Wharfedale dovedale sp dead woofer

pingu_turbo

On a constant search...
Hello guys,

I was revelling in the fact that my marantz 2230 receiver was working again and i noticed that my right channel (previously damaged) was not kicking nearly as much bass as the left. I swapped channels and hoped the problem moved, but the same speaker had the problem. Pulled the grille off and noticed that one driver was not moving, pulled it out, no resistance between terminals.

Does this mean end of the road for this driver? I really want to repair this driver without replacing all four.

I know they are not everyone's cup of tea but I like the sound from these and I miss them already.

Does anyone have any ideas of where I can get a recone kit for this driver, or can the voice coil be rewound? silly question not too experienced with this type of repair.

Borrowed from google image search \/

dovedalesp.jpg
 
Might just be a voice coil lead broke. some investigative work is in order.

On another note Wharfedale has so many designs it is silly. They all seem to sound good so they knew good sound and approached it from every angle is seems.
 
Try removing the driver, and see if it's actually the coil that has gone bad, or if a lead-out wire has broken. If it's the lead out wire, that could be an easy fix. If the voice coil has gone open circuit, I would suggest contacting Orange County Speaker, Simply Speakers, or other people that can repair these.

The other option would be to keep an eye on eBay UK to see if replacement woofers come up. If the seller won't ship to the US, let me know, as I may be able to help as I have family back there.

Lee.
 
Might just be a voice coil lead broke. some investigative work is in order.

On another note Wharfedale has so many designs it is silly. They all seem to sound good so they knew good sound and approached it from every angle is seems.

Yeah, they changed designs more-frequently than a germ-phobe changes underwear. I've heard great things about those SP models (The Airedale SP is supposed to be among the best of the post-Briggs models). I'll surely be grabbing one of the SP models if I ever run across a pair locally. One thing about the old Wharfedale models I've heard, they all have a punchy, solid bass that doesn't sound disconnected from the mids and highs like so-many modern systems (especially setups that use a separate subwoofer enclosure). Plus, they make vocals sound so-natural, which actually helps A LOT when listening to old-school rap stuff like A Tribe Called Quest (Listening to "The Low-End Theory" right now... So-sweet... Their early albums are well-mixed/recorded and sound great through a pair of vintage Wharfedales because they used a lot of old school jazz beats on those albums).
 
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Thanks for the suggestions guys and thanks for the offer leesonic Im in the uk anyway, but there is nothing on ebay uk for dovedale sp's, not a bean! Yes I do agree the wharfedale sound is nice (probably an acquired taste, or english ears I have) and the bass, mid and treble flow nicely together. Bass is always punchy and well delivered on the mark. If I really crank these old boxes up I get my floors vibrating.:music:

Anyways I decided to bite the bullet and pull the suspect driver apart.

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And tested the continuity below the spider. All was well so gently prised the spider off to find.

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So all is not lost. I'll solder this back together, and hey presto.

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Just need to get a new foam surround and shim & glue back together. That was a close one, I was gutted when I discovered this driver was dead!:tears:
 
Nice job there, dude... Glad to hear they'll be working again soon.

Now, is that broken part the voice-coil? Or is it just a lead for the voice-coil (or something like that)? I've never been very-well-versed in the deep, inner-workings of a speaker driver.
 
When you get them together, you might want to try them on their sides. So many of those old, mid-sized Wharfedales were designed with side-placement in mind (as well as upright placement). The W60 was a classic example of this (They have them sitting on their sides in the original advertisements for them). The W60D and W60E are also best on their sides. And a lot of the old Wharfedales definitely sound best when elevated quite a bit off the floor (18"-20" for upright and probably about 30" if you're gonna' try placing them on their sides... Whether you choose side-placement or upright placement, the key is to get the tweeters at eye/ear-level, so if you choose side-placement, you're obviously gonna' need to raise them up higher to compensate, which is why I recommended 30" for that kind of placement). Might work, and it might not, but it's worth giving it a shot.

So far, I have three pairs of old Wharfies, but I have yet to try the SP models. They're supposed to be excellent though. My mains are a pair of Briggs-era W90's, and I've been on cloud 9 ever since I got them. God, I love those things (I also have the 2-way W60's and the 3-way W60E's, which I think are from the same era as your SP's, give or take). I do want to try some of the other models though. The W** and W*** models were basically intended for the US market (or at least that's what I read in the book), so I figure people in the UK don't see them coming up often on the used market, but perhaps you do.
 
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pingu_turbo said:
Thanks for the suggestions guys and thanks for the offer leesonic Im in the uk anyway, but there is nothing on ebay uk for dovedale sp's, not a bean!

Yeah, I guess I should have looked at your location first. You might regret telling me that, now I'll be asking YOU to send me all kinds of stuff (a 1275 Mini crankshaft would be a start). I moved to America about 12 years ago, I used to live in London, but I have a mate who lives down in Devon.

pingu_turbo said:
Yes I do agree the wharfedale sound is nice (probably an acquired taste, or english ears I have)

Someone said once speakers are like wine is to a wine aficionado, you never have a bad bottle. Well, I've had some rank bottles of wine in my time, and also heard some crap sounding speakers. But I have three pairs of speakers I'll never sell unless I really need the money : Mission 770s, KEF 104aBs, and JBL L100s.

pingu_turbo said:
Just need to get a new foam surround and shim & glue back together. That was a close one, I was gutted when I discovered this driver was dead!:tears:

I'm glad you said shim. Some people re-foam speakers just by using a test tone. I've always done mine by shimming the voice coil, it just seems the correct way to do it. I mean, you can change a cylinder head gasket without using a torque wrench, but that doesn't make it right does it?

