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[Lazarus Short]

Laz's Speaker Rescue

Well, I spotted these on CL, and for $5. I scan it every day, and most is either stuff I don't want/need, or it's way out of my price range. These Jensen's had 12-inch woofers, and I happened to have two good ones in boxes. Barb and I picked them up in Liberty, and they had better cosmetics than I expected. The woofers had terminal foam-rot, but the rest looked good. Taking the old woofers out (they were VERY light), I saw that they were wired to run full-range, and the mid & tweet were isolated with only a cap each. Speaker fill was fairly minimal. I could do a LOT to improve these, but they're just going to get flipped. Sound is OK, nothing special. I found that the magnets on all three drivers are just about the same size.

BTW, the new woofers are made in Belgium, you might call them Euro-woofers. I think they're Phillips units. Surrounds are butyl rubber, so they should be good for a long time. They dropped right in too, and the screw holes even lined up. Easy.

 

[Lazarus Short]

An update:

Woofers are installed, and Barb and I have been listening to them while watching Babylon 5. The woofers appear to have been reconed, but happily there is no voice-coil rub. Nothing is over emphasized, and voice/dialog is nicely done. These would make good center-channel speakers except for the size. They are for sure a different flavor compared to the Vandersteens, but they are stunning for five buck speakers. Next up, the Energy speakers, $20 this time, and not drop-in easy...

 

[Lazarus Short]

Later the same day:

Opened up the Energy Pro 22, one of them. It's a whole 'nuther animal from the Jensen's (the five buck speakers). The front baffle is extra thick behind the woofer - 30mm or an inch & an eighth, and adding from the recessed mounting surface to the front would give a full inch and a quarter - I had never seen that before. I'm sure Canada has no shortage of MDF. The cabinet is also braced above and below the woofer, and the whole thing is nicely filled with batting. It has a real crossover, and I replaced the terminals, as one on the other speaker is shot, and I wanted them all to match - had a double set on hand. Then there was this foreign object at the bottom corner, just inside the port - little fingers had parked a toy dump truck. The tweeter cutout was sized so that the screws of the EPI Goldrings would not have set well, so I set it in and siliconed all around. Now the stinky setting, and I'm done for the day...

 

[Lazarus Short]

Next day:

The silicone has set up, and music is played. This speaker is GREAT on classical - listened to The Nutcracker. On music that is more rock or pop, it's a different story - listened to Varttina. I have the distinct impression of a great tweeter playing above a one-notey woofer. The cruder Jensen's have better integration over the full range of frequencies. I think I'm a three-way kind of guy. Well, the buzz I got on the www is that the woofer is nothing special, and sure enough, the woofer looks a lot more impressive from the front than from the back.

BTW, if you think that's stitching holding the woofer cone to the rubber half-roll, you're correct...

 

[Northwinds]

Good projects Laz!

 

[Lazarus Short]

Thank you, NW, but I just got buffaloed - I opened up the second speaker, the one with the very crude terminal repair, and the inside is dusted with sawdust of unknown origin. The fiberglass batting has been removed and carelessly put back, and worst of all, the terminals on the woofer frame came off! Bloody hell!! The woofer still has continuity, but putting the terminals back together will be a project in itself. At least the external terminals are now fixed, but no toy truck in this speaker...

 

[laatsch55]

You find the damndest things....

 

[Lazarus Short]

You find the damndest things....

Yeah, Lee, I was really, really looking forward to another toy truck...

 

[laatsch55]

Yeah F&^%, gotta have 2 of em!!

 

[Fast Forward]

Good resto work Laz I remember doing my Garage find Marantz Imperials a few years back and how great they looked and sounded when they were done

 

[Lazarus Short]

Good resto work Laz I remember doing my Garage find Marantz Imperials a few years back and how great they looked and sounded when they were done

DIY and restoration provide rewards the buyer of only new gear will never know.

 

[laatsch55]

Amen, and a lot of kids will never know either...

 

[Fast Forward]

Remind me to write an Audio will

 

[Lazarus Short]

Finished!

The speaker terminals are repaired/replaced. The one woofer's terminals are repaired. The EPI goldrings are in place. They sound good for a $20 [+ time/effort + tweeters] investment. Together, both of them, I'm hearing less of the one-note bass, and better integration of woofer & tweeter. With a decent sub they would sound quite good. Well worth the effort!

EDIT: In the photos, you can see the loose woofer terminals, caused by broken rivets. Then you can see the small machine screws, washers, and nuts I replaced them with. I was worried about a short through the frame, so I checked the resistance - 4.8 ohms, good. Then you can see the finished speakers in operation, and the reworked speaker terminals. Today, it's off to the first meeting of the Kansas City Audio Club to show them off, and maybe sell or trade them.

 

[Lazarus Short]

Laz done good!

I didn't even need that "bigger boat." I just fiddled around with what I had on hand. At one point, I thought I had killed my Yamaha amp, but found it was just this tiny "Main Level" knob on the bottom center part of the REAR panel - it was turned all the way down. I had to take the Acoustat pre out of the system and use the Yamaha as an integrated, but by doing that, I was able to use the subwoofer outs. Doing that enabled me to use the "External Crossover" position of the subwoofer's input switch, and that brought the input impedance down to ~16 ohms. For an amp, I pressed one of the Aiwa micro amps back into service, still bridged to mono, and it is doing a great job, though I've never seen the level indicators go so high. In all the system is pumping out 80 + 80 watts from the Yamaha, and ~70 from the Aiwa. BTW, the Aiwa is running flat-out, with no volume control of any kind, just amping what the Yamaha gives it. Without the sub, the Vandersteen's now seem wimpy.

There is bad news, however: the Acoustat subwoofer is a stereo unit and the right channel woofer is dead, Dead, DEAD. Still for $45, one channel is amazing and worth the money. As promised, we listened to Jennifer Warnes, especially Way Down Deep, and Barb made happy noises the whole time. Yeah, I like it too...

 

[laatsch55]

Basshead Barb...Way too cool.....

 

[NavLinear]

sớm lên top nha

"sớm lên top nha" - machine translation (Vietnamese):

Early on top dentist

"PK Khương Trung chuyên dài bao quy đầu" - machine translation (Vietnamese):

PK Khuong Trung specialized long foreskin

I'm guessing something was lost in translation.

 

[orange]

dài bao quy đầu in the signature is a link to a Vietnamese language PHARMA SITE,

SPAM. REPORTED.

 

[orange]

Hit the spotlights, we may have incoming.

 

[Lazarus Short]

While I had the Yamaha on the bench, I had it hooked up to my old, old speakers, my first. I had them out on the bench, having put new wires on them. They sounded better than I expected, though one had some buzzing. I wasn't afraid to modify anything back then.