Need to recycle B&W 683

[spazz]

I have a pair of 683's circa 2009. They were good for the money but I quickly ran up against their limitations - the 6 and 12 db crossovers they are so proud of blew the tweeters, which by the way are most certainly the weakest link in this system. Also I felt that the mids, rolled off at 6 dB's, made things muddy when covering the same frequencies as the bass (although it could have been my crappy room acoustics also).

The final straw came in the form of my 5 year old nephew who 'finger banged' these babies hard enough to even dent the aluminum dust caps on the bass drivers, which is too bad, the woofers were my favorite part, and there are 4 of them..

Anyway, the tweeters are out, the rest of the drivers seems ok, although i cant be sure..

I need ideas for what to do with these. Build something? Repair the drivers? Add new tweeters and 24 dB active crossovers, after sealing the ports and fortifying the cabinets with some internal hardwood?

[picowallspeaker]

Hi !!! Some good way to re-use the drivers would be to build a new cabinet that would be half the volume of the actual . Isobaric push-pull does tell you something ?? No high steep crossover needed . Mid to high frequencies will then be played by a suitable (titanium) 3" FR , which would 'absorb' excess power and wouldn't blow...never .
In the end you'll be sooooo satisfied that you'll send me those yellow kevlar mids as a gift for my suggestion

[picowallspeaker]

Ok ,never mind ! I just wrote something that has been deleted (server gone offline).
If two woofers are in good shape ,you can use them as the 'front' ones in a push-pull isobaric arrangement . Cabinet size will be halved . Midrange (which you can send to me as a gift for my suggestion) and tweeter would be replaced by a 3" titanium FR . No steep crossover slopes involved .

[picowallspeaker]

The key is 'send me those mids'

[spazz]

Thanks, i like that idea. Seems that such an arrangement of bass drivers becomes more effective towards lower frequencies, making it a good choice for designs with a dominant or extended range mid driver that is crossed over at 250-300 Hz. However, that also means that I will need to retain the Kevlar mids

By the way, they are not the high end versions used in the larger B&W's, with the polished stainless steel basket and (i think) neodium motors. These have ferrite motors, although i was impressed with the cast baskets.

I have to admit, this is not enough of a change to warrant new cabinets lol. For now they continue to collect dust.

[picowallspeaker]

Sure. I was only reporting my positive experience of having a high power -compact cabinet ,and having no troubles in raising the volume (of course ,no extreme finesse in the super-treble region ,nor low distortion guaranteed...).
First thing that may come to my mind is to change the tweeters ,putting there some Morel or any heavy duty tweeter . That is already a big task ,because it would involve some changes in the crossover ,and some job in modifying (mo-di-fy ) the baffle around the new tweeter . While you're there , you can check XO's components quality ,often a muffy midrange is dictated by low quality BP electrolitycs employed in the high-pass section ( maybe it's not B&W case...).