Lee.

P.S. What's the Pingu Turbo thing mean?
 
Now, is that broken part the voice-coil? Or is it just a lead for the voice-coil (or something like that)? I've never been very-well-versed in the deep, inner-workings of a speaker driver.

I suppose technically it isn't the voice coil, thats the purple coiled up wires above, its kinda the lead in wire that is fed off of the coil. There is no joint. I would call the copper lead to the voice coil the 'leads', I suppose. I have only re foamed half a dozen pairs of speakers before, these wharfedales being my first about 3 years ago. Im not too sure of the technical name tbh.

Leesonic, If there is anything I can help you with delivery Ill be happy to oblige :thmbsp:. Also I too am not sure about the 'sonic alignment' method. I can understand how the coil centres itself under vibration, but surely it could end up being pissed in the hole? I don't know, Id rather shim them up and be sure that the coil is centred and vertically aligned at the same time and nothing is going to rub. Just my opinion and I don't expect everyone to agree.

Like you these dovedales are one of those pairs I never want to part with either. Mainly for two reasons, I inherited them from granddad along with my marantz 2230. They have great sentimental value to me because of the memories associated. And the other reason being I think they sound great.

As for my name, Pingu was my nickname in school because of my surname and when i was younger I used to buzz around in a renault 5 turbo (no comments about that thanks :sigh:) and then my mates put the two names together to make what I call myself. Its a bit more unusual than my current nickname of 'Ace' from my work colleagues. Unfortunately that name is usually too short or taken on forums.

Gang-Twanger, As for positioning I have to have them stood up in my house. I have heard that about some wharfdales being better on their sides. My dovedales sit about 30" from the ground. So that when I am sat on the sofa the tweeter is near enough ear height, probably a little too high tbh, but they live on some built in cabinets either side of my chimney breast.

Also does anyone have any good recommendations for foam & spider glue? The stuff I used to use has long dried up.
 
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pingu_turbo said:
Leesonic, If there is anything I can help you with delivery Ill be happy to oblige :thmbsp:. Also I too am not sure about the 'sonic alignment' method. I can understand how the coil centres itself under vibration, but surely it could end up being pissed in the hole? I don't know, Id rather shim them up and be sure that the coil is centred and vertically aligned at the same time and nothing is going to rub. Just my opinion and I don't expect everyone to agree.

Yeah, some people do it with the test tone method. Whatever works for them I suppose. Me? I know if the coil if shimmed, then it's in perfect alignment with the pole piece of the magnet. Sometimes, you find a cone that's shifted on the voice coil former. If you use the test tone method, the surround is forcing the voice former into position because of the mis-alignment of the cone. With the shim method, it's the coil that forcing the surround to take the correct shape.

pingu_turbo said:
As for my name, Pingu was my nickname in school because of my surname and when i was younger I used to buzz around in a renault 5 turbo (no comments about that thanks :sigh:)

Nothing wrong with these, they're rapid little motors. I wish I could get a cheap turbo kit for my Mini out here, but everything costs the Earth. Plus, I'd have to cut a hole and box the bulkhead as the turbo sits behind the engine. I wish I could find a Janspeed kit that mounts the turbo off to the side by the clutch cover. It also uses a Dellorto carb off a Lotus Esprit instead of the SU which can be difficult to tune.

Lee.
 
Sounds like an interesting project leesonic, I cant imagine there is alot of room behind the dash for such a bulkhead mod!:scratch2:

This evening I managed to get the woofer back together, all glued and shimmed up. Left the glue to cure for around 4 hours and just played some test tones though it. At present I'm throwing some 50's rock and roll stuff though them.

I'm chuffed because they sound like nothing has ever happened. :music: A great conclusion!

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Hi there, I have the same problem (I hope) with a bass unit on mine, the foam has been removed but how on earth can I get that orange fabric piece off without damaging it?
Neil
 
I'll give you a bump, and hopefully the right person/people will chime in. The SP models are one series I would not turn down if a pair of them turned up locally. The guys who worked on that series were dubbed as "the dream team" in magazine advertisements. Just from the looks, they're basically Leak speakers. The drivers and design are surely borrowed from Leak, that's for sure, but I am told from someone with original Airedales that the SP Airedales are even better (for whatever that's worth), and I wouldn't doubt it. Leak is known in the UK for making some seriously-good speakers. Whatever the case, the SP models were their TOTL series in 1975 and also signalled Wharfleak's (sort of) return to high-end after a brief hiatus in the early '70's.

The Dovedale SP probably beats both the Dovedale 3 AND the original 2-way Dovedale. I wonder how the Airedale SP compares to the early W90 version I have.
 
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