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

hey man cool thread and cool speakers and cool story and cool basement room and cool bin boxes. :nerd:

Do you have some plans for those boxes you'd share?

I have to go find the paper I scribbled them down on. It will take a couple of days, but I will post the plans up. :thmbsp:
 
Totally hip to that brother man. I whipped up a tritip for dinner and letting the inductors cure. More tomorrow, eh?

Biggles

As the saying goes, "Did anybody get the license number of the truck that hit me?"

I don't drink too much anymore, even though I work at a Homebrew supply. When I do drink, I feel like the morning of the trial in that Denzel Washington flick "Flight", after he drank all night in a total relapse :drool:

The difference is John Goodman is not in transit to my house with a 8ball of Columbia's finest to pull me out of this abyss.

Unfortunately, the highest accomplishment this boy will be achieving today is getting a chicken pot pie to stay in my stomach.

Nice looking dog!

Thanks. We have two. This one is a rescue and he is sweet, we love him, but he is kind of like taking on a 17 year old foster child. Whatever happened to him before we got him left some pretty vicious Demons for him to deal with, and since he has to deal with them, so do we!

I have a room much like that. Mine's probly 18' x 18' x 8' except with a concrete floor. Terrible dimensions for listening.

I hung up a bunch of acoustic panels I got a from a local recording studio that was going out of business, and it was like I added a subwoofer. It also cleared up the high mids like you wouldn't believe. And that's with no real bass trapping.

I need to put down carpet, but I'll be moving pretty soon so may not get around to it.

But you will be amazed at the results if you treat your room.

That's good to hear. This room measures 22' front wall and 16.5' sides. One feature of the room that I believe to be a hindrance is the slanted ceiling. It is 9' 6" at the front of the room and drops to 6' 6" in the first 8 feet. The last 9.5 feet of the room has a level 6' 6" ceiling. :scratch2:

There are also windows fully along one side wall and most of the back wall. They are modern double pane insulated, don't know if that helps with sound. I know it would be better if these were just solid walls, but I imagine heavy curtains would be an improvement over the rolling patio blinds I have over them now.

 
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Question about attenuator impedance

I do not know the correct attenuators to purchase. I am selecting from the 100 watt attenuators from Parts Express.

http://www.parts-express.com/cat/speaker-l-pads/306

The attenuators in the original crossover test at 16 ohms resistance at the max and 0 resistance at the other end of the spectrum. So it seems like I should order 16 ohm attenuators. But the information on Parts Express has me confused. It says the 16 ohm attenuators, "maintain a 16 ohm impedance". Well, it looks to from reading my multimeter that the ones currently in the crossover change impedance as you turn the dial. I thought that was how they lowered the volume of that driver.

I feel like I am not understanding this correctly and I must be missing something.:scratch2:

Also, Dstarr said earlier in this thread that the tweeters and woofers are 8 ohm and the rear horn is 16ohm. You can see the readings at the beginning of the thread. If the attenuators from Part's Express maintain a steady ohm load, don't it seem like I should be ordering 8ohm attenuators for the tweeter and mid, and a 16ohm attenuator for the rear horn?:saywhat:
 
As the saying goes, "Did anybody get the license number of the truck that hit me?"

I don't drink too much anymore, even though I work at a Homebrew supply. When I do drink, I feel like the morning of the trial in that Denzel Washington flick "Flight", after he drank all night in a total relapse :drool:

The difference is John Goodman is not in transit to my house with a 8ball of Columbia's finest to pull me out of this abyss.

Unfortunately, the highest accomplishment this boy will be achieving today is getting a chicken pot pie to stay in my stomach.

HAHAHHAHHAHHAHHAH! Ah well. Perfect Speaker Day weather here, but I'm not convinced I'm going to get much, if anything done. I have 1 thing I can do, but the rest needs money to buy supplies. So, it all may have to wait a bit.

Biggles
 
Quietmouse--I like your avatar--David Hemmings in Blow Up from 1966??? Loved that film, an all time favorite of mine.
The CV's are keepers indeed.
 
Noticed those beer taps and CO2 tank too - looks like a MAN CAVE. Those CV's will be right at home! What's on tap?
 
Quietmouse--I like your avatar--David Hemmings in Blow Up from 1966??? Loved that film, an all time favorite of mine.
The CV's are keepers indeed.

Favorite of mine as well. Has a little of all the things I live for. Music, women, photography and fast cars.:thmbsp:

Noticed those beer taps and CO2 tank too - looks like a MAN CAVE. Those CV's will be right at home! What's on tap?

Right now there is an 7% abv English style IPA and a 5.8% abv ESB. I don't want to think about it right now. I pulled that handle one too many times last night!:puke:
 
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Glad to see a great pair of Cerwin Vega speakers being restored. I wish I could hear the 15-T one day, but I'm glad to see yours being cared for. :D

I've been a Cerwin-Vega fan since my mom got her first pair in 1998, RE-30s. Ain't no where near as old as the 15-Ts but they certainly had turned me onto the brand. I've bought me quite a few pairs these days. :music:

Keep up the great work, I'd definitely like to see more pictures. :thmbsp:
 
That was one of the things that CV was cheap on. They are not L-pads. You could also tame down the mids wth some series resistors instead of the cheap attenuators. As I recall I do think the originals were 16 ohm.
 
