OMG.....fingers crossed.

Those things do look very nice, from what I can see. I do like the look of the veneer baffle with the grills off!

Bill and Bill Jr. are the nicest guys, I've spoken with them on several occasions and we had wonderful discussions of their dealings with Infinity and Arnie Nudell "back in the day". (Bill Jr. said that he wanted to "punch Arnie right in the nose." :rflmao:)

Which caps are in your QLS-1? If they are the big "coke cans" they're probably OK, they seem to last. But my QLS had bundles of 200uF caps and they were all swollen and cracked and leaking, my woofers were flopping around like a fish on the deck. The only real way to know is to use a high quality ESR meter and test them at a similar frequency as the ones that they pass, I used 120 Hz.

Since I had the original crossovers and changed the leaky caps to the second crossover version (swapping the 1600uF for an 1100uF), I changed the coils to the newer values like in your QLS. When I measured the original coils they were pretty far out of spec, you might want to at least measure them if you are going to all the trouble of replacing the caps and resistors.
 
Hi chef,
I have the 3 coils, 2 cans and sand cast resistors in the bass circuit, the cans are silver and look perfectly good. The three coils are right up against each other, I'm thinking they should be re-arranged to prevent any crosstalk. I did notice one of the sandcast resistors is very dark compared to the rest. There's a couple of small caps also but I can't read them as I haven't pulled the crossovers yet.

The high pass has all Southern Electronics yellow colored caps with sandcast resistors.

I have a multi meter that I can use and an oscilloscope I recently bought but haven't learned to use yet. I'm not sure how to measure coils or caps with what I have so I'd have to leave it up to the professional for that.

HOLY COW !!!! My Emotiva XPR Gen 2 just shut down, it's HOT !!! Playing the QLS-5's watching tv, low volume watching pawn stars. The wife was dusting sound just stopped. UH-OH.

Frick Man......lost the right channel on the Emo :mad:
 
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I'd be suspicious of that discolored resister too. Crossover parts can get pretty hot, especially resisters and pots.

The cap for the "mid-bass coupler" is a 40 uF electrolytic, usually one of those questionable black and red "made in Mexico" jobs. Inspect it carefully for signs of failure, it's getting to be 40 years old.

The yellow caps are film caps which are known to last a long time. I removed them from a pair of Infinity Qb's and it ruined the sound of the EMITs. I ended up putting them back. (So leave them!)
 
HOLY COW !!!! My Emotiva XPR Gen 2 just shut down, it's HOT !!! Playing the QLS-5's watching tv, low volume watching pawn stars. The wife was dusting sound just stopped. UH-OH.

Frick Man......lost the right channel on the Emo :mad:

Oh No! I've never heard of Q5's blowing up anything! And an amp with such a good reputation? :wtf:
 
isn't the emotiva known for being over-protective with low ohm loads?

Dave, if you want, you can borrow one of my carver Pro amps, (450 wpc @4) and we can see what's going on with the Q5s. Use an ohmmeter on them yet?
 
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Jazz, much appreciated ! I'm stopping at Guitar Center and one other place to look at either an Behrainger EP-4000 or Crown something a rather, model number escapes me right now. Both are 500 watters and stable for extended 2-4 ohm loads. Until the McIntosh comes into the fold I'm fine with a pro amp.

I had just switched the 5's into the living room, was the first morning and only about 4 hours of continuous play just watching tv for them to put the strain on the Emo, I've never had any trouble with it at all...none. Going to open it up tomorrow and pray it's a blown fuse.

I talked to the local tech yesterday, nice enough guy but got the spiel, doesn't do crossovers cause blah, blah, blah. I don't understand why your in business and not willing to take on a project. Compared to a Kappa 9-8 crossover the QLS-1 is relatively straight forward.

Anyway I'm going to go after the pots this weekend, the woofers in the 5's are exactly the same as the 1. I'm going to switch them over and they should be up and running by Monday.

Jazz, the good woofers I did check, the 2 ohm sides read between 2.3 and 2.6 and the 4 ohm sides were 4.3 and 4.6. I'm guessing that's OK.

Had a change of heart and went to Bobbies shop, was going to pull the trigger on a GX-5 but then spotted a QSC-1700, that's what came home. Not much to look at but a brute of an amp, should push those 1's no sweat. Price was right too. Got to see those JBL Century speakers, impressive for sure. Bobs such a great guy, glad I stayed local.
 
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Just a quick update, I'm having some issues but when right, DSOTM, Beatles. One word...........




Magic.....



Amazing what these can do......I'm speechless. Almost to tears at how good these are.
 
Thanks, I was just reading the manual last night on setup, and the tip on the emits. It's all kinda happened so fast and I've not had much time. The day I took off mostly involved moving stuff so I could accommodate all the new stuff...haha.

The 5's are in the living room now and the 1's are in the office where I can work on them, I got my email from Mr Watkins so the original woofers are taking the ride on Monday.

