BIC Soundspan teardown and mods...

[Nat]

I had a pair of those for a while. I found them to sound much as you did -- not super great, but the sound sort of enveloped you, and was very attractive.
In my house, WAF was way in the negative numbers..... NO SPEAKERS OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROOM!
Actually, given the size of our house, it was difficult to move with speakers out far from the wall, so off they went.

 

[EmuMannen]

To satisfy any decor requirement...

I had a pair of those for a while. I found them to sound much as you did -- not super great, but the sound sort of enveloped you, and was very attractive.
In my house, WAF was way in the negative numbers..... NO SPEAKERS OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROOM!
Actually, given the size of our house, it was difficult to move with speakers out far from the wall, so off they went.

In the middle of the room! Didn't you get the memo? BIC promised flexibility ... to satisfy any decor requirement! Just take a look at the attached scan from the original documentation.

 

[Nat]

But putting a pair of omnis against the wall seems to defeat the purpose of omnidirectionality. Why not just use conventional speakers?

 

[EmuMannen]

But putting a pair of omnis against the wall seems to defeat the purpose of omnidirectionality. Why not just use conventional speakers?

That's one way to look at it. My situation is a bit trickier. Our house has an irregular open floor plan. Conventional speakers, if put in the living room, sounds great in one end of the living room but not as nice in the adjacent dining area and quite bad in the kitchen (this is more or less one space). The SoundSpans sound OK in all locations. Not as great as conventional speakers if I'm in the sofa in my living room but much better in almost every other location. That's why I think they grow on me...

 

[71CNY]

I'd get rid of the internal fuse.

 

[lab]

Very interesting stuff! I love when guys document their progress- it's kind of like getting to peek over your shoulder as you work. Just wish we could hear the end result with you.

 

[Rod Bednarek]

I have the TPR 200's and was impressed how well they performed under movies. The bass response was right on and held up well. I have acquired a pair of 600's and was extremely disappointed. Lacking low end and sounding extremely flat. I was happy to find your OUTSTANDINGLY documented rebuild and would like to replicate your steps to see if i can bring these back to life. They are in Very Good condition and am on a mission to resurrect them. Thanks again!

 

[mistro]

I may be in the process of acquiring a pair...

 

[GORKE]

Hello does someone have the electric scheme for the tpr 200 please. No sound on the boomer and i dont know what to do

 

[nfafan]

That's one way to look at it. My situation is a bit trickier. Our house has an irregular open floor plan. Conventional speakers, if put in the living room, sounds great in one end of the living room but not as nice in the adjacent dining area and quite bad in the kitchen (this is more or less one space). The SoundSpans sound OK in all locations. Not as great as conventional speakers if I'm in the sofa in my living room but much better in almost every other location. That's why I think they grow on me...

They will grow on you, much like Ohm Walshes grow on folks. One day you will be out of the room for an extended period, then walk in and discover the music stage is all around you in the room.

 

[Nat]

If there is an internal fuse, that might be the problem with your woofer, Gorke. But it also might be a loose wire - my memory is that the build quality reflected cost containment.
Remove the woofer and test continuity. If it is open, check the tinsels and the solder joints just in case, but it's likely blown. If it reads somewhere in the 5-8 ohm range, the voice coil is okay. If, when you press in on the woofer, it doesn't move, it might be a shifted magnet. There are a couple of threads on how to fix unglued magnets.

 

[Robert Kulas]

Teardown

Speaker grills are easy to detach and so is the 12" woofer. On top of the woofer is however the "chocolate fountain" assembly. The mid range speaker is hidden inside of it but the tweeter on top is quite easy to disassemble.

You get to the mid range by twisting the top assembly counter clockwise. One came loose quite easily the other one required some elbow grease. Attached are some pictures of the mid range speakers and the top assembly without the tweeter top reflector.

I also attached a picture of the bare mid range speaker sitting on top of the woofer without top assembly that usually hide it. I hope it get you a better idea of how it comes together. There is also a spacer between the woofer and mid range that I left out in the picture.

 

[SmitterDave]

I had a set and enjoyed them.

From the # code on the woofer I believe they are Becker woofers, magnet structure makes me believe they are.

 

[Rick6899]

Does anyone have any leads on acquiring an original 10" woofer for the the TPR400's? I purchased a pair and one woofer was replaced. I can't secure the mid to the woofer. Only the magnet is holding the upper fountain in place. Thanks in advance.

 

[RamJamming]

I just picked up a pair of the 600s as-is for almost nothing. I also have open floor plan and appreciate the staging. But I have to agree the 600s don't have much bass for their size. The look is pretty cool.

I think I'll keep them, and this thread is a gold mine of great info. Thank You!

 

[Afor]

Speaker foam...

Time for the final mod, reconstruction of the foam covering the woofers around the base of the chocolate fountain.

I have never seen this piece up front. I don't know exactly what it looked like or how it was originally constructed of fitted. My friend mumbled something about foam and a vacuum cleaner. Maybe that's where they all went?

Anyway, I took the freedom to reconstruct something that I thought would look good. I wanted to enhance the shape of a cone to make them even more alien looking. What you need is to make a pattern and for that you need some basic math in order to calculate the shape of a truncated cone. There are online calculators for this, here is one and here is another

You also need some cabinet grill foam. 10mm would have been perfect but I only had 15mm for such a large piece. Use your pattern and cut out the shape for the truncated cone and glue it together with one seam in the back. (I used contact glue). And voilà! I can finally run these speakers without the boxy speaker grills if I want to. Very happy with the outcome.

Attached are pictures of the material I used, the shape before gluing it to a truncated cone and the final result. Time to kick back and relax to some great music :thmbsp:

I just want to add on to this thread as I am currently Restoring a pair of these.
The foam on one of the speakers were intact but petrified. It crumbled like nothing else when touched. I figured I got a measurement of the thickness for restoring purposes.

Anyhow. The original foam Measured 20mm or 3/4” thick. At the very top of the foam it has a cutout step so it fits the plastic cone above.

As I get further here I might add more information. Thanks for a good thread.

 

[Afor]

Tweeters

This is a bit strange. The speakers I got was bought as a pair but they got different tweeters. I first thought something was missing from one of them but they are in fact different. One got a piece of aluminum and a thin spacer housing the membrane. The other one is all plastic.

Attached are pictures of the two with numbers if someone got additional information. I also noted that the speakers got different production codes (note the right hand corner of the markings on the bottom of the speakers).

I am restoring a pair of TPR 600 as well.
I figured I’ll add information to your post about the piezo tweeters.

The two on my pair are similar but both have the aluminum configuration.

I’ll attach pictures.

My tweeters measure 117nf and 115nf. They seemed to be in good working order, but not fully tested yet. I’m still waiting for the new crossover components.

I hope someone finds this helpful in the future.

Thanks.