Want to switch out tweeters in axiom M80s, need advice/help/flames etc etc

[VisionxOrb]

Hi everyone, first time poster here although ive trolled for a little bit as I want to build 2 dayton quatro 15" subs.

Anyway, I have searched ( and i mean everywhere ) and have found nothing.

Ok, heres the thing, I own a pair of axiom audio M80s and the vp150 center channel, now i do like how they sound , love there mids and such, the only problem of course is there highs are starting to bother me, although i guess i should have guessed because to be honest ive never really liked the titanium or aluminum dome tweeters ive heard on other speakers, when blind testing I alway seem to gravitate to the soft domes ( i seem to be sesnitive to high freqs).

Anyway I dont have the money to get new speakers and at this point to dont think id want to, I have the diy attidude now, just my woodworking skills suck.

But im thinking maybe I can swap in some nice softdomes and basicly creat the best speaker for me. Ive looked everywhere and the tweeters these use look exaclty like the dayton DC25TS-8 ( 277-408 ) but people on the axiom boards sware there different.

Now I know the crossover was set up for the tweeter they used but i was thinking if there was something with similar T/S or maybe mod the crossover but i wouldnt know what to change to get what result.

I was thinking of the peerless 277-408 and its a good price and seems to have good performance. price is im a concern because each tower has dual tweeters wired in parallel and the center has 2 tweeters ( not sure how wired havent looked ) so id need 4 - 6 total. anyway and help or advice would be greatly appreciated

[Greg B]

First let me say, switching tweeters is completely non trivial. The crossover would need to be redesigned. You'll need a ratshack SPL meter and test CD as a bare minimum for testing. If you're just getting into DIY, some test gear is an excellent first step regardless.

The dayton Ti tweeter is obviously from the same molds and factory. Frankly, I'd be surprised if there was anything different besides the face plate logo. Or course it's possible they spec'd them differently, but I wouldn't bet on it.

I purchased a couple of the daytons a while back when I need some cheap efficient tweets for a project. They're really good for the $ IMO, though the freq response isn't super flat. I'm not sure you'd be making a huge improvement going to the peerless you suggest. IMO you'd be better off adding some more HF padding or possibly frequency contouring to your crossover.

If you get the gear and measure, you should be able to hear the problems that are bothering you. I'll make a WAG that there will be fairly large peaks.

I think the main issue you're dealing with is tooooo much HF. I really don't see why they need two tweeters. They don't publish curves.

One more thing, if you can take the faceplates off (can't remember), a couple coats of dammar varnish on the Ti diaphragms will really mellow them out, while retaining the lower treble clarity of Ti. I'd try this first as it will only cost you $5.

All this will void your warranty....

HTH,

GB

[planet10]

Originally posted by Greg B
One more thing, if you can take the faceplates off (can't remember), a couple coats of dammar varnish on the Ti diaphragms will really mellow them out, while retaining the lower treble clarity of Ti. I'd try this first as it will only cost you $5.

I'd try puzzlecoat before damar in this ap... it is a trick i've used before to tame a hot tweeter.

dave

[VisionxOrb]

Im not familiar with either of those, where can I get them?

[planet10]

damar at a paint shop (one for artists) and puzzlecoat -- http://www.t-linespeakers.org/design/tweeks.html -- at craft of fabric stores.

For use on a tweeter you want to make sure the puzzlecoat is not too thick (ie the Podgy stuff pictures in the above link was too thick -- can be thinned with water). puzzlecoat is a particular flavour of PVA glue and you can always use thinned white wood glue in a pinch.

dave