Rebuilding Cerwin Vega 15-T : Lots of pictures and some questions.

quietmouse

Member
I decided to start a thread about the rebuild of my Cerwin Vega 15-T's since there is very little information about them on the web. In fact, the most information I have found about these has been here on AudioKarma. I imagine this will be of some interest to certain members of AK as these are rare and a pretty interesting design, so I will add my experience to the pile. I am including lots of pictures for comparative reasons in case someone has a pair or is looking for similarity between drivers in CV’s.



I am very interested in any information members can share about this family of speakers. I have been told they were Cerwin's shot at creating a true Hi-Fi speaker to rival Klipsch, JBL, etc. I guess sort of in the vein of Pioneer's HPM 150’s, which were contemporaries of these.



Personal history of my pair of 15-T’s

These speakers were in my living room from the third grade till I left home at 16. They came free with my new step-father in 1982. They were the speakers that I heard Pink Floyd’s money on for the first time, at house shaking volume I might add, being powered by a Pioneer Spec 1 and Spec 2 system. I also heard plenty of Moody Blues, Supertramp, Kraftwerk, etc. I guess you could say my step-father was into “The Big Sound”.



I have owned this set of speakers since 1996. I bought them from my step-father because he had long since retired them out to his workshop, where they were rotting away and getting water damaged. The woofers were in horrible shape in 1996, with the foam almost entirely gone and some damage to the cones as well. I called the Cerwin Vega factory in California to ask about repairing or replacing the woofers and was able to talk to a tech who was extremely helpful. He was not familiar with the speaker, but went and pulled a file on them and called me back the next day. He informed me that they no longer produced a woofer that would perform correctly in that cabinet, but if I sent him the speakers he would personally rebuild them to original spec. I mailed them to the Cerwin Vega Factory in California and they rebuilt the entire speaker in the original baskets for $75. Can you imagine that kind of service now?



I sold them once to a friend, but traded him back for them 5 years later. I am now out of college and have the time to rebuild them but I have a lot to learn.

The 15T has a front tweeter and 8 inch mid, a rear firing high frequency horn and a down firing 15 inch woofer.

My first questions are if these impedance readings are correct. The Impedance listed on the back crossover is 4-8 Ohms. I have not seen variable impedance before, but my experience is very limited.

Tweeter:

One tweeter has a black cloth cover that I assume is covering up the soft dome seen here.





Mid:





Woofer:



Rear Firing Horn:





If anyone can tell me if these readings are within spec I would greatly appreciate it!

At this time the speakers are non functional and I am almost positive it is due to the crossovers. They began going out slowly with the attenuators being spotty years ago. I am testing the driver Impedance to make sure that is OK then I will rebuild the crossovers.

My plan is to listen to them for awhile and if they sound as good as I remember then I will invest the work of cosmetically refurbishing them.
 
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Cool that you have had these for so long.

I have no experience with this model CV but look forward to your progress. :thmbsp:
 
Looks like I have a lot of reading to do!:D I was hoping someone with a good knowledge base could look at those impedance readings and say, " yeah, those are fine, you should go ahead and rebuild the crossovers" or otherwise. I have a lot to learn.
 
That is the coolest set of CV's I have ever seen, and I've owned 4 pair.

Watching, waiting, and hoping for the best. Looks like really REALLY good speakers.
 
Have you thoroughly de-oxited the attenuators?? Those get cruddy and kill sound. I'd start there...
 
I am into the first crossover and have found one of the attenuators is burnt out. I am going to bypass it. I cleaned the other two and they are operating well. I don't know how to check these capacitors but I am trying to figure it out.

Robby
 
4pair? Wow!

That white speaker is a Fostex bk-16 full range back loaded horn. I use it with S.E.T. amps. I need to get these CV's working though so I can rock out! :music:
 
That tweeter sure looks like a Sound Dynamics horn, Are you sure its the original in there? Maybe that's why it doesn't have the black fabric cover on it.

Picture taken from web.
 

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That tweeter sure looks like a Sound Dynamics horn, Are you sure its the original in there? Maybe that's why it doesn't have the black fabric cover on it.

Picture taken from web.

I'd ask the step-dad if possible.

And sorry, I meant I've had 4 pair of CV's...none as nice as those, tho.

If you plan on keeping the attenuator bypassed, I'd bypass the other as well. Or do you plan on replacing it?

Man, I bet Pink Floyd on those was pretty impressive. And pushed with Spec gear? What a setup. :rockon::rockon::guitar::guitar:

What I dig most is that you sold them, and then 5 years later, got them back. Good job.
 
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That tweeter sure looks like a Sound Dynamics horn, Are you sure its the original in there? Maybe that's why it doesn't have the black fabric cover on it.

Picture taken from web.

That's interesting. The other tweeter looks identical except for the black cloth cap that is larger and further out than the brown dome on the one. I have also seen this speaker used in pictures of the Cerwin Vega 12-T which was this speakers little brother.

I did see history of an auction on Canuck Audio Mart where someone had refurbished a set of 15-t's and replaced the tweeters with what he claimed were the identical make and model. His look exactly like the one with the brown dome except his have a black horn that appears to be either painted or plastic.

