Heybrook HB100

Hi.

I received a pair of these speakers at a belated birthday present over the weekend. My friend thought it would be an interesting project for making some improvements on.

Unfortunately, my web searches didn't produce much useful information. One post on the World Designs forum mention a simple crossover of a 3.3uF capacitor and a 2R7 resistor. On opening the back of my units, I have 3.7uF of capacitance and a 15R resistor (plus an, as yet, unidentified component buried in hot glue).

My first change is to replace the internal wiring which is pitifully thin. It seems an odd choice, given that they spent some extra pennies on film caps instead of electrolytics.

Does anyone have any information regarding this speaker please? An owner's manual perhaps?
 

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I am sure the wiring is fine for the power levels needed to energise the speaker.

The crossover looks standard fare for the day. check the resistor with a meter or go back over the colour coding of it as it maybe in fact the correct value i can see brown and green at the other end just need to make out multiplier and tolerance bands.
Assume woofer has a natural roll off at 4-6 kHz and the tweeter is simple first order at these frequencies and resistor sets tweeter level/slope.

I would maybe just listen to them for a few days to get acclimatised to their strengths or weaknesses and then assess where you need to go with them. Try to find a review or two maybe.
 
I can't make sense of the colour code on the little metal oxide resistor, but expect it to be an ohn or two to act as a poor man's fuse on the tweeter.

You should measure it with a multimeter, especially to confirm it is intact, otherwise no treble!

https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/q-on-heybrook-hb2-xo.92628/page-5

I would guess the 6" woofer, which runs unfiltered, is something like a paper Elac 180NS10. The tweeter is a metal dome SEAS 19TAF/G.

That tweeter has a tendency toward dried-up ferroflluid which kills the sound despite it measuring 6 ohms. Replacement fluid available at Blue Aran near Southampton.

The tweeter comes apart with three clips which you prise with a small screwdriver.

The crossover probably adds up to 3.3uF on the tweeter plus the resistor. The speaker will work best near a wall.

Similar stuff here: https://insidehifi.blogspot.com/2018/09/heybrook-point-five.html

Best Regards from Steve in Portsmouth, UK.
 
Billshurv, from the review do you know what aspects were considered poor?

As System 7 points out they will probably provide the most even bass near to a wall and may sound thin in the bass if away from the walls.

Natural roll off bass driver and first order tweeter could be tricky to integrate well and final judgement of the design may have been done by ear .

Verify that the tweeter is playing reasonably well and the idea of the ferrofluid drying up is not another issue. Then maybe the resistor would be a good place to try value changes. If you can copy the response and impedance from an old seas data sheet you can judge capacitor and resistor changes in Xsim or Vituixcad. As to the bass driver response that could be somewhat more difficult to find a response and impedance sweep.

Measurement would help an awful lot, as you say maybe one for the new year.
 
I managed to find the review easily enough. Typical performance from a simple crossover. Tweeter distortion, cone breakup and awful phase....

https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Audio/Hi-Fi-News/80s/Hi-Fi-News-1989-11.pdf

Turns out it is an 8" 210mm wide paper Elac bass with rubber dustacap, and the SEAS 19TAF/G metal ferrofluid tweeter in 25L closed box..

Heybrook HB100.jpg


Peter Comeau of Heybrook HB100 and and Robin Marshall of Monitor Audio R300-MD must have been drinking buddies in the old days. Seemed to come up with the same ideas...

Robin shipped this crossover:

Monitor Audio R300-MD Original Crossover S7.png


I prefer this one, which is a PROPER JOB IMO:

Monitor Audio R300-MD Improved Crossover S7.png


See, I own these R300-MD speakers. And constant improvement is my middle name! 😀

Monitor Audio R300-MD Heybrook HB100.jpg
 
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@system7 - the first xover you posted was a carbon copy to the T of a design I used to sell as a nearfield monitor design in the early 90s with a creedance 6.5 paper bass mid and vifa D27TG45-06 in a 12l ported box. Mine actually sounded and imaged well, because the woofer had a natural rolloff that worked into LP slope.
 
Apologies for not replying sooner. The grandchildren have now gone home.

Many thanks for the interesting and useful information everyone has provided. It gives me a starting place for making some tweaks. While they won't ever replace my main speakers, they will be a useful means of education. I can swap out components and review their effect on the sound.