3-way crossover or lack of much in the way

[sum of sand]

I brought home some vintage speakers

12" woofer. Coaxial. Olson s-311? Cheapie coaxial
elac midrange whizzer
Unmarked 8" diffraction horn

The coaxial tweeter was very harsh and not very clear.
I tried to dammar varnish the cone but many coats failed to help so
I removed it. I glued on a whizzer cone from a CTS guitar speaker and made a phase plug

The sound while less far-reaching was much more pleasant and clear.
I figure I created a cletron cathedral full range woofer out of it since cletron manufactured the coax

The elac driver used as midrange is a good one

The horn possibly a budget Jensen or cheapie british
I covered in mortite and while perhaps not perfectly smooth seems OK enough

The only capacitor now in the system after the coax tweeter dissection is a small
4.7ohm or something cap from woofer to horn

The crossover box is a rheostat?which enables cutting the horn or midrange out completely or any balance you wish between the two


Horn doesn't seem to extend too far out and the now full range-like woofer travels right on into the elacs range


The other speaker has a 12" woofer from a Sylvania 5712 air suspension 3-way
The one with this woofer seems hollow in the lower frequencies. Luke coming from a cave. Distant.

The modified 12" creates a much more full and forward speaker.
Much less harsh and competing sounding than with coaxial tweeter and horn and upper midrange drivers battling it out for dominance

I'm sure a proper crossover would clean up the modified speakers output
But
Why wasn't the previous speaker built with a real crossover?
Full range midrange
Coaxial tweeter
And diffraction horn tweeter

And why do I see these 8" diffraction horns being used as midrange



Is there any way for a a full range woofer and midrange to coexis happily or is it always a mistake?

 

[sum of sand]

I can say for the speakers original configuration that they sounded much better with backs off the cabinet open baffle style

Front large port cabinet size approximately 30x23x19
EV marquis size

8" horn horizontal above woofer

 

[toxcrusadr]

These do not sound like they were factory built, since 1) drivers do not match between the two and 2) a coaxial driver was combined with separate mid and tweets. Not surprising there is no proper crossover.

4.7 is probably uf not ohms, that sounds like a correct value of cap for a tweeter. But are the mid and woofer both getting the same signal? That sounds bad - a midrange driver will not reproduce bass without blowing up eventually. You need a proper 3-way crossover.

Do you have a camera? Pics would be helpful.

 

[sum of sand]

They had matching drivers. I modified one of the cheap coaxial cause the tweeter sucked. Turned it into a full or at least wide-range woofer just for kicks. Stuck it back in and replaced other woofer with one from another speaker to do some dirty experimentation

I'll take pics. The midrange is a full range. Believe its running full. The tweeter is a diff horn like the Magnavox screamers
Or Jensen r103/9.
My modified woofer doesn't miss out on too much more top end than the full range midrange.
You can listen to it alone and almost be satisfied..not saying it does so very well

I could try turning midrange off and listen to two way. Wide range woofer and horn. Allowing horn to run full volume sounds a bit harsh so I try to balance horn with midrange

Anyway
Pics to be posted

 

[woodj]

Did you not first check the condition of the controls?

 

[sum of sand]

Its a 4mf cap from King. About as cheap as possible.
Woofer connected to amp along with cap which also goes to tweeter
Elac connected to woofer on the variable crossover
Been listening to only tweeter and woofer 2-way and its OK.
I suppose this more closely resembles the marquis with extended range woofer

The horn is unmarked. Jensen Magnavox or there is another British maker which has an identical magnet cover. Budget but OK. Has ridges on the inside throat which I don't seem to see on other horns

No info on the elac but safe to assume pretty good driver.