Advent Legacy II vs MCS 683-8227

[allsmith]

Been looking for some speakers to fix up to give my nephew,and found these today for FREE! But they need some work!

I was told about the advents but when i got there to pick them up,she said she had another pair of speakers i could have and she gave me the mcs's also!!

Some quick internet research on the speakers said the legacys are pretty descent,but the mcs history is pretty interesting!

As soon as i lifted the mcs's is was like wow these are heavy!
As soon as i got home i was checking out the mcs's and find the cabinets are made nice and thick and braced inside! But i hate vinyl veneer! and these are all sticky! yuk!

Now im starting to think i may wanna keep these for myself! LOL and give the advents to my nephew.But im finding some issues with them that bums me out,I'll get into that in my next post so i can post more pics.

I have refoamed 3 pairs of speakers with the more expensive 25 dollar foam kits so far and have had no problems,but i was thinking of buying the foams for these from Mat electronics.I talked to a guy that said he has bought a bunch of surrounds from there and has had no problems with them and they are cheap,like 3-5 bucks per speaker plus shipping!

Wondering if any of you all have used any of the surrounds from mat electronics if they would be good enough for these speakers,I also need foams for a pair of sansui's a wouldnt mind refoaming also. I think for around 30 bucks i could get the foams there for 3 pair of speakers.

Anybody got any ear time with these two pair of speakers? Or used any surrounds from mat electronics?

Here is the info i found on the MCS's

Thanks!

http://ebay.co.ua/catalog/show/300718171235/

 

[allsmith]

Ok for the bummer part!

First thing i found was a wire broke off on one of the mids,but i think i got it fixed by soldering a new wire on ,I started to try to take the mid apart to fix the wire but it is taped good to the top metal ring and the dome is glued down to the magnet and i dont think i could have got it apart,so i ran the wire on top,It is working now.Any ideas on how to get it apart to fix better?

The woofer cones have a little damage to them,just creased and weakend a bit,Think i could stiffen the cone at the damaged area a bit with nail polish and tissue paper( I seen someone do a repair like that on you tube) Any other ideas? Good thing on the woofers is i am able too find the center posistion moving cone up and down without any voice coil rub(hope there good!?)

now for the real bad!

I start checking resistance on all the drivers and find the one tweeter is 1.0ohm! Where the other is 5.7 ohms.And the tweeter that is 1 ohm does not have the wires on top going into the dome? But it works its just not as loud as the other(Im testing each driver separatly with a test stereo turned down low)

It obviously dont sound as good or as loud as the other tweeter,Do you think its shorting out?

All the drivers in one cabinet appear to be slightly different than the other cabinet ,but just by the markings on the back of the drivers,some have a date and extra sticker on back but look the same basically,except the missing wires on the one tweeter? And i looked hard with magnification and it dont appear to have had wires on the top like the other.

All drivers sound pretty good individually with test stereo ,except the one tweeter.

Here are my readings doing a ohm test on all drivers..

Woofer 1 =3.5 ohm
Woofer 2 =3.5 ohm
Would woofers be considered 4 ohm speakers?

Mid 1 =5.1 ohm
mid 2 =5.2 ohm
Would mids be considered 6 ohm speakers?

Tweeter 1 =5.7 ohm
Tweeter 2 =1.0 ohm!!!!!
Would tweeters be considered 6 ohm?(If both were 5.7)

Is my tweeter toast? possible to repair?

Thanks!

 

[allsmith]

Here is the back of the tweeters.
Note how one has a date and other dont,Also i see rust on the one that is 1 ohm,could that maybe cause a short?

Also the woofers ,the foam surround is glued to the top of the gasket, thats interesting.

 

[michiganpat]

Ok for the bummer part!


The woofer cones have a little damage to them,just creased and weakend a bit,Think i could stiffen the cone at the damaged area a bit with nail polish and tissue paper( I seen someone do a repair like that on you tube) Any other ideas? Good thing on the woofers is i am able too find the center posistion moving cone up and down without any voice coil rub(hope there good!?)

Thanks!

get some regular old super glue, and coat the entire cone with that. it'll stiffen them up significantly, without adding much mass. This was first proposed in the Mach1 thread, I did it on some becker 12" woofers and it worked great

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showpost.php?p=3916873&postcount=577

but do it outside in a well ventilated area

 

[allsmith]

get some regular old super glue, and coat the entire cone with that. it'll stiffen them up significantly, without adding much mass. This was first proposed in the Mach1 thread, I did it on some becker 12" woofers and it worked great

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showpost.php?p=3916873&postcount=577

but do it outside in a well ventilated area

Thats sounds interesting, have to give that a try.