I wonder if these were sourced by Cerwin from sound dynamics, or if they both sourced them from a common supplier? :scratch2:
 
If you plan on keeping the attenuator bypassed, I'd bypass the other as well. Or do you plan on replacing it?

I plan on replacing it eventually if I can find some cheap ones on ebay. The newer ones being made are too large to fit in this crossover and more than I want to spend on these speakers right now.

Man, I bet Pink Floyd on those was pretty impressive. And pushed with Spec gear? What a setup. :rockon::rockon::guitar::guitar:

You have only heard half the story! :D

So, third grade right? I have a new step dad, this guy moves in with these massive speakers and Pioneer Spec rack system that towers over my head. I mean this sound system is bigger than the one at my Mom's church on Sunday morning. So my 8 year old mind is thinking, "This guy is either God or the Devil." :eek:

He moves in a few hundred records. I had that reaction I often get from civilians now, "When can you even listen to all these? You should open a record store!" I mean, this is a lot to absorb for an 8 year old boy from south Arkansas. This was more records than I had seen in my life up to that point. To put it in perspective, my real dad liked both kinds of music, Country and Western. I had really only listened to what he played, which was Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, you get the picture. My mom would spin her Carol King and we would call it a day. All being played on a small console stereo.:boring:

So in comes the new guy with Beatles, Floyd, Moody Blues, Vanilla Fudge, Hawkwind, CrazyWorld of Arthur Brown, my mind was blown just looking at the covers!

SO HERE IS WHY I TOLD YOU ALL THIS BACKGROUND STORY:

About three weeks after this new guy moves in my house, it is friday night and my step dad has been spinning Moody Blues records for a couple of hours getting the system "warmed up". I am laying my little frightened 8 year old head down to get some rest. I hear a heart beat. A heart beat that is growing and rattling the walls. I lay in fear of what is going to happen. This music is different than anything I have ever heard and louder than I have ever heard. The music kept growing in intensity and I did not know what to do, I could not escape it. By the time "Time" kicked in I had tears running down my face, by the time "Eclipse" wrapped it up I was smiling ear to ear!:huge:

That was the first time in my life I heard Dark Side of the Moon, or Pink Floyd at all, for that matter. In my Bedroom, in my bed, 8 years old, with every object in the vicinity resonating loud and clear due to the sound coming from the Living Room.

I was hooked.

(and what is that funny smell?:beatnik:)
 
I wonder if these were sourced by Cerwin from sound dynamics, or if they both sourced them from a common supplier? :scratch2:

Sound Dynamics made their own tweeters as I understand it. Look for any of these numbers on the back of the spun aluminum.
SD477T6 or HL-C-OISD. If any of these numbers are on the back you probably have an SD tweeter.
 
Sound Dynamics made their own tweeters as I understand it. Look for any of these numbers on the back of the spun aluminum.
SD477T6 or HL-C-OISD. If any of these numbers are on the back you probably have an SD tweeter.

No numbers on mine. I did a little searching though and found that a company named "Audio Products International" sold speakers under the brand names ENERGY, SOUND DYNAMICS, MIRAGE, ATHENA and IMAGE. They also built under contract for outside speaker companies and were the third largest producer of speakers in North America at this time.

I bet Cerwin sourced these drivers from API.

The Sound Dynamic tweeters have quite a good reputation, hopefully these will live up to it!
 
Those drivers are all original CV. Heppner made the horns and the silver dhorm tweeters. All the readings on your meter are correct. The horns are 16ohm, tweeters are 8 ohm, woofers are also 8 ohm. The black screen on the tweeters is to keep fingers from pushing in the dome. cosmetic only, some had it some did not. The crossover points should be 150Hz to the MF-81 mids, 2,000Hz for the back mid horn, 3500Hz for the tweeter. The 154w woofer rolls of on its own at 250-500Hz.
 
Those drivers are all original CV. Heppner made the horns and the silver dhorm tweeters. All the readings on your meter are correct. The horns are 16ohm, tweeters are 8 ohm, woofers are also 8 ohm. The black screen on the tweeters is to keep fingers from pushing in the dome. cosmetic only, some had it some did not. The crossover points should be 150Hz to the MF-81 mids, 2,000Hz for the back mid horn, 3500Hz for the tweeter. The 154w woofer rolls of on its own at 250-500Hz.

A big sincere THANK YOU. That is the kind of response I was hoping I would get.

I am having trouble finding the exact capacitor values to rebuild the crossovers. Can you tell me how close they need to be dstarr?
 
Rebuilding CV speakers is losing time..

The OP has stated his connection to these speakers; Listened to them since he was very young. First exposure to higher quality stereo gear. First exposure to Rock/progressive music. These speakers mean something more to him than your run-of-the-mill CV's.

I know Cerwin Vega's are not the first thing that pop to mind when you list high quality speakers but to dump on his thread and say that they are a waste of time is just not cool.

The old adage seems to apply here; "If you can't say anything nice, don't bother to say anything at all".

My two-cents.... your mileage may vary.
 
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