Seeburg DWS2 with Altec 811B & Utah 12"woof Upgrades

[streetwise]

I just purchased a pair of Seeburg DWS2 speakers in pretty decent shape wondering what I can do to upgrade these babies. The sound is nice decent sensitivity very powerful upper mid range. lacking in the bass though wondering what would bring the bass forward a little more im running through a Fisher 400 receiver. recommendations?

 

[elitopus]

Are those the ones with a single 12" or dual woofers in each? Post some pics if you can.

You could pickup an EQ to boost the lower frequencies. If you go the EQ route you could give a little boost above 10khz also.

What HF drivers are in there? Altec 806?

 

[streetwise]

here are some photos single 12". I have an eq on my pc works pretty well but I would rather approach the issue my adjusting the speakers them selves if possible

 

[Brad Muller]

Those were the 1st Altec speakers I owned. They led me to purchase some other voice of the theater speakers and later to construct Altec Model 19's. I thought they sounded great with old Sherwood receivers.

 

[streetwise]

any help with crossover rebuilding, Not sure where to start?

 

[elitopus]

Nice.

On the crossovers you could start by just replacing the capacitors. It looks like just two caps. The inductors should still be fine.

There are quite a few threads on AK about which caps are the right ones for you

 

[Brad Muller]

I remember that Gordon, one of the speaker Guru's on this site, modified a pair that sounded quite well. I don't remember the recipe, but it's worth a look in the search option.

 

[Speedracer69]

I have a pair of the Seeburg DWS2 speakers. They have more than enough highs but are a bit weak in the bass area. I currently have an equalizer hook up and that really can bring out the bass. If anyone has any specs on these woofers, other then they are 8 ohm, I would love to see them. The equalizer is also good for calming down those horns. They can get quite fatiguing.

 

[GordonW]

I remember that Gordon, one of the speaker Guru's on this site, modified a pair that sounded quite well. I don't remember the recipe, but it's worth a look in the search option.

Mine were DDS1 (in fact, it's still my avatar,

I got these stripped- no drivers or crossovers. I custom-reconed four JBL M115-8A woofers with EV voice coils (longer windings), Eminence cones (bell shaped), soft spiders, and felt dust caps.

The horn was a Pyle PH714 (shaped like an Altec 811, but without vanes), with a Selenium D210Ti driver, and the supertweeter was a MB Quart HC19E (originally a car audio tweeter). Fortunately, both the horn and the supertweeter fit into the original horn cutout in the Seeburg box, inside the black bezel I made to contain them.

I can't remember where the crossover schematic wound up, unfortunately- but it was basically like a 3.5 way, with one woofer going all the way down in the bass and crossed over at about 65Hz as a "helper" woofer, the other woofer going all the way down in the bass, and crossed over at about 1200Hz to the mid horn, and the supertweeter crossed over at about 12.5KHz.

Regards,
Gordon.

 

[twiiii]

Find yourself N-1201 crossover schematic and build one. It will allow you to not only match the horn to the woofer but adjust the high frequencies also. You can also build the auxiliary network to boost the highs as Altec did for the model 19. Make sure you have the diaphragms with the corrugated aluminum surrounds if the diaphragms have the red plastic surrounds then your HF response will be limited to 13 KHZ. For better bass hang them up against the ceiling close to the rear wall. For even more bass move them closer to the corners. If you have a suspended ceiling place them on the floor angle toward your listening position similar to what Klipsch Hersey owners do to gain bass output. Then see if you can find a pair of Altec 414C or later woofers. Then you can move them off the floor to ear height as the response would be flat to 40 HZ.

 

[streetwise]

with the DWS2 I blocked off one of the ports I think there's five total; this tunes the cabinet a bit lower I don't remember the specs anymore. I also took plumbers putty and weather striped all the screw holes and gaps this made the cabinets tight and the bass was much fuller and lower. Since then I have built Jensen Imperial folded horn cabinets with those drivers, built a crossover and added a partsexpress Horn Supertweeter to reach above 17khz.