XRT20 Speaker System Restoration (and questions)

[Velocityboat]

When pair #2 hit our dock in 1979 and I had the chance to set them up I do believe it was one if the only time beer was purchased and the whole crew stayed late that night as we went through all the records we had in the store to listen to again for the first time.

When John McQuire sent me the drape and lighting system for Gordon's Midwest introduction of these speakers we had already settled on Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man to be the correct introduction cut to play for all first demos.

I believe it was a Crystal Clear direct disc recording and when I demo'ed it for Gordon it was a done deal; He bought multiple copies and used them around the world. The selection I believe was fitting because now a common man could in his listening room really project the full dynamics and power of a symphonic work, something in the past was only doable by royalty.

The cost in 1979 relative to the common man disposable income was arguably not all that common. Finding and restoring these today is in affordable reach of the Enlightened Common Man. Yes a well deserved Fan Fare in reach for a true common man audiophile. Great story!!

 

[Velocityboat]

I have to agree with Tony on this. Their age has nothing to do with their SOTA abilities to provide realistic live music sound and true life stage size, complete with vocal and instrument placement. You will forget about their size because singers and the instrument placement is all your mind sees. In many aspects they are way more forgiving to poor recordings than the XR290s I also have. The XRT20s have a warmer smoothness and a bit more relaxed presentation. Mellowed perfection is my description with a bit less edge. Relaxingly captivating.

I guess this is why I love mine in bedroom. They will lull you into relaxing sleep smooth jazz streaming. Until a song with higher level wakes you up thinking some instrumented intruder or the angel Gabriel let loose on a golden trumpet only to wake up and find it is better than a dream and a different heaven.

My Daughter fell asleep in front of the XR290s to streaming music only to be startled shitless by John Mayer singing free falling thinking an intruder.

 

[onwardjames]

Thanks Velocityboat and c_dk for the great stories! Today is the day I tear down all my stuff and move them in. Would have had the woofers pulled and refoamed already, but work has been hell.

I appreciate the encouragement. This was a GIANT step for me, personally. I'm pretty tight with my spendy-money.

 

[onwardjames]

The foot assembly on the bottom of the tweeter panel is 1/4-20 x 5/8". It seems to imply that this will work for either one or two feet sandwiched but I suspect for two you might need a slightly longer bolt.
Either way - these bolts are very common and inexpensive.

Oh - check your tweeter fuses!

Meant to ask you - why does my set of stands, which already have those curved "feet" have an ADDITIONAL set of feet? Is that what you mean by two feet "sandwiched"? Is this for strength, and is it necessary?

 

[gmc]

Maybe someone who actually knows will chime in, but, judging by photos, I believe that the front facing feet can be used, on their own, if the speakers are to be placed against the wall. If they will be away from the wall, the "ADDITIONAL set of feet" are bolted to the rear of the front facing feet to provide stability.

 

[onwardjames]

AHA!!!! I believe you are correct, gmccaughey! Glad I grabbed those other bolts w1jim gave me the dimensions of! Just returned with them from the hardware store.

Moving has begun.

 

[Velocityboat]

Meant to ask you - why does my set of stands, which already have those curved "feet" have an ADDITIONAL set of feet? Is that what you mean by two feet "sandwiched"? Is this for strength, and is it necessary?

I have used the two feet on each stand. Considering removing one to get bass cab clloser to the rear wall The screws that the tweeter arrays have allow one to tilt the speaker array forward. Top and bottom. Theire is an interesting artilcle on Genisis site about setting up line arrays and sound stage by angling array forward to affect sound tonality. And making toe in changes I have been making slight adjustments with XR290s feet and found startling differences and bet it works for the XRT20s regarding these array angling aspects.


http://www.genesisloudspeakers.com/whitepaper/Genesis_Loudspeaker_Setup_Procedure.pdf

 

[onwardjames]

Because my room is so small, I've got them tilted in about 15 degrees or so. It's a tight fit.

LORD these are big. I did like you said to do, Velocityboat - the tweeter towers are on the outside.

Got the cabs in, the tweeter tower framework bolted up with the new bolts, next is mounting the tweeters (and have to figure out the one dead segment).

