keeping another pair of QLS1's alive

I've often wondered the same thing and don't have an answer. I don't see anything as part of the grill that would simulate what they are describing. Unless the frame of the grills accomplishes what the "quarter wave plate" would. I can not detect a sound difference with or without the grills. I leave mine off since the "micro ball and catchs" have long ago failed. I've tried small velcro pads glued over them but they can't hold the weight of the grills over time and days later they end up on the floor. I've surrendered to no grills.
 
mine have a masonite-ish strip that runs down the grills about 1/3 of the way in, about 1.5 inches wide IIRC. it would be just to the side of the tweeter array. yours doesn't have that, Nikkoholic?
 
mine have a masonite-ish strip that runs down the grills about 1/3 of the way in, about 1.5 inches wide IIRC. it would be just to the side of the tweeter array. yours doesn't have that, Nikkoholic?

From your description I'm guessing this is a splitter between the emit array and the dome array then? Protruding forwards 1.5"? Does it appear to be 90 degrees perpendicular to the baffle?
 
Here are photos of my grills. I'm also showing the mounting screw issue. It's hard to see but the head of the screw has slipped under the fiber ring. When I back this out it is going to lift and tear the ring away. Can this be reglued when this happens?

Also is a photo of the groove / reveal between the top and base section of the speaker. Sorry I didn't take any photos while it was apart. I'll probably take it apart again this weekend. Just don't want to ruin my new watkins. I didn't get a chance to talk with Bill Watkins today.

Also slipped in a photo of some my equipment. Sorry photo isn't too good.
 

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Here are photos of my grills. I'm also showing the mounting screw issue. It's hard to see but the head of the screw has slipped under the fiber ring. When I back this out it is going to lift and tear the ring away. Can this be reglued when this happens?
You can glue the ring back down without any issues, elmers or aleene's tacky glue will work well.

I'm surprised how different the cabinet details are right down to the grilles. My grilles are wire cage design on a particleboard outer frame. I like the standoffs with the flatter frame yours have.

Nice system! Looks like it should have sufficient power! :yes:
 
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As for my "rattle". Put everything back together and it is still there. Just like before if I push in the middle of the rear control panel the rattle stops. Guess I should have dismounted it and re-glued and reattached. Very dissappointed. Other problem is I "upgraded" the hex head screws that hold the Watkins in with a pan head phillips. The head must be slightly larger so when the screws went in the really pushed their way past the fiber trim ring that is over the foam ring glue line. Not sure if they are going to come back out without tearing that fiber trim up. Any advice? Is this fiber ring replaceable or is this part of the foam suspension ring assemble? Obviously I've got to get the woofer back out.

I took everything back apart and sure enough another capacitor that was glued to the control board came loose. It was the 13.6mf. I re-glued it down and double checked all other connections. Reassembled and that took car of the rattle/buzz and now I can hear another (but not as severe).

With just the woofers on I am getting a buzz behind the soft-dome tweeters. It seems to be all or most of them. I tightened all the hex screws but didn't seem to have an effect. I added and entire bag of polyfill (about the size of a pillow) to this speaker prior to reassemble. When I deoxit the left speaker I noticed it had at least 3x's as much fill as the right. These speakers were manufactured about 2 months apart so maybe a different assembler or a change on Infinity's part. Not sure how to eliminate the dome vibrations. Can't hear them when listening; only when I'm looking for buzzes with the woofers running solo.

Also just a note, I went back to the hex head screws. I noticed when installing them and removing them the hex driver provides a guide that protects from tearing up the fiber ring that surrounds the screw head. I was able to get the Phillips head back out without tearing up the rings, but it did have me worried.
 
Would calking them help? Rope calk can be found at most hardware stores, just a thought.
Best of luck!
Army
 
Would calking them help? Rope calk can be found at most hardware stores, just a thought.
Best of luck!
Army

Yup, I second Army's idea. Actually there are several solutions to that problem in the weatherstripping isle at Lowes or Home Depot.

Is there a single 13.6 mfd cap in your crossover? Interesting, mine had paired 6.8 polyester caps in that position. What sort of resistors were used?

