Not so bad this time - just a repair to one panel. Previously, I had to completely strip both speakers and figure out how to recreate the wire layout. In the end, working by hand rather than building some elaborate jig turned out to be the answer.
I did do one thing differently this time - I bought a kit for soldering aluminium, containing the appropriate solder wire & flux, rather than used the cored stuff as supplied in the Magnepan repair kit (didn't have enough left over anyway). This made it far easier to make clean, bright joints at the tag strip, which was a headache last time.
I Just finished up the last overcoating of adhesive, and made another quick test with a signal from my portable radio's headphone socket. Not HiFi, or even loud, but good enough to hear clear sound from both speaker sections
.
Just the reassembly left - and I won't bother stapling up the fabric, as I have new covers on order.
Cheers
Ed
I did do one thing differently this time - I bought a kit for soldering aluminium, containing the appropriate solder wire & flux, rather than used the cored stuff as supplied in the Magnepan repair kit (didn't have enough left over anyway). This made it far easier to make clean, bright joints at the tag strip, which was a headache last time.
I Just finished up the last overcoating of adhesive, and made another quick test with a signal from my portable radio's headphone socket. Not HiFi, or even loud, but good enough to hear clear sound from both speaker sections
.Just the reassembly left - and I won't bother stapling up the fabric, as I have new covers on order.
Cheers
Ed
All playing nicely now back in the system
I think I'd had this problem on and off, without realising it. At one point I doubted my ears, thinking high frequency loss, age, decrepitation... Now I'm happy that the proper "sparkle" is restored.
The new socks arrived from Magnepn this week - I'll have to find time to replace them soon.
Also I fixed the nasty "scratchy" potentiometer in my pre-amp. It can't have been helping the signal, and those sorts of transients aren't kind to anything...
I think I'd had this problem on and off, without realising it. At one point I doubted my ears, thinking high frequency loss, age, decrepitation... Now I'm happy that the proper "sparkle" is restored.
The new socks arrived from Magnepn this week - I'll have to find time to replace them soon.
Also I fixed the nasty "scratchy" potentiometer in my pre-amp. It can't have been helping the signal, and those sorts of transients aren't kind to anything...
Marc, sorry but I can't remember - the kit I bought was for my original complete rebuild, abut 5 years ago. This contained the 2 required gauges of wire, solder, encapsulant for the solder lugs and the overcoating adhesive to be used once the wires are tacked to the diaphragm using 3M "Super77" adhesive. There was more than enough tweeter wire to allow for my recent repair.
For info, I'd just call Magnepan directly, there's a number on their web-page here: Contact Magnepan today!
A real person will take your call, and will know all the details about any speaker the company ever made, and repair kits etc. I can't speak highly enough of their customer service.
Best of luck - and let us know how you get on,
Ed
For info, I'd just call Magnepan directly, there's a number on their web-page here: Contact Magnepan today!
A real person will take your call, and will know all the details about any speaker the company ever made, and repair kits etc. I can't speak highly enough of their customer service.
Best of luck - and let us know how you get on,
Ed
Last i saw the Kit from magnepan was $50. US................but the tweeter wire....is only $7.50. a roll.... thats how i buy it, an the foil for the 1.6......7s the same price if you just get the wire are foil by the roll...........i can get my on glue.....
The best way i saw was john65b way.......... for doing the just tweeter wire.....was just put glue on you fingers an put it on just the wire....less is more on the tweeters he said it work great.........An thay have sorder -less setup for the wire.........ck with magnepan about that are you well have to get Alm sorder an flx...........from Magnepan
have fun
The best way i saw was john65b way.......... for doing the just tweeter wire.....was just put glue on you fingers an put it on just the wire....less is more on the tweeters he said it work great.........An thay have sorder -less setup for the wire.........ck with magnepan about that are you well have to get Alm sorder an flx...........from Magnepan
have fun
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Hi everybody.
