Hi.
Inspired by several 'thrift store' and Dumpster threads, I randomly took a look around at what was in my local areas equivalent: the charity shop.
Lately these seem to be about the only shops that arent closing down, and in fact are showing up everywhere en-masse.
I found a worn pair of Sony 2-ways, likely from some system or other. polymer 10mm dome akin to the Audax (and clones), and a woven Kevlar/or polymer coned 5.5" bass driver. The box is ~4.5 litres and the port 80mm x 38mm diameter.
Next I thought id check out the tweeter and find what crossover there is in these little boxes.
Surprisingly, there is a 0.022 uF PP capacitor bypassing the 1.8uF electrolytic (which I expected to find). Not bad, I didnt think they would bother.
Next the woofer:
The nice thing about this woofer is the very open polymer frame, and rear venting of the spider.
Again, I didnt expect 'tech' like this on speakers like this, and for the money I paid the cabs alone are worth the expenditure.
Inspired by several 'thrift store' and Dumpster threads, I randomly took a look around at what was in my local areas equivalent: the charity shop.
Lately these seem to be about the only shops that arent closing down, and in fact are showing up everywhere en-masse.
I found a worn pair of Sony 2-ways, likely from some system or other. polymer 10mm dome akin to the Audax (and clones), and a woven Kevlar/or polymer coned 5.5" bass driver. The box is ~4.5 litres and the port 80mm x 38mm diameter.
Next I thought id check out the tweeter and find what crossover there is in these little boxes.
Surprisingly, there is a 0.022 uF PP capacitor bypassing the 1.8uF electrolytic (which I expected to find). Not bad, I didnt think they would bother.
Next the woofer:
The nice thing about this woofer is the very open polymer frame, and rear venting of the spider.
Again, I didnt expect 'tech' like this on speakers like this, and for the money I paid the cabs alone are worth the expenditure.
Thats my plan for these also.
In fact the 'lytic in my pair may also be 1.5 uF, but until i remove it its obscured and im unsure. Actually 1.5 would make far more sense. Thanks for the prod.
Im thinking of replacing the BAF with foam or felt. The woven cone is actually rather different to many ive seen. It appears to have no resin, and is surprisingly flexible.
Of course it isnt 'high end' gear and I have no idea of its response, but it sounds like a fairly good and smooth natural roll off. Maybe a bit of a midrange hole but for 10GBP im happy.
Im considering adding an Ohm or two to ease off the hot treble tizz that i expected from my experiences with the Audax formerless domes.
In fact the 'lytic in my pair may also be 1.5 uF, but until i remove it its obscured and im unsure. Actually 1.5 would make far more sense. Thanks for the prod.
Im thinking of replacing the BAF with foam or felt. The woven cone is actually rather different to many ive seen. It appears to have no resin, and is surprisingly flexible.
Of course it isnt 'high end' gear and I have no idea of its response, but it sounds like a fairly good and smooth natural roll off. Maybe a bit of a midrange hole but for 10GBP im happy.
Im considering adding an Ohm or two to ease off the hot treble tizz that i expected from my experiences with the Audax formerless domes.
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Many years ago, speakers in this price/performance range had relatively poor drivers, a basic but "proper" crossover and solid enclosures. Nowadays they have quite good drivers, no crossover, and thin wall cabinets. The improvement in drivers has been mainly due to advances in design techniques. It costs little or no more to build a driver with a precisely specified set of parameters than it does to build a "generic". Designing a driver to roll off more or less smoothly at a defined "crossover" frequency alows doing away with the LF crossover components.
I too haunt "op shops", thrift stores and recycling centres. As you point out, some drivers are quite well designed and will perform very well in a solid enclosure with a proper crossover. The main problem is lack of T-S parameters, but a Woofer Tester 2 will quickly pay for itself.
I too haunt "op shops", thrift stores and recycling centres. As you point out, some drivers are quite well designed and will perform very well in a solid enclosure with a proper crossover. The main problem is lack of T-S parameters, but a Woofer Tester 2 will quickly pay for itself.
Thanks Don. I have a landscape gardener friend who's tight for cash, due to the last 2 weeks of snow we've had here. Luckily, he had been able to keep working until that point really. He needs a cheap stereo, in fact some cheap wharfedales at richer sounds. These were even cheaper, probably not as good, but not awful. Its now likely that i will sell them on. He's open to a cap change and pad for the tweeter, if it helps tone the tweeter down a little. Pennies in parts so why not? 
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