Wharfedale 12" refoaming

Measured to be 24Hz, which im quite happy with. The prospect of undoing my work and replacing with foam was an unwelcome one!

I suspect even through the new rubber is thicker and a bit stiffer Fs is dominated by the extra weight of that aluminum ring that caused me issues at the start of this project, so the impact of surround material is reduced compared to a other speakers with no extra weight.

I'll get the other one done this weekend then they can go back in the cabinets, now fitted with extra bracing!
 
The driver appears good to go!

I'm not familiar with the "A" variant of the Dovedale III.
Does your Dovedale IIIA look like the one in the first attachment?
 

Attachments

  • Dovedale IIIA.jpg
    Dovedale IIIA.jpg
    126 KB · Views: 45
  • Dovedale III.jpg
    Dovedale III.jpg
    59.9 KB · Views: 42
They do indeed look like that! though the midrange in the pictured specimen appears to have been changed out to a non-wharfedale model, my ones had midranges like more like the second picture.
Actually i may perform a similar modification, they are fairly nasty looking stamped steel basket models, not very nice. Annoyingly i missed a nice pair of super5s on ebay the other day which would have been a nice upgrade. I have some metal cone seas mids, they need a fancy crossover though which is putting me off using them.
 
Yes, I suspected that the mid was a replacement.

It would appear that the driver compliment is the same in both the IIIA and the III, but the former has a more vintage style enclosure.

i wouldn't replace the 6 ohm midrange drivers. They may look uninspiring, but they perform well and, of course, to the intended specification. A Super5 would have twice the impedance, requiring crossover modification.

I see you are UK based. May I ask how you came about the IIIAs?
 
You may be right. Mids are important though! Maybe i'll stick them back in and see how they perform. Crossovers willl need new caps at least anyway.

I got them on ebay as a restoration project and to answer a question that's been bugging me for a while; is my memory of the fantastic bass form the melton 2 speakers i had many years ago simpley a rose tinted recollection from my youth or a valid observation that should be pursued in future speaker projects. I'm not too fussed about keeping them strictly authentic and original, i already added a bunch of bracing to the cabinets. As long as the result looks and sounds nice i'll be happy!
 
In case you don't have the full details of the later Dovedale 3 crossover (the one which connected to remotely mounted level switches):

High pass filter: Series capacitor 4.7uF & parallel inductor 0.5mH.
Low pass filter: Series inductor 4.0mH & parallel capacitor 32uF.
Band pass filter: This comprises of two stages, a high pass filter (25uF & 1.0mH) followed by a low pass filter (1.25mH & 4.0uF).
 

Attachments

  • Simple Dovedale 3 Crossover Board.jpg
    Simple Dovedale 3 Crossover Board.jpg
    468.8 KB · Views: 41
  • Advanced Dovedale 3 Crossover Boards.jpg
    Advanced Dovedale 3 Crossover Boards.jpg
    239.4 KB · Views: 39
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
I'll bet those aluminum rings were added weight made to also look good.
If you could find a modern midrange with a similar FR, no horrible peaks off-band, but just a little more sensitivity, then you could tune it same as stock for the crossover.
High Wf too! Out of the man-cave...and into the living room?