Down to the Nitty Gritty

Well, last night after my hangover backed off enough that I did not feel like I had a hatchet stuck in my head and a stomach full of rattlesnakes, I decided to go play with the Cerwins some more.

I first checked out the woofer that I had noticed coming un-bonded. I wanted to make sure there were no other problems before I ordered the glue. That's when I noticed a small crack in the surround. I pushed it a little with my finger and MUSH.:sigh:



So, I now have to re-foam these suckers. I thought, "The money is starting to add up, but at least this is an easy and readily available fix." And it is. I went ahead and tore some off to relieve a little stress.



I started thinking about everything I need to do. This Cerwin project is a side project I am doing. My main project is finishing those cabinets and moving in my pinball machines. So, I have been working on these speakers a little at a time between working on my cabinets, and my mind is not 100% thinking clearly while I sort these speakers out. I had already mis-taken rotted foam surrounds as just a little glue coming loose.

What else did I miss???:headscrat

I decided to look back at the speaker I had tested the other night, the one where I found the mid overpowered everything else and really needed the attenuator to balance it out. This speaker still had the drivers in the cabinet. I had not tested these drivers with the meter, I just hooked the rigged crossover in expecting the drivers to be fine, and if not I would surely hear it. Well, I did not hear it. I mean I heard it alright, but I mistook the TWO BURNT OUT DRIVERS as the need for attenuators. :twak:

I thought, "Bet these burnt out drivers are sure gonna be hard to find Wally."
And they are.

I am still going to fix the attenuators, but now I have more parts to find and more money to spend.:tears:

Here is the diaphragm I need to fix the burnt out tweeter. It is a Heppner/ Cerwin/Klipsch part. I found some black ones on Simply Speakers, but they do not look to be the same material as this tan stuff.
http://www.simplyspeakers.com/pyle-heppner-replacement-speaker-diaphragm-d-417.html

If anyone knows of a source for the original, please chime in. It is 8 ohms (when it is not burnt out)



Here is the horn diaphragm that is burnt out. They look identical to each other except the horn is 16 ohm. (when not burnt). I have not gound these anywhere.







Oh well, here is my to do list.

1.Refoam woofers

2.Find those diaphragms for the tweet and horn. (I will use the black ones but would prefer originals

3. If anyone can PLEASE HELP ME answer the questions in POST #63 of this thread, I can get on with the crossover repair.
 
That was one of the things that CV was cheap on. They are not L-pads. You could also tame down the mids wth some series resistors instead of the cheap attenuators. As I recall I do think the originals were 16 ohm.

Thanks DStarr.

If you read the above post you will see I have now discovered burnt drivers.

DO you know if the black replacement diaphragms are as good as the original tan ones?

Also, would an 8 ohm diaphragm work in that horn?

Thanks a million,

Rob
 
I put off working on the speaker cabinets this morning. I loaded up one of CV cabs with the working drivers, and put in the rigged crossover. Loaded up the mofi DOSTM cd and sat the hell down. It was great. I only had one speaker operational but it sounded the way I remember!:banana: (<waiting on dancing bacon)

I am in it full force now. I have decided to order the replacement diaphragms for the tweeter and horn. I read I can turn the 8ohm diaphragm into a 16 ohm load by wiring a resistor in series so I will order that as well. I am going to order 8 ohm L-pads from parts express unless someone knows better.

These speakers are definitely Rock speakers and they do ROCK!:rockon:
They could never in a million years take the place of my High-eff horns and vice-versa. These are going to complement my horns well.

I have been wanting a second set of speakers to rock out on and I was about to purchase a set of Pioneer HPM 150's but I think these will fit the bill and be ALOT cheaper.:thmbsp:
 
Any luck locating the replacement diaphragms?

I got them in the mail today. I got two replacement diaphragms and the woofer refoam. I still need to order the Caps and Attenuators. I am still not sure which attenuators I should order. I am looking for answers to the questions I posted earlier in post #63 about attenuators.

Thanks for checking in. I will post some pics when I refoam the woofers later this week.
 
Had forgotten about this thread. Glad you're still hanging in there.

When I redid my Epicure Model 20's, it took over a year to get them operational. The cabs STILL need some love, but when you finally have it all completed, it's a feeling like no other.

Keep the faith, quietmouse. Those CV's will roar again.
 
it sounds like you might be mistaken about turning a 16ohm load into an 8ohm. for one thing putting a resistor in series would add resistance. you must parallel a resistor to do that. but again it's not that easy as one is an impedance and the other a resistance. not the same thing.

then there is a problem with altering the xover frequency which will be quite different for an 8ohm load vs. a 16ohm load.

it is possible to use an 8ohm L-Pad on a 16ohm driver by adding a resistor but it won't work as well.

i must say that what you have there is one of the best that cerwin-vega ever made and i wish i had bought a pair way back when. good luck on your restoration!
 
He was here, he enthralled us with his CV's, and nary a peep since.

Quietmouse, you still out there?
 
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