I own a pair of smga. Unfortunately the tweeter wires were not working, since they were corroded.
I stripped them of and I am searching for the appropriate 34 ga or 0.16mm aluminum wire. Unfortunately it seems very difficult to find the original wire in Europe and magnepan does not have an email to contact them (maybe I can try the phone). So I would like if anybody has any suggestions about where I can find such a wire in Europe.
P.S.
1) It seems that some people have tried aluminum foil. Does anybody know the what are the appropriate sizes for the aluminun foil tape?
2) Has anybody tried copper wire? Some people suggest the use of 36 ga or 0.13 mm for copper to get 3.7 Ohms resistance (and more weight also which is not good for the tweeter)
3) I prefer the mylar clean from this green sticky old adhesive Miloxane. I have some DAP to use with the new wire for a cleaner and more effective result.
4) In the future I plan to change also the bass/mid 22 ga wire. Has anybody tried copper with the same resistance? Will the added weight of the copper instead of the lighter aluminum drive the speakers lower than the 50Hz?
I own a pair of smga. Unfortunately the tweeter wires were not working, since they were corroded.
I stripped them of and I am searching for the appropriate 34 ga or 0.16mm aluminum wire. Unfortunately it seems very difficult to find the original wire in Europe and magnepan does not have an email to contact them (maybe I can try the phone). So I would like if anybody has any suggestions about where I can find such a wire in Europe.
P.S.
1) It seems that some people have tried aluminum foil. Does anybody know the what are the appropriate sizes for the aluminun foil tape?
2) Has anybody tried copper wire? Some people suggest the use of 36 ga or 0.13 mm for copper to get 3.7 Ohms resistance (and more weight also which is not good for the tweeter)
3) I prefer the mylar clean from this green sticky old adhesive Miloxane. I have some DAP to use with the new wire for a cleaner and more effective result.
4) In the future I plan to change also the bass/mid 22 ga wire. Has anybody tried copper with the same resistance? Will the added weight of the copper instead of the lighter aluminum drive the speakers lower than the 50Hz?
Attachments
call magnepan for the wire, i tried sourcing alumnium wire for ages , and still nothing found. dont use dap just follow the procedure of magnepan if you want to be able to fix them again when somethign fails. copper is not an option to heavy. and foil is some debate about, it might drop efficiency by 3dB. your best bet is clean with aceton, order a repiar kit, or order the wire, get 3M super 77 and the 3m scotchweld 30NF, first use some of the super77 spray wait few minues laydown ur wire and then a verry thin layer of the 30nf. and ur done. in the kit is aluminium solder as well might come in handy to
I agree. I thought I was a wiz at finding things on the internet but the aluminum magnet wire eluded me. Oh, I could find it, but I'd have to buy 5,000 feet of it. Magnepan wants $50 for their kit: enough to do both speakers, etc. Not too bad. lol
I've heard mention of jigs to lay the wires out before you glue them down. Can someone point me in the direction of a thread or post?
thanks!
Thanks for the replies. I have contacted magnepan and I am waiting for a reply.
P.S.
Ed it seems that your smga are different than mine. In my maggies, both mid and bass have the same layout, except that one is shorter than the other. Somehow I think there were two different versions. Do you remember what is the capacitance of your crossover? Mine is at 17μF which I think is different from other smga that I think have 50μF.
P.S.
Ed it seems that your smga are different than mine. In my maggies, both mid and bass have the same layout, except that one is shorter than the other. Somehow I think there were two different versions. Do you remember what is the capacitance of your crossover? Mine is at 17μF which I think is different from other smga that I think have 50μF.
It seems that I was wrong. I thought that my maggies were smga but they are just smg, an older model. That's why my crossover is 17μF, while smga have 50μF capacitors.
I measured the resistance of the two speakers, one was 4.6 Ohm while the other was 4.8 Ohm, both without the tweeters. Shouldn't this be 4 Ohm like the named resistance? Also the resistance difference is because of different levels of corossion on the wires?