 

[onwardjames]

Got to ask the OP, @w1jim - Do you care if I just put my meager work on these in this thread? Aside from refoaming, and mild cab cleaning, I'm not doing much, but I'd like to include pics on this thread.

 

[onwardjames]

Might remember that the bottom 4 were out on one of the tweeter pods.....now I cannot get EITHER of the bottom 4 tweeter modules to work. Hook the leads DIRECTLY to each tweeter, they sing.

Gotta be something simple, right? I did find a wire off one of them, and realized also that without the TOP tweeter pod connected, the top 4 do not work.

I'm stumped.

 

[eiraved]

Does R18 have anything to do with those 4?

 

[onwardjames]

Does R18 have anything to do with those 4?

I don't know for sure what you're saying, but I do see a white resistor on the inside, next to where the 1 1/4 plug inserts, and clearly the white lead comes off that resistor.

But what are the odds that resistors in BOTH have died? Isn't resistor death pretty rare?

And to get to that damned thing, I pretty much gotta disassemble the whole shebang, complete with self-tapping screws. Sigh...

 

[eiraved]

I don't know for sure what you're saying, but I do see a white resistor on the inside, next to where the 1 1/4 plug inserts, and clearly the white lead comes off that resistor.
But what are the odds that resistors in BOTH have died? Isn't resistor death pretty rare?
And to get to that damned thing, I pretty much gotta disassemble the whole shebang, complete with self-tapping screws. Sigh...

I'm not the subject matter expert on these speakers, but the schematic does show resistor R18 leading to 4 tweeters. Whether it leads to the 4 non-working tweeters you speak of, I don't know. But it sure is a coincidence.

This may have nothing to do with this, but I know my Sansui 9090 has 2 fusible resistors which are notorious for opening and causing an inop receiver. Could this be the same scenario?

 

[eiraved]

Is there an easy way to check for continuity downstream of the resistor to the bad bank of tweeters? You might check for that before resorting to replacing the resistors.

 

[onwardjames]

I actually took a length of wire and went from the wire going IN to the wire going OUT of the receiver (essentially leapfrogging it) and still, nothing.

I did notice that the TOP 4 tweeters did not come on when unplugged from the other tweeter bank (top 12 tweeters).

 

[w1jim]

Got to ask the OP, @w1jim - Do you care if I just put my meager work on these in this thread?

Oh, that's fine - it'll evolve into the poor man's guide to XRT20 goodness.

I suspect your tweeter issue is something fairly simple, though confusing to track down.

 

[eiraved]

I actually took a length of wire and went from the wire going IN to the wire going OUT of the receiver (essentially leapfrogging it) and still, nothing.

I don't quite understand because the receiver isn't part of the equation here. By "nothing", do you mean that you had continuity from the wire going in and out of the tweeter speaker? What measurements did you get?

 

[onwardjames]

FOUND THE PROBLEM.

Disconnected the lower halves of the tweeter towers, and went speaker to speaker WITH EACH DISCONNECTED. Sure enough, speaker # 1, the VERY FIRST speaker at the bottom, dead. Ohm meter = nothing. Amp leads DIRECTLY to tweeter, nothing. I could have SWORN he went to each one with the leads, but now I know that with them all connected, perhaps it wasn't the exact speaker I thought was playing. Hell, maybe somehow I have blown them up, tho I know not how.

On the second tower, the #4 tweeter is blown. Same thing, no music, no continuity.

So, I need to purchase a few. Any suggestions?

 

[onwardjames]

I don't quite understand because the receiver isn't part of the equation here. By "nothing", do you mean that you had continuity from the wire going in and out of the tweeter speaker? What measurements did you get?

I meant out of the resistor.

Been doing that alot of late.

 

[Velocityboat]

Because my room is so small, I've got them tilted in about 15 degrees or so. It's a tight fit.

LORD these are big. I did like you said to do, Velocityboat - the tweeter towers are on the outside.

Got the cabs in, the tweeter tower framework bolted up with the new bolts, next is mounting the tweeters (and have to figure out the one dead segment).

My setup in bedroom is similar angled but spacing is wider. I noticed my XR290 like less angling to open up soundstage and give you a surround effect. So may want to play with toe in angle. The 290s are only toed around 3 to 5 degrees.