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Pioneer CS99A Pondering....

PioneerGuy75

PioneerGuy75

Certified Lurker
I have a pair of Pioneer CS99A's that I like pretty well, I just wish they sounded as great as they look. Has anybody here done any major modifications or redesigns to theirs?

I was possibly thinking of redesigning them as a three way design.


My biggest compaint is the lack of bass from the massive woofer. Seems like a real nice midbass :thumbsdn:

These have components that seem to be very high quality and I would like to put them to good use.

:thmbsp::banana:
 
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Something that may help is to recap the crossovers. The Pioneer CS line from the earlier years were never known to be the best out there for sure.

I guess it could be possible to find different drivers for them, but personally, I'd go shopping for something else if I didn't like a pair of speakers.. which I seemed to do a lot there for a while.
 
I tried a pair of CS99a's and came up with the same results as you. No bass. Plus, to my ears, just were a clusterf**k of sound. I've tried various versions from Sansui, Pioneer, etc, with the same results. My good ol' New Large Advents just kill 'em and put 'em to shame. So, they were sold off to fund something more worthwhile.

They are cool looking though in their own respect. But, it ends there for me. YMMV, of course.
 
Life is too short to have to listen to CS99As. Recap with Dayton polypropylenes, but don't expect miracles. Same goes for the Sansui kabukis, though they might be a bit better sounding.
 
i'm a former owner of cs99a's; after i got through fooling around with 'em, i sold 'em, because i just found no long range value. the re-engineering you're contemplating should only be done for purposes of practice and experimentation. and remember that they can be sold at fairly healthy prices. one thing to remember about them is to get them close to the floor for boundary reinforcement of bass. i found that sitting on the floor, tilted back with a 3/4" inch riser under the front edge a) aimed mids and highs right at my ears and b) really helped with bass.

but, they're still not worth unless you are an early 70s pioneer completist who wants the 'right' speakers for his sx-626...
 
lukiedog said:
Life is too short to have to listen to CS99As. Recap with Dayton polypropylenes, but don't expect miracles. Same goes for the Sansui kabukis, though they might be a bit better sounding.
Click to expand...

Couldn't have said it better. I wonder sometimes why those kabukis sound so bad. I have klh's and infinitys from the same era and they have nice cabs and multiple drivers just like the jap kabukis. Thats where the similarities end though.
 
I have a pair also,they sound fine for old country,jazz or mellow stuff.I have to
crank it up to get the bass to come in.It seems like the 5" speaker is trying to
outplay the others.Im like you,thinking of gutting them out and trying a 3 way combination with new speakers and using the 4" hole as a vent.Any ideas on
a proven off the shelf combo.
 
Zilch said:
E'Wave 'em.

Done.... :thmbsp:

http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2260584#post2260584
Click to expand...

Pioneer_CS-99a_web.jpg


Not much space on that baffle buddy. You could invert it and place the waveguide on top of the cabinet but it wouldn't be as tidy a solution as other speaker cabinet modifications like KLH, AR2's or Advents. It would probably sound amazing though!
 
I would love to E-wave them and have tried to follow that thread
but the all the crossover issues have kept me from it.That and my
two year old hanging on my ankle.I do have a wood shop out back
and could build a dedicated box for the horn.Maybe one day.
 
I would second the idea to re-cap the crossovers. I just finished my CS-99As last month. I used Cheapie Jantzen Caps from Parts Express. Probably about $50 to do it. I listen to mostly Jazz. And to tell you the truth, they are in my workshop, where Public Radio is on 90% of the time. I mostly did it for the 'fun' of it. I do have to say that this improved the sound immensly. I am not a Bass Freak though and tested them with Female Vocals like Diana Krall.


Here is a picture showing how I mounted the larger caps on a separate board and ran wires to the main crossover board.

CompletedCrossover.jpg
 
HatchetJack said:
I would love to E-wave them and have tried to follow that thread but the all the crossover issues have kept me from it.
Click to expand...
The crossover issues are history, now. There's a JackLab crossover PCB, and it takes all of an hour to load and solder a pair using the specified PE off-the-shelf parts.

As Wiredbecker points out, the primary remaining question is whether you have 6.5" between the top of the woofer and the inside edge of the cabinet above it. I assume you have more than the requisite 12" in width.... :dunno:
 
I fill like the odd man out here but my 99a's and a recapped sansui 2000x produce all the bass I need. Mine you, I am not much of a "rock" man but r&b, jazz and vocal make this speakers a joy to listen to.
 
Wow thanks for all the replies!!

Was thinking of tinkering simply for the sake of tinkering....Possibly improving them.

By my ROUGH test....IE Test Tones and my ears, seems like the woofers drop off rapidly below about 80 Hz.

Not much can be done with that....:no:

Seems like the 15" are a midbass and the rest are tweeters, mids seem very high-tuned.
Again thanks for the input!:banana:
 
Sorry about the hijack- but I have a pair of these and am interested in doing an E'Wave for them as a few of the midranges and horns are fried. The stated sensitivity of the speaker is 97db- would the 15" woofer be that high as well (so I would use the 95+ sensitivity crossover?). Also, would I need to design a crossover for the low bass region (below 1.5) to smooth out the response of the woofer or are most people just using the natural response of the woofer? Thanks- Derek.
 
There is a generic lowpass filter in the E'Wave crossover.

How much baffle height do you have above the woofer?
 
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