Bretheren -
How long do woofers last ? Please hive, weigh in on the prospects of building one last system from old stuff or giving it a local makerspace which does a lot with high school kids, maybe one of them will get the bug to build audio. The speakers I'm thinking about below go into a music practice room and will be used for playback of amateur recordings with my groups and YT and other recordings of very assorted music and widely varying quality for practice and rehearsal. No engineered listening space with carefully chosen source material and recordings.
It's been thirty years since I built the last project , a pair of Dynaudio 15W75 + Focal tweeters which has served nicely in our kitchen since. Previously during batchelordom in the late eighties , It was a pair of 17W75 6.5" drivers + Dynaudio tweeters,The 17W75 have sat for the last 25 years, replaced by a pair of Quested 10" nearfield monitors , now also gone.
The kitchen speakers are about to be retired in a remodeling , and I'm wondering if all three drivers would make a worthwhile bi-amped 3 way. A pair of ICEpower stereo amps + a line level crossover to drive them. So cost of this system with pretty good amps ~$500 with cabinet material. I'll note that the 17w75 system had very very dead cabinets and really detailed mids down to the sealed box rolloff - the cabinets were two shells - 1/2 plywood inside with interior bracing of 1" aluminum struts with 1/4-20 threaded rod inside those, the threaded rods drawing the plywood together and then the tubing filled with GreatStuff. Those assembled boxes then we glued inside outer shells of 1/2 MDF and veneer. Cabinets for these new speaker liner boxes could be rolled into the new kitchen cabinet order.
But what line level crossover frequency makes sense for a 6.5" and 4" ? Can I clean the kitchen drives of accumulated grease without compromising the surround ? What else about this project doesn't add up ?
Getting rid of every bit of old stuff to the makerspace and buying a pair of Elac or Wharfdale bookshelf speakers would probably do just fine for this if the above is not a good idea.
Thanks for reading !
How long do woofers last ? Please hive, weigh in on the prospects of building one last system from old stuff or giving it a local makerspace which does a lot with high school kids, maybe one of them will get the bug to build audio. The speakers I'm thinking about below go into a music practice room and will be used for playback of amateur recordings with my groups and YT and other recordings of very assorted music and widely varying quality for practice and rehearsal. No engineered listening space with carefully chosen source material and recordings.
It's been thirty years since I built the last project , a pair of Dynaudio 15W75 + Focal tweeters which has served nicely in our kitchen since. Previously during batchelordom in the late eighties , It was a pair of 17W75 6.5" drivers + Dynaudio tweeters,The 17W75 have sat for the last 25 years, replaced by a pair of Quested 10" nearfield monitors , now also gone.
The kitchen speakers are about to be retired in a remodeling , and I'm wondering if all three drivers would make a worthwhile bi-amped 3 way. A pair of ICEpower stereo amps + a line level crossover to drive them. So cost of this system with pretty good amps ~$500 with cabinet material. I'll note that the 17w75 system had very very dead cabinets and really detailed mids down to the sealed box rolloff - the cabinets were two shells - 1/2 plywood inside with interior bracing of 1" aluminum struts with 1/4-20 threaded rod inside those, the threaded rods drawing the plywood together and then the tubing filled with GreatStuff. Those assembled boxes then we glued inside outer shells of 1/2 MDF and veneer. Cabinets for these new speaker liner boxes could be rolled into the new kitchen cabinet order.
But what line level crossover frequency makes sense for a 6.5" and 4" ? Can I clean the kitchen drives of accumulated grease without compromising the surround ? What else about this project doesn't add up ?
Getting rid of every bit of old stuff to the makerspace and buying a pair of Elac or Wharfdale bookshelf speakers would probably do just fine for this if the above is not a good idea.
Thanks for reading !
It's good it's been used in the normal orientation. Sometimes speakers get stored facing up and they sag noticeably over time. How are the rubber surrounds?
If the surrounds are not hard and they still sound good I would say keep them. There were some speaker manufacturers that made bad rubber surrounds but not likely Dynaudio.
On the other hand I have some 8 inch Audio Concepts woofers bought about 1991 that are still good and have rubber surrounds.
Also I have an EV 15W driver that I know was bought about 1964 and never reconed. Currently in use in the living room system.
On the other hand I have some 8 inch Audio Concepts woofers bought about 1991 that are still good and have rubber surrounds.
Also I have an EV 15W driver that I know was bought about 1964 and never reconed. Currently in use in the living room system.
I would say sell the Dynaudio, they still have some following here and there.
Had the 17w75 plus d28af long time ago and eventually sold them as I never liked their low sensitivity.
Great for 1st order XO with their gentle roll off but too anemic IMHO.
There are better drivers today, a few coaxes - Kef, Spica, SBA, Seas, plus a lot of full rangers that are spectacular - Mark Audio, SBA, Seas, Tang Band, Sonido, etc.
These will give you a lot of options to be creative.
I personally like the old Japanese paper cone drivers with either paper or cloth surrounds - Coral, Yamaha, Kawai. Very often you find them in old consoles or organs.
Had the 17w75 plus d28af long time ago and eventually sold them as I never liked their low sensitivity.
Great for 1st order XO with their gentle roll off but too anemic IMHO.
There are better drivers today, a few coaxes - Kef, Spica, SBA, Seas, plus a lot of full rangers that are spectacular - Mark Audio, SBA, Seas, Tang Band, Sonido, etc.
These will give you a lot of options to be creative.
I personally like the old Japanese paper cone drivers with either paper or cloth surrounds - Coral, Yamaha, Kawai. Very often you find them in old consoles or organs.
I've got drivers from the 80s, 70s and even the 60s. I can tell you their cloth, rubber or even paper surrounds still work nicely, even in high spl uses. What may be an issue is the foam surrounds of the 80s and 90s, before they realized the foam surrounds crumble in exposure of UV light (sun). Some changed to rubber surrounds, others went back to cloth, yet others modified their foam surrounds to last (Technics/Panasonic/national and others).
Dynaudio always was generous in the materials and while there were some foam surround types, that were just experiments and practically all bass drivers from the mid 80s on got stable surrounds. That means, they will likely last for another 30 years from now on. And even if there's an issue, you can still get a replacement surround or spider. However, if you don't want to risk it, the re-sell value of Dynaudio drivers is very high, even of defective transducers. Just decide if you still want to use the drivers or to opt to sell them.
Dynaudio always was generous in the materials and while there were some foam surround types, that were just experiments and practically all bass drivers from the mid 80s on got stable surrounds. That means, they will likely last for another 30 years from now on. And even if there's an issue, you can still get a replacement surround or spider. However, if you don't want to risk it, the re-sell value of Dynaudio drivers is very high, even of defective transducers. Just decide if you still want to use the drivers or to opt to sell them.