Think i should do the glue repair after the new surrounds are installed?
Or before?

Thanks for the tip!

 

[so_ein_pech]

I don't know anything about MCS, but I have a pair of the Advent Legacy II's. They sound great with pretty much anything you throw at them. Very versatile speaker, highs are smooth and detailed, but not exactly crisp. This makes them very low fatigue on the ears. Plenty of bass, but tight.

Be advised, they are 6ohm speakers, so you may want a pretty hefty amp to push them. I have 120 wpc running them right now, but they do fine with 60 or so.

 

[allsmith]

I don't know anything about MCS, but I have a pair of the Advent Legacy II's. They sound great with pretty much anything you throw at them. Very versatile speaker, highs are smooth and detailed, but not exactly crisp. This makes them very low fatigue on the ears. Plenty of bass, but tight.

Be advised, they are 6ohm speakers, so you may want a pretty hefty amp to push them. I have 120 wpc running them right now, but they do fine with 60 or so.

Thanks ,yeah everything i have read about the advents were pretty good.

I almost bought a pair of advent maestro's for 75 bucks,but heard about the free legacy's and liked the price better! lol

The maestro's have really good reviews also, but of course they had one of the mids dust cap pushed in,and although they said the foams were ok ,im sure they would have needed to be refoamed unless somebody else had already done it.

Im gonna go check out these legacy's and make sure the tweeters are good and get some surrounds ordered for them,think they will make a nice set of speakers for my nephew! I got a early 90's teac 100 wpc receiver im gonna give him to drive the legacy's,It has a high/low impedance switch on the back so it should work with the 6 ohm legacy's

Thanks for your review,I appreciate it

 

[allsmith]

Well this is what i was worried about on the mcs tweeter that measured 1 ohm !

I was able to take it apart and the coil has gotten hot and is damaged,Rats!
Anybody ever try to wind a new coil for a tweeter? wonder if its possible?

But yeah the wire is inside the dome on this tweeter ,all the rest where on the outside.

But i have a very close match tweeter from a pair of yamaha ns-3 parts speakers that i can swipe and put into the mcs,only difference is the dome color is black(Im thinking some orange paint lol)

I think im gonna give the mat electronics surrounds a try,even though they seem very generic they are only 2 bucks per speaker!I will grab some Aleenes tacky glue localy.Wont know unless i try! i'll let you all know how they are when i get them.

Thanks

 

[michiganpat]

Thats sounds interesting, have to give that a try.

Think i should do the glue repair after the new surrounds are installed?
Or before?

Thanks for the tip!

before. you don't want super glue in the surrounds

 

[allsmith]

Starting to clean up the woofers for the mcs's.

Got all the old surround foam off,Cleaned off some rust and corrosion off the magnets,and sprayed a coat of spray can clearcoat on the magnets and back of baskets.

Fixed one hole in the cone with some paper from a junk speaker.

Wanted to try the the super glue trick on the cones but i didnt have any and i was thinking its gonna take a lot of tubes of super glue!

So i tried something else(LOL hope this dont mess them up!)

I used high performance two part catylized automotive clear coat that i brushed on, I think it looks pretty good,seems to be stiffening the damaged areas pretty good so far,but will take 24 hrs to fully dry.

Still cant get all the ripples out of one spot on the edge of the cone,but its better than it was,but its getting better as i flatten it out every couple hrs as the clearcoat is drying.

I'll get the other one clearcoated tommorrow and order some new surrounds

Im curious to how these will sound,might be some decent garage speakers im thinking!

 

[allsmith]

Well i got the MCS's finally finished,but not without a bunch of problems!
First off i ordered generic surrounds(2 bucks each) when i got them first thing i noticed was they are a bit thinner material than the good ones i have used in the past, then found they had a lot smaller inner diameter they stated on there web site(they state the inner diameter where the roll starts,not the very inner)I had ordered 3 pairs of foams so i tried out a pair on some cheap sansui speakers i had ( they were flat attach just like the mcs's) and they went on fine so i said im gonna go for it on the mcs's

Since these cones are flat attach,and the new foams had a smaller inner diameter they went on pretty good(attached like a angle attach cone) I hand centered them when i did the refoam.

