|
Home
/ FAQ
/ News Classifieds / Events |
Audio Asylum Thread Printer |
Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
162.135.0.6
Hey guys, gals, its been awhile since I posted a message on AA, just been lurking around reading posts for last few years.
My Question: I wanted to re-build some speaker towers I have. I'm not even sure what brand of towers or speakers I have. I picked them up at a garage sell about 10 years ago, but the wood of the towers is nice and thick, each tower has (2)8" midrange woofer, and a 3 1/2 horn tweeter.
I want to remove the subs as they are damaged, take everything out of the towers. First redo the wood, sand them down, and either coat them with a real nice varnish or either paint them, and then re-mount some new midrange woofers and a new tweeter. I do have an electrical and computer background, so I want to redo the wiring with new cross-over’s and quality copper wiring, I might go as far as stripping Ethernet cable for the internal speaking wiring.
I'll post some pictures of the speakers I have in the current condition.
Can I pick up decent speakers and cross-overs from Parts-Express?? Is that where you guys and gals shop?? From eye-balling the speaker towers, they look to be 3ft tall, 8inches wide and about 6 to 7 inches deep.
If it's only the surrounds that have decayed on the woofers, you can get resurround kits and fix them. On the other hand, no-name speakers tend to be built from the cheapest components available and that money and effort might be better spent on new drivers.
Pictures would help... someone may recognize the speaker system or drivers.
And, maybe I should point out that there are a lot of decent stereo speakers being sold cheap at thrift stores and yard sales. I got a pair of Energy mini-monitors for $6, and a pair of Mission 701 for $25. The grille cloth on both are scruffy, but apart from that they work fine. You might be better off picking up working speakers and refinishing the cabinet and grille.
On the other other hand, buying a good kit (drivers and crossover and plans) should get you speakers that would sell for many times that price, the kind of speakers that do not turn up at yard sales unless one is extremely lucky.
Just today recieved the new Parts Express mailer.Inside the are selling raw floor standing cabinets with cutouts for two mids and a tweeter for $98 shipped and the drivers and cross over components for $120.All you need to do is assemble and finish the cabs.
I may order a pair for myself,fun project for a couple hundred bucks.
Now thats something that SOUNDS (: more reasonable Hotrod
Like the others have said, speaker design is very complicated. I would suggest you explore some of the speaker building sites and see if you can find a design that can be adapted to your enclosures. Internal volume is critical as well as port size/length, so match that to the design as well. Good luck
Be aware that successful loudspeaker and crossover design is often a difficult endeavor, even for experienced builders to pursue. Much research is recommended before you even consider leaping into such a task. I suggest that you research every DIY speaker project web site you can possibly find in order to understand just how complex things can be and how complicated things can become. Even if proper drivers are selected, designing a successful crossover may involve more blood, sweat and tears than one can tolerate. If you can calculate or otherwise find out what the loudspeaker enclosure volume and port dimensions are (if a bass reflex enclosure), this information can be of great help in determining what if any raw drivers may be selected for use. DIY speaker sellers such as Madisound and Parts Express often include PDF file download links with recommended enclosure parameters, while crossover designs are altogether another matter. Unless the parameters of your particular enclosure happens to "fit" any particular bonafide DIY loudspeaker project with a list of parts to select, be prepared to expect the unexpected...
Enclosures & woofers need to be designed & mated to each other, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Same for crossover circuts; they are intended to blend specific drivers into a single sound source & are thus specific to their drivers & enclosure. Typical re-build procedure is to replace existing & aged-out electro-chemical constructed capacitors with same capacitance value new capacitors. Replace age-deteriorated woofer foam surround cone suspensions with new foam kits. Clean any age-oxidated adjustable level controls. If you out-right replace any drivers (woofers, tweeter) you WILL need to re-design an enclosure & crossover circut for them = an all new speaker design (such design is NOT a project for the novice). PE individual drivers are for experienced hobbiests that design their own speakers from scratch & often using computer programs (see the PE Projects page for examples). There are specialized DIY speaker-building web forums, but the Audio Asylum is not one of them. Parts Express has one such forum & so does Madisound (another source for individual drivers).
Edits: 06/29/09 06/29/09
I see, so you can't simply replace components in the speaker box, you have to build the box around the speakers in order to get the correct frequency responses. What about if I just match the components close enough to the current hardware in the box, will that work, I'm not looking to get Audiophile performance, but something in between.
Without driver responce & T/S parameters, how might you match another? Fits-the-hole is not a useful criteria & impedance is of no great matter. Dusters' reply is on the mark.
Thanks guys, saved me lots of time and money, I think I'll go HotRods advice and just get the DIY kits with the matching componets.
There are lots of options in the kit market, PE is not the only vendor so shop around.
Post a Followup:
Top of Page ]
[ Contact Us ]
[ Support/Wish List ]
[ Copyright © 2009, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
[ Go Green ]
[ Take5 ]