Another RSII Recap

[AZDean]

I've been doing some work on recapping my crossovers. I bought a digital multimeter and an inexpensive LCR meter so I have measurements on the old caps, something that might be of interest to others considering this. The bottom two are the resistors.


So it was interesting that the big 1600uf caps were both within 3%. I'm replacing them due to age since I ordered new caps before I measured them. But I'll keep the old ones just in case.

When I bought these a couple years ago, I was having some problems with tweeter fuses blowing. The right 12uf may have been the culprit. When I measured it with the LCR meter the other day, it would move around from 6uf to 12uf, constantly changing. Today, it just measured 6uf. My DMM wouldn't measure it at all, it would just display overload. So something's funky with that cap. You can see several others pretty far out. I was surprised that the right 9.4 ohm resister was 12% out too.

The new caps are Solen PB film caps for the mids and woofers. The 150uf Solen is nearly the size of a soup can! I'm using a couple Cornel Dubilier caps to bypass the 12 and 150. I'm using Mundorf eCap electrolytics for the woofers. The new resistors are Mundorf as well. I had to parallel a bunch of caps to get the values I needed, not just for the big caps, but even the 12.5s. So 8 caps come out and 17 caps go in. I was a bit of work to arrange things, plus I wanted to space and orient the inductors a little differently.

Hope to finish next weekend, I'll let you know how it turns out!

 

[7.62]

Interesting that most are close considering the age factor, I'll be looking forward to what you think after your done and get some time on them. I've been reading some of the older threads, in particular on some 2b's that were recapped and that member says totally worth it. I've just acquired a set myself and some 2.5's, both which I'm thinking about recapping cause they're staying, I love them all what's a guy to do ?

Would love to see some pictures if you can and Thank You for sharing with us.

 

[AZDean]

So I finished them this weekend. Here's a couple pics. Learned some lessons too.

I didn't plan well enough, which made life a bit harder. I redid the crossover boards, got everything laid out but didn't include the wires to the drivers, so I had several points with multiple components already soldered together that I then had to add a wire to. That was difficult. I feel like the soldering could have been neater, but everything works. I decided to make the crossovers removable so I mounted terminal blocks in the cabinet.

I listened only to test so far so I have no impressions to offer yet. I did have the top/bottom mids on one speaker wired backward at the terminal blocks, which was immediately apparent and easy to fix. After that, the balance between the drivers seems right, they aren't bright or dull. I'll leave them running all day while working this week to run in the new caps and update later with listening notes.

Original crossover (I split it a couple years ago.)


New components, with a different layout for some of the coils. It looks pretty messy, but there's a lot of stuff in there!

 

[pauljh]

So I finished them this weekend. Here's a couple pics. Learned some lessons too.
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[AZDean]

Updated my previous post, hopefully pics are showing now.

 

[pauljh]

Yes, photos are available now.

 

[windsor905]

Waiting for the update. Thanks for posting!

 

[AZDean]

So I have some early listening impressions to describe. There's a clear improvement in the midrange and highs. I feel like there's better transparency, better imaging, more holographic. Seems like the instruments and voices are better defined, with space between them. My hearing is definitely not golden, I have tinnitus, and my right ear drum was replaced with a skin graft when I was a kid, but I can hear this change.

The jury's still out regarding the bass. It still gets as deep. Not certain yet, but the upper woofer may be a bit louder. I need to do some more listening there. I did play some jazz with a walking bass line, and it seemed pretty even, without peaking on certain notes. My impression on the upper woofer happened while testing the first crossover, so it might just need some time.

Overall, the speakers definitely improved after a couple days of running. I cranked them up a good bit, no issues with fuses blowing. I'll update again when I get some more time.

 

[SoundsAlike]

So I have some early listening impressions to describe. There's a clear improvement in the midrange and highs. I feel like there's better transparency, better imaging, more holographic. Seems like the instruments and voices are better defined, with space between them. My hearing is definitely not golden, I have tinnitus, and my right ear drum was replaced with a skin graft when I was a kid, but I can hear this change.

The jury's still out regarding the bass. It still gets as deep. Not certain yet, but the upper woofer may be a bit louder. I need to do some more listening there. I did play some jazz with a walking bass line, and it seemed pretty even, without peaking on certain notes. My impression on the upper woofer happened while testing the first crossover, so it might just need some time.

Overall, the speakers definitely improved after a couple days of running. I cranked them up a good bit, no issues with fuses blowing. I'll update again when I get some more time.

The RSII uses a dual-voiced woofer arrangement where the top woofer plays upper and mid-bass and the bottom woofer plays low bass -- you might be interpreting that top woofer voicing as "louder" because its bass output is more audible

 

[AZDean]

The RSII uses a dual-voiced woofer arrangement where the top woofer plays upper and mid-bass and the bottom woofer plays low bass -- you might be interpreting that top woofer voicing as "louder" because its bass output is more audible

Oh, I know. In my first test listen, with only one speaker done, I thought I heard some additional mid/upper bass, even some one note bass. Now that I have them both done and in proper position, and after probably 30 hours on them, I'm not noticing it as much.

 

[tubed]

The RSII uses a dual-voiced woofer arrangement where the top woofer plays upper and mid-bass and the bottom woofer plays low bass -- you might be interpreting that top woofer voicing as "louder" because its bass output is more audible

Both bottom and top woofers play low bass,
the top woofer plays up to higher frequency(125hz) than the bottom woofer(60Hz)