Over the weekend I'll start a thread on the 5's. I don't think I can keep them as I just dont have the room but I'm betting this is one of the nicest pairs on the planet, I think I have the picture thing down and you guys should see them, they represent the quality of the 1's in every way.

Where I'm at a crossroads right now is the crossovers, while there down should I have them recapped or leave them original, from what my eyes see everything looks good, no leaking, swollen or otherwise. Everything looks as fresh as the day they were made. It's not something I want to do, am I capable probably. I've read everything I can find here and everyone reports great results.

On my break today I'm going to stop at an audio repair shop that I've never dealt with before to discuss removing the crossovers and having them recapped if he's willing to do that kind of work. I'm thinking all Jantzen,mills resistors keeping to the original values. The original chokes will stay.

Just my opinion, worth exactly nothing and yet worth every penny paid...
if the 5's are as nice as you say and you are quite sure you will be moving them along, I'd leave the crossovers as they are.
While many of "us" know that recapping can provide nice changes to the sound of some vintage speakers, many people don't.
Better to sell them in their pristine, original condition and let the new owner decide whether to recap or not.
If you are going to keep them, go ahead and recap them.
Again, JMO and YMMV.
 
I'm not changing anything....no sir. They are staying just as they are. Woofers are going to Watkins and that's it.
 
My audio hobby was fun up until the day I got QLS-1's. At that point it became transcendent and I soared. My QLS-1 chapter was a magic time that will likely never be repeated for me...and I'm good with that.

My most heartfelt congratulations to you! Your acquisition experience reminds me a lot of mine (ours are even pretty close in serial #'s) and here's to a fantastic journey ahead for you. Welcome aboard the starship to friggin' badass awesomeness (with the right gear and in the right room, of course).
 
My audio hobby was fun up until the day I got QLS-1's. At that point it became transcendent and I soared. My QLS-1 chapter was a magic time that will likely never be repeated for me...and I'm good with that.

My most heartfelt congratulations to you! Your acquisition experience reminds me a lot of mine (ours are even pretty close in serial #'s) and here's to a fantastic journey ahead for you. Welcome aboard the starship to friggin' badass awesomeness (with the right gear and in the right room, of course).
Hey man, what's the latest chapter, Michael:thumbsup::dunno::rockon::lurk::idea::idea::idea:
 
Well, I took a break from the audio hobby to focus on my growing business and getting back to playing music. The dedicated listening space out in the garage is now being used as a rehearsal space for a musical project I have going and I've been slowly putting together a decent hi-fi rig in the living room. It's a big room which requires big speakers to take advantage of all that sonic real estate, but my placement options are extremely limited, so I settled on a near mint set of Klipsch Chorus II's. I've purchased Crites crossovers and titanium tweeter diaphragms to upgrade them, but even in their stock form they sound pretty damn nice (especially since I added a few subs with digital room correction) with a Nuprime IDA-8 integrated amp/DAC...which is a very impressive little unit in its own right. I could fit the QLS-1's in the living room, but placement wouldn't be ideal and I have a 110# cur dog that's allowed in the house from time to time and she could inflict some serious damage to dome mids with her tail. There's a good chance I'll sell them this year...along with the Altec 19's and IRS Betas (if I can ever finish up that project). Sorry for the thread hi-jack.
 
I'm with goodolpg and his cap upgrade recommendation. I see no use in getting a good sounding amp if you are going to leave the old capacitors in the crossover. It's amazing what a better cap can do for the sound. I finished re-capping a friend's B&Ws a few weeks ago with some film & foil MusiCaps and it was a night & day difference in the improved quality of the sound. He thanks me every time he talks to me for talking him into having it done. Previous to the re-cap he was telling me how good his speakers sound. Now he's thrilled with them.

I know that the woofer caps are probably too high of a microfarad value to replace with poly caps, but the smaller values can be done and the investment will be worth it. That's my opinion. I've re-capped a lot of different speakers and I have never been disappointed with the results.

By the way, congrats on the great score. I wish I could find excellent condition speakers like yours that don't need a major overhaul. I seem to find them cheap, but there's always a ton of work involved in making them 'right' aesthetically and sound-wise. Your's are gorgeous.

Larry D.
 
Forgot to mention that I sent my RS 2.5 woofers to Watkins also. He does excellent work and tested them and said they were fine. Someone else had tried to do a re-foam job on them previous to my purchasing the 2.5s, so I wanted to be sure they were right. Who else would know these speakers better than the designer? He said the attempted re-foam was a real botched job, but he said they were not damaged. I highly recommend Bill's work.

Larry D.
 
I think right now the fact that they made it here, and I own them and have no plans to ever see them go is good enough for me right now. Once I bring an amp or amplifiers that will handle these without question, a recap of the crossovers may happen.

With what I have here, going to hold off on doing anything and enjoy what the hobby is all about.....music :music:.

I'm humbled, still have to pinch myself :bigok: .
 
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