Regards Panagiotis
I measured the resistance of the two speakers, one was 4.6 Ohm while the other was 4.8 Ohm, both without the tweeters. Shouldn't this be 4 Ohm like the named resistance? Also the resistance difference is because of different levels of corossion on the wires?
Regards Panagiotis
Well, I picked up a pair of SMGs yesterday. I bought them non-working, no treble from either panel. So on further inspection, it turns out that the treble wiring needed re-doing, but no evidence of peeling of the bass wiring. This pair are "red-brown" rather than the green and according to Peter Gunn, that fits with the presentation above.
I already had contact adhesive, 32g fine enamelled copper wire, acetone - all I needed was the replacement for milloxane, Scotchbond 30N. This can be quite hard to get, and not in stock anywhere (even was onto 3M directly).
A bit of further digging shows that 30N is a water based polychlorprene adhesive (neoprene glue). The big application for this adhesive is for gluing down cork and vinyl tiles. Sure enough a search on products shows a number of alternatives. I bought one from a local DIY store (B&Q for those this side of the pond) - a tub for €6.
The repair was easy enough, but only time will tell about the repair lasts. My main thing here was just to let people in Europe know about an alternative to scotchbond 30. Interestingly enough the contact adhesive (scotchbond 10) is much easier to find.
Fran
I already had contact adhesive, 32g fine enamelled copper wire, acetone - all I needed was the replacement for milloxane, Scotchbond 30N. This can be quite hard to get, and not in stock anywhere (even was onto 3M directly).
A bit of further digging shows that 30N is a water based polychlorprene adhesive (neoprene glue). The big application for this adhesive is for gluing down cork and vinyl tiles. Sure enough a search on products shows a number of alternatives. I bought one from a local DIY store (B&Q for those this side of the pond) - a tub for €6.
The repair was easy enough, but only time will tell about the repair lasts. My main thing here was just to let people in Europe know about an alternative to scotchbond 30. Interestingly enough the contact adhesive (scotchbond 10) is much easier to find.
Fran
The component values used in any passive XO depend on the (nominal) impedance (basically, pure resistance, in the case of Maggie drivers) of the drivers. By using copper wire, you have ended up with much lower driver resistances than what Magnepan used to calculate the filter components values.
Hence your XO will no longer be rolling off at the same frequencies.
Regards,
Andy
Search for the crossover schematics on the Planar Forum (under "Tweaks" at the top of the page). This should give you the driver values.
There are 2 other "problems" you have introduced by deciding to use copper wire instead of getting a wire repair kit from Magnepan:
1. The resulting speaker impedance will be lower than stock. 4 ohms is the nominal value and some amps have difficulty coping with that! I would suspect you are down, now, to about 2.5 ohms - which is a much more difficult load.
2. Copper wire is heavier than aluminium wire - so you have increased driver mass. I would expect your Maggies sound slower than stock.
Regards,
Andy
Its actually hard enough to find a measurement for the tweeter wire. Assuming that the layout is the same as the SMGa then the target value for the tweeter is 4R. Measuring mine with the copper I get 3r8 on one and 3r7 on the other. Some DMMs aren't brilliant at measuring low resistances, but it should be pretty close.
They sound good, not at all sharp or dull either. The probably don't have the refinement of a well maintained set of quads, but nevertheless, I'm impressed with them.
Fran
They sound good, not at all sharp or dull either. The probably don't have the refinement of a well maintained set of quads, but nevertheless, I'm impressed with them.
Fran
I will post what my understanding of the driver resistances is, when I get home from work in about 9 hours. I'm pretty sure, though, that the drivers (and thus the driver resistances) are the same throught the SMG range - only the XO values changed.
Remember, you need to subtract from your values of 3.7ohm/3.8ohm, the reading you get when you short the meter leads together. On my multi-meter, this is 0.6ohm.
Regards,
Andy
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