When you get the urge to update your crossovers, add a low temp hotglue gun to your tool box if you haven't already. $2 bucks at most discount stores and makes secure, reversible attachment of components a breeze.
 
took a while but here is what my grills look like. notice the inch-wide wood vertical strip:

IMG_2193.JPG
 
took a while but here is what my grills look like. notice the inch-wide wood vertical strip:

Thanks for posting it Chris. That strip seems strange, I would think it would cause mid-frequency null near the listening position rather than cure a 10KHZ dip. Edge diffraction at least.
 
Thanks for posting it Chris. That strip seems strange, I would think it would cause mid-frequency null near the listening position rather than cure a 10KHZ dip. Edge diffraction at least.

not sure why mine are the only ones to have the strip, since it's mentioned in the manual. Nikko, what are your SN's?

for the first time ever, i've listened tonight with the grills in place (barely), and i've got to say that i think it sounds better. more natural and less forward is what i'd say. it's not a scientific A/B, but i've listened to Diana Krall many times and never found it quite so smooth. i don't suppose Infinity'd make such a clear issue about it in the manual if it wasn't a real effect - they were pretty reasonable guys. Oh, and Jim, you package is in the mail as we speak :yes:
 
The vertical grill strips on the Q2's are "offset" from the midrange drivers and dont seem to interfere with the sound from what I can tell.
From what I've read speaker measurement specs are are recorded with grills in place.
That being said the boilerplate brochure states " audiophiles might like to listen without grills ....
 
Listening impressions are everything when it comes to the end result, it just seems odd that the fix for the "anomaly" would be a strip of masonite hanging in space between the emits and domes. From the photo Chris posted it looks like the strip sits just at the edge of the emit faceplates on top of the mid-dome faceplates. Does that sound about right? The manual says "flush and parallel to the tweeters"?

Come to think of it, Zilch ran some FR graphs on the Advent loudspeakers a while back that showed very different response from their "fried egg" tweets with the grilles on vs off. Those grilles have a similar baffle effect and tamed the HF response in the same frequency range.

Chris, I missed the PO yesterday, your package will go today for sure. Thanks.

Jim
 
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i don't know. i never noticed anything wrong before. the strip covers a bit of the domes and none of the tweeters - it's actually outside the domes, so it's effect on the EMITs would be minimal.
 
It's probably fruitless to theorize about speakers that were the cutting edge...30+ years ago! I have no doubt that there is (and was) a downside to the line array design, at least as it was implemented here, due to lobing effects and other anomalies. Truth is I really have no beefs with the performance of these at all, I just like to fiddle with it. :D
Jim
 
Yup, I second Army's idea. Actually there are several solutions to that problem in the weatherstripping isle at Lowes or Home Depot.

Is there a single 13.6 mfd cap in your crossover? Interesting, mine had paired 6.8 polyester caps in that position. What sort of resistors were used?

When you get the urge to update your crossovers, add a low temp hotglue gun to your tool box if you haven't already. $2 bucks at most discount stores and makes secure, reversible attachment of components a breeze.

The soft domes already have a foam pad the fits the entire foot print of the square shape, but perhaps it has compressed so much over the years it is in effective. I'll take a look at the weather striping idea, that sounds plausible.

Also yes it is a 13.6 mf capacitor. As for the resistor types they are long square ceramic type materials. Not sure I understand your question. When I took them apart again I took a photo of the crossover. I thought about the hot melt (I already have one), but I wasn't sure if it would brittle over time.
 

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not sure why mine are the only ones to have the strip, since it's mentioned in the manual. Nikko, what are your SN's?


Sorry didn't see your post the other day here's the info:

my serial numbers are
7002199 warranty card date August 23 1978
7002165 warranty card date July 27 1978

The statement about this strip always confused me so glad to finally see what they were referring to, thanks for your photo. I can scratch that off my list after 30 years (luckily I forgot about it for 29 years and 51 weeks).
 
took a while but here is what my grills look like. notice the inch-wide wood vertical strip:

IMG_2193.JPG

I was just reading backward in the thread and enjoying the speakers. You may have come up with this but I think the vertical strip is there to keep the grills from becoming wobbly. My old SS-1 (~3'X3') grills are anything but stable. Does the manual say they are there for diffraction or something?
 
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