ListeningEar
28-05-2014, 23:31
I seem to be coming across several little projects of late, the wife is bugging me to hurry up and sell the Linn Sondek's I have overhauled so she can have her dining table back lol.
Latest loudspeaker projects are quite interesting and I will be looking forward to hearing how they sound once complete.
First project is a pair of Avance Concrete 190's. these are floorstanding speakers with concrete cabinets,...so yes, very heavy! Tweeters are perfect and I have just replaced the surrounds in the upper mid drivers, next is the main bass driver and passive radiator, both Vifa drive units. Good Hi-Fi in the Netherlands have been great in sourcing the correct spec surrounds but the ones for the Vifa drives had to be specially ordered.
The original paint finish to the cabinets was gloss white but this was textured so I have completely stripped this and will refinish in a smooth gloss white.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t1.0-9/1618623_365010190307124_881425900_n.jpg
https://scontent-a-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/t1.0-9/1510989_385691964905613_605467718_n.jpg
Second project is a pair of Rogers JR149's. I just got these as a friend found them in his garage, he said he bought them cheap at auction years ago, I know why,...someone had painted them completely black and replaced a tweeter for an aftermarket one that does not even fit properly. I have found an original KEF T27 matching tweeter so that will sort that issue. Speakers have now been completely stripped of the black paint and I have dismantled them down into components sections. The 'wood' end caps are cheap laminated boards, I will be changing these to nice exotic hardwood caps. These are attached to hardboard caps that then insert into the aluminium casing (cabinet). The central rods are intact which is nice as many forums tell of these breaking but I will be upgrading these to a higher grade rod.
Aluminium casing's will be polished to a mirror finish. I did actually have these running before the strip down and they sound very sweet albeit not balanced with that odd tweeter. Once complete me and a friend are going to try and fabricate some matching stands.
Once other mod is to replace the base of the speaker as the original piece is a pressed mild steel 'bowl', it has terrible sonic qualities and our opinion is that it offers no solid base for the speaker. A new base will be machined out of the same exotic hardwood as the end caps and we will be mounting nice high-end speaker binding posts in the rear to replace the poor bell wire in a terminal block affair in the original crossover (crossover is mounted in this steel base). The inside of the new hardwood base will be machine out to accommodate the crossover.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t1.0-9/1604440_408938972580912_6083803899444801749_n.jpg
Latest loudspeaker projects are quite interesting and I will be looking forward to hearing how they sound once complete.
First project is a pair of Avance Concrete 190's. these are floorstanding speakers with concrete cabinets,...so yes, very heavy! Tweeters are perfect and I have just replaced the surrounds in the upper mid drivers, next is the main bass driver and passive radiator, both Vifa drive units. Good Hi-Fi in the Netherlands have been great in sourcing the correct spec surrounds but the ones for the Vifa drives had to be specially ordered.
The original paint finish to the cabinets was gloss white but this was textured so I have completely stripped this and will refinish in a smooth gloss white.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t1.0-9/1618623_365010190307124_881425900_n.jpg
https://scontent-a-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/t1.0-9/1510989_385691964905613_605467718_n.jpg
Second project is a pair of Rogers JR149's. I just got these as a friend found them in his garage, he said he bought them cheap at auction years ago, I know why,...someone had painted them completely black and replaced a tweeter for an aftermarket one that does not even fit properly. I have found an original KEF T27 matching tweeter so that will sort that issue. Speakers have now been completely stripped of the black paint and I have dismantled them down into components sections. The 'wood' end caps are cheap laminated boards, I will be changing these to nice exotic hardwood caps. These are attached to hardboard caps that then insert into the aluminium casing (cabinet). The central rods are intact which is nice as many forums tell of these breaking but I will be upgrading these to a higher grade rod.
Aluminium casing's will be polished to a mirror finish. I did actually have these running before the strip down and they sound very sweet albeit not balanced with that odd tweeter. Once complete me and a friend are going to try and fabricate some matching stands.
Once other mod is to replace the base of the speaker as the original piece is a pressed mild steel 'bowl', it has terrible sonic qualities and our opinion is that it offers no solid base for the speaker. A new base will be machined out of the same exotic hardwood as the end caps and we will be mounting nice high-end speaker binding posts in the rear to replace the poor bell wire in a terminal block affair in the original crossover (crossover is mounted in this steel base). The inside of the new hardwood base will be machine out to accommodate the crossover.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t1.0-9/1604440_408938972580912_6083803899444801749_n.jpg