to the back, grab a reasonable 3" out of the drawer, slap it into the tweeter hole and move the XO down to 300-400 Hz.

dave
 
Ok, with an fs of 1700 that tweeter is less than ideal.

I'd bet a pretty penny they don't like being driven hard. What you are probably hearing is cone breakup from the midwoofer and the tweeter is probably still getting too much grunt at fs, both of which can give a very nasty harsh sound, among other things.
How to fix it?
As Dave has already pointed out bracing them can't hurt. You could use a better matched tweeter (lower fs), and lower the xo frequency to more like 2.5K. That will help, but, at the end of the day, those loudspeakers are still built to a price, (more background music, than party). As such, just don't ask too much of them!

Mick.:)
 
Administrator
Joined 2004
Paid Member
You might want to try a felt diffraction ring around that tweeter particularly since it is not flush mounted. Walmart sells felt in the craft section for <$1 a sheet that would work..

Also I noted that two out of the three mounting screws on that driver are missing - that's not going to help at all as I would expect the tweeter mounting flange to buzz/rattle against the baffle board.

How about a picture of the components on the X-O as well, this would give us a clue as to the quality of the parts used. FWIW I was surprised to see an X-O pcb in such a low cost speaker, it looks like there is a little pretense at quality at least.

An inexpensive multimeter that can do LCR measurements would be very useful. You can pick these up on eBay for as little as $30 - and it would allow you to figure out the values of all of the components in the X-O.

What are you driving these speakers with - are you certain that the amplifier's HF performance is not contributing to the problem? I will admit it is not a particularly inspiring looking tweeter, so perhaps replacement will net you an improvement.
 
You might want to try a felt diffraction ring around that tweeter particularly since it is not flush mounted. Walmart sells felt in the craft section for <$1 a sheet that would work..

Worth a shot. I'll try that out.


How about a picture of the components on the X-O as well, this would give us a clue as to the quality of the parts used. FWIW I was surprised to see an X-O pcb in such a low cost speaker, it looks like there is a little pretense at quality at least.

I've already posted a picture of each component in the threads above. Are you guys not able to see all the pictures? Maybe it's a browser issue with their cookies or something at imgur.



What are you driving these speakers with - are you certain that the amplifier's HF performance is not contributing to the problem? I will admit it is not a particularly inspiring looking tweeter, so perhaps replacement will net you an improvement.

I've have a Mini Aleph and a Kingrex T20. The source is flacs through an AMB labs Gamma2 DAC.


Would these tweeters be an improvement?

Vifa BC25TG19-04 1" Textile Dome Tweeter 4 Ohm | Parts-Express.com
 
Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.