Finally took my Gale 401's to bits and now need to source new drivers.
I need to source a couple of Peerless 821385 midrangers - I tried one supplier (madisound) but they said discontinued - anyone know of an alternative source?
Hard part are the four bass-units, driver diameters - 8.25" (21cm) and driver depth - 3.5" (8.8cm), unfortunately no impedance ratings to be found - any experience or recommendations greatly accepted
Cheers to all
Bill
I need to source a couple of Peerless 821385 midrangers - I tried one supplier (madisound) but they said discontinued - anyone know of an alternative source?
Hard part are the four bass-units, driver diameters - 8.25" (21cm) and driver depth - 3.5" (8.8cm), unfortunately no impedance ratings to be found - any experience or recommendations greatly accepted
Cheers to all
Bill
dont be too despondent the bass drivers can be rejuvinated with new foam surrounds which should not cost too much but should restore them to almost
new condition as for the mids they dont look too bad in the pics , so what is the problem with them?, unless theyre burnt out or something, cheers 
TC BTW I too remember hearing them in the 70's and they were impressive to listen to, nothing much around these days that can hold a candle to them soundwise methinks despite all the fancy cone materials and expensive drivers that abound in the marketplace nowdays.......
new condition as for the mids they dont look too bad in the pics , so what is the problem with them?, unless theyre burnt out or something, cheers TC BTW I too remember hearing them in the 70's and they were impressive to listen to, nothing much around these days that can hold a candle to them soundwise methinks despite all the fancy cone materials and expensive drivers that abound in the marketplace nowdays.......
Merci qwad,
But the next question is where to find said foam surrounds...?
The mids are the same as the bass units - not easy to tel from the pics, but they've completely come away from the rims (floating), so given the relatively low prices for replacement (if findable) I'd most likely go that route
Cheers
But the next question is where to find said foam surrounds...?
The mids are the same as the bass units - not easy to tel from the pics, but they've completely come away from the rims (floating), so given the relatively low prices for replacement (if findable) I'd most likely go that route
Cheers
I think I bought mine few years ago at www.speakerrepair.com . You can also try at www.newfoam.com (I will never come to this name www.simplyspeakers.com should also be usefull.
www.simplyspeakers.com should also be usefull.
bon jour mon ami, pardon this is the extent of my french, to find the correct surround for your drivers is as simple as a, b, c, d,,, 1st find the outside dia of the surround flange where it glues to the speaker basket; call this 'a' , then estimate the outside edge of the surround roll if it is a positive roll in other words the roll is up[ the other way is negative,] call this 'b' then estimate the inside dia of the roll , call this 'c' then measure the dia where the inside ege of the surround flange ends and is attached to the cone, call this 'd' note all these measurements do a rough drawing so you have a visual guide as to what you are doing then go to see below for link to the site and look through the lists of available foam surround sizes, now you dont have to be too pedantic a few mm this way or that does not matter too much make your selection and order the parts and a small bottle of glue which is not too expensive if you run into any problems contact the owner of the business , his name is tom manning, a very helpfull chap l have dealt with for many years.... and now the most difficult and labour intensive part is cleaning off the old decayed foam, for this you will find acetone or nail polish remover ideal and automotive paint thinner; also make up a 9v pp battery with leads from the + and - terminals terminated in crocodile clips, this comes in handy for final testing and making sure the vc is centred in the gap while the adhesive is setting now dont worry too much as the adhesive is water based so it stays pliable and adjustable for quite a while as it dries, in any event if you make a mistake you can remove the surround off before the adhesive dries and have another go at correctly placing the surround on the cone / basket, this is where the battery comes in handy l usually give it a couple of strokes with it connected pos/ pos and neg/ neg to make the cone move out a couple of times, then reverse the connection of the batt to speaker terminals to make the cone go in a couple of times to settle everything in place then with the batt disconnected gently push the cone in a few times to see if there is any scraping and note which side this id then you can make final adjustment before the adhesive sets with you fingers gently teasing the surround on the opposite side to where the scraping noise is away from it, l finds this works on all but the biggest speakers say 12 in / 300mm cheers TChere is the link from abovewww. speakerbits.com
duuuuh, l nearly forgot 
there is a later more up to date version of the ko 40 mrf midrange in your 401's manufactured by peerless now that has a one peice polyprop cone and surround and sports a very smooth freq response that would do the job equally well if not better than the original part number is; 122M 26 72 PPB FF this unit sports a 1 inch/ 25mm ferrofluid cooled voice coil .... for high powerhandling up to 180 watts cheers TC
there is a later more up to date version of the ko 40 mrf midrange in your 401's manufactured by peerless now that has a one peice polyprop cone and surround and sports a very smooth freq response that would do the job equally well if not better than the original part number is; 122M 26 72 PPB FF this unit sports a 1 inch/ 25mm ferrofluid cooled voice coil .... for high powerhandling up to 180 watts cheers TC
Bill,
You've got a potential beauty on your hands. I've had a 401A (that's the chrome version) for a few months and have finally done my "stage 1" upgrade:
- previous owner had re-foamed the drivers, so they looked worn but fine
- cleaned up the tweeter and midrange pots; one of the pots was badly corroded and needed to be opened up, cleaned and sprayed with ProGold as a preventive measure
- bypassed the fuses
- rewired the midrange with solid core copper cable
- replaced the 80uF midrange caps (one had evidence of leak)
- bypassed the cap with Parts Express film 0.1uF
- bypassed the 7uF with 0.01uF film
- left the oil caps as they were
- applied significant damping (bitumen and vinyl pads) to parts of the cabinet
Even before upgrades I felt the Gales had much potential. After this modest upgrade: they've very good. The greatest challenge is the pots, which really it too easy to mess around with the balance. I used a laptop and measurement s/w to tune them. The results were surprising (see below). The speakers are capable of 200 to almost 20kHz +/-3dB in room, with pretty good smoothness. The bass is as good as anything under $1,500 (new) today, and with the cabinet damping the honkiness and weakness in imaging are mostly gone.
You've got a potential beauty on your hands. I've had a 401A (that's the chrome version) for a few months and have finally done my "stage 1" upgrade:
- previous owner had re-foamed the drivers, so they looked worn but fine
- cleaned up the tweeter and midrange pots; one of the pots was badly corroded and needed to be opened up, cleaned and sprayed with ProGold as a preventive measure
- bypassed the fuses
- rewired the midrange with solid core copper cable
- replaced the 80uF midrange caps (one had evidence of leak)
- bypassed the cap with Parts Express film 0.1uF
- bypassed the 7uF with 0.01uF film
- left the oil caps as they were
- applied significant damping (bitumen and vinyl pads) to parts of the cabinet
Even before upgrades I felt the Gales had much potential. After this modest upgrade: they've very good. The greatest challenge is the pots, which really it too easy to mess around with the balance. I used a laptop and measurement s/w to tune them. The results were surprising (see below). The speakers are capable of 200 to almost 20kHz +/-3dB in room, with pretty good smoothness. The bass is as good as anything under $1,500 (new) today, and with the cabinet damping the honkiness and weakness in imaging are mostly gone.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
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