Put them all together,I had a almost identical tweeter that i swipped out of some yamaha ns-3's to replace the blowed original(it was black dome but a little orange spray paint fixed that lol)

First test was going good,everything was sound good and i was happy,but then the problems started! I started turning up the power,still good,little more power,still good, then all of a sudden the one woofer started sounding terrible,i was like man!!! Sounded like i blowed it!

So back to the bench with the woofer,there was no rubbing if you pushed on it in the center,but if i pushed off center i could feel rubbing,so i removed the dust cap,and was able to cut the glue between the foam and basket and save the new surround.I then shimmed the VC and reglued,but back in the cabinet and dang! same thing,sounded terrible!

I said one more try,cut the glue off again,(still was able to save the surround)
and i got to looking and found a big crease in the cone under where the dust cap goes,keep in mind these cones where in bad shape when i got them and i had to brush on automotive clear coat on them to stiffen them up,so i put a good couple coats on the area under the dust cap where the new damage was at and let sit over night.

Next day i was like should i shim them or hand center? but decided to put small tacks of tape on to hold the surround while i messaged the cone in and out,i found that if i pushed in center there was no rub,but if i pushed off center it would rub,so after awhile of pulling the surround to one side ,then the other ,tightening and loosening i finally found a spot where i could push anywhere on the cone and it wouldnt rub,lifted each tab of tape at a time and put my glue under then put the tape back on,went all the way round liker that and got her glued.

Next day i was nervous,but installed the woofer and YEAH! back in the game! sounding good again!

But anyways here they are ,after my re re re foam job! lol The soft dome mids and tweeters sound really good,bass seems good,but im sure they dont sound like they did when new(all that clearcoat cant be helping the bass!)Man i wish the woofers where in better shape when i got them,these where nice speakers in there day( all 1'' mdf,braced inside,real aluminum trim rings)
I weighed them at 52 pounds each!

I cant stand the vinyl veneer! but they look ok from a distance( I thought about painting them semi gloss black,but i dont know,I think black would look killer ,but i think original is better,I dont know?

I still have not gave them 100 watts yet(Im scared too! LOL) might be looking for replacement woofers! or cone kits if i could find them( I really wanna try my hand at reconeing,but all the kits i see are like 70 bucks each!) i could almost buy new drivers for that price!

But here they are in there 1981 glory,my new garage speakers!

Any ideas on how to place them in a garage? like just on the wall,or maybe suspended from ceiling or on stands? Im not sure how to mount them yet?

 

[Hifirob2]

Those 8227s turned out very nice! One of the best MCS efforts, IMO.

Congrats. :thmbsp:

 

[allsmith]

couple more pics

 

[allsmith]

If crossovers dont confuse me enough already,these crossover confuse me more! any help here would be appreciated! I want to just replace the elecrtolytics for the mids and tweeters,but since this pair of speakers i have must have come off the assembly line at different times there are slight differences in the crossovers and im not sure what values to go with.

Both crossovers have two 47uf 25v caps in series for the mids(What value does these two caps add up to in series?)

One crossover has just one 50 mfd 100v for the tweeter,but the other has two 100mfd 50 wvdc caps,wired in series( are these not electrolytics,but film maybe?)

What value do you all think i should use for the tweeters( I will probably get dayton films from parts express)

And what are the Red caps wired in parallel in the center off crossover?

Thanks

 

[Jlord]

I have the smaller brother to the MCS you have, the MCS 683-8226. I love them, and they do sound really good surprisingly. MCS stuff flies under the radar a lot. The 8227 was TOTL, and I want a pair. Mine have the same thing, they just don't look as good, and don't have a dome tweeter.

Edit: My bad, there was another one above yours. But still, a very nice speaker that I still want lol

 

[allsmith]

I have the smaller brother to the MCS you have, the MCS 683-8226. I love them, and they do sound really good surprisingly. MCS stuff flies under the radar a lot. The 8227 was TOTL, and I want a pair. Mine have the same thing, they just don't look as good, and don't have a dome tweeter.

Edit: My bad, there was another one above yours. But still, a very nice speaker that I still want lol

Cool, do you know what the model was of the TOTL units? I would like to check them out!

 

[Hifirob2]

The TOTL for that year was the 8228s.

Very rare and very expensive when new - $799

I would LOVE to hear a pair! :thmbsp:

 

[allsmith]

Nice thanks! those 8228's look dang nice!