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Cerwin Vega 217r for free

NicholasG

NicholasG

Active Member
Cerwin Vega 217r (1).jpg Cerwin Vega 217r (2).jpg Cerwin Vega 217r (3).jpg Cerwin Vega 217r (4).jpg So a friend of mine just asked me if I wanted another pair of speakers, of course I took them, Luv speakers lol. However, the foam needs to be redone, I'll order the red foam today...or should I get gray... My first pair of Cerwin Vegas. I'm super excited to hear them. Figured I'd share the before and after shots with you all. The after pictures to come when the foam arrives. Has anyone had experience with these?? If so how is the sound? Ive never even heard a pair of Cerwin Vegas playing before.
 
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Go with the red, that way there is no doubt they are CV's. I've not heard that model, but I think they should sound good. I'm sure another member will chime in with more info.
 
Thanks so much guys. I thought it was strange how one speaker had red and the other grey. Wonder if it has been refoamed before or if it was just sent like that.

cwh said:
The crossover will probably benefit with new capacitors
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Have not cracked it open yet. Curious to see the crossover inside the unit.
 
Just discovered sensuround by Cerwin Vega. I do love bass but love treble and midrange just the same. Need a good balance of all. Cant wait to hear these. Foams have ben ordered. I did go with the red as for when I think of Cerwin Vega it has red surrounds. Just like Jensen had the blue surrounds. Wish they made blue too.
 
Set up is CRITICAL with these speakers. I believe HIFI Engine has documentation for setup. Go with gray surrounds, (but see you went red). Actually, they are a very good sounding speaker. Be prepared for the ease of driving these, as well as how loud they are. An equalizer will tame the rear firing horn.
 
I have a set of these i recently finished restoring. I ended up going with red foam and replaced the 2 caps with daytons. Mine is a slightly different version with only one small horn tweeter on thefront instead of 2. These are some real CV classics and and sound completely different from the later stuff they did. Sound especially good with tubes. Honestly ofthe 4 sets of speakers i have setup around the house these are probably my favorite. They definitely getthe most play!
 
jcamero said:
Set up is CRITICAL with these speakers. I believe HIFI Engine has documentation for setup
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Thank you for this. I will check it out. I did read where the placement makes or breaks the sound. I am currently waiting for the surrounds to get here. Never dabbled with horns before except vintage Jensen horns. I do have an equalizer in the system. Thank you for your information.

James Cox said:
ended up going with red foam and replaced the 2 caps with daytons
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I too opted for red although if I get impatient I will get the grey ones from the store here in town. I thought about replacing the caps as well. Still have yet to look inside of them. I had to leave them at my parents because the road is tore up in front of my house. Not about to carry these into my house. I'll have them in my house tomorrow. I cant wait to hear how these speakers sound. This will be my first taste of Cerwin Vega speakers. Glad its a true original CV speaker. Thank you so much for the info.
 
A word of caution. I had issues with the screw holes in the back being stripped out. I had to repair almost everyone of them.
 
jcamero said:
I had issues with the screw holes in the back being stripped out.
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That's is strange and wonder why that would have happened. Hopefully that does not happen to me as I do have to take them apart. Appears that the speakers are mounted from the inside.
 
So I cracked the backs open of the speakers to clean them out. Foams not arrived yet but was able to test 1 speakers as it still has the foam in tact (the grey foam) Found that neither the mid horn or tweeters were working because both fuses were blown. Replaced the fuses and all drivers work. However the tweeter control does not work at all. I had to by pass the control knob. I have never had to replace a control pot before. Is there anything in particular I need to know about replacing one? I have tried the contact control cleaner and it worked to fix scratchy mid, but the tweeter dial is shot I believe. Thank you all.
 
I managed to clean mine enough so someone else may chime in with replacement options. I will say it took me 3 cleanings i believe before i got both sets clean enough to all be working. On the third try i actually disconnected them and opened them up. Soaked them in salt and vinegar for 2-3 hours and cleaned the contacts with a toothbrush. They all work great now except the very begining of the track for one of the tweeters but i usually run the tweeters close to wide open so no issues there.
 
Re: replacing that adjustment pot, if I'm not mistaken it kind of depends on how it's set up. I.e., is it just being used as a simple variable resistor (wiper connected to one other leg)? Or, is it a true L-pad (split resistance shunted to ground)?

Maybe take pics of the pot and someone can see how it's wired and if it's a common part.
 
James Cox said:
On the third try i actually disconnected them and opened them up. Soaked them in salt and vinegar for 2-3 hours and cleaned the contacts with a toothbrush.
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Thank you. Thats really intriguing, never though of that. I will open mine up and see whats going on. They both were very dry feeling, the working ones are smooth but upon opening the second speaker, I found that the midrange control is broken and tweeter works. So 1 of each needs attention.

dogwan said:
replacing that adjustment pot, if I'm not mistaken it kind of depends on how it's set up.
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Thanks so much for the information. Funny you mentioned that as I was looking at it and it appears different to me. All contacts seem to be used. Here is the insides of the speaker.
Thank you so much for your inputs.
Cerwin Vega inside 217r (2).jpg Cerwin Vega inside 217r (3).jpg Cerwin Vega inside 217r (4).jpg
 
Those are old style Rheostat type of pots. The metal horizontal bar across the back is the clip which holds the two halves of the ceramic case together. It's been a while, but from what I remember they are not terribly complicated to disassemble and reassemble. When you open them up you will find a spiral wire that the wiper moves along. THey can get horribly corroded inside. I think I've even seen people resort to soaking for a couple hours in Coca Cola to eat the corrosion out. You should have no problem finding replacements if you don't have luck cleaning them out. They are common enough. You just need to know the total resistance and the wattage.

I don't believe those are set up as true L-pads. I could be wrong, but I would wager that there is only a single resistive element inside.

Also, no electrolytic caps so no need to worry about those caps.

I'm sure others will be along shortly who know more than me.
 
Oh yeah... I had those same controls on some AR speakers and i believe my Infinity Quantums. Had green gunk buildup on the wipers.
 
NicholasG said:
View attachment 1972902 View attachment 1972903 View attachment 1972904 View attachment 1972905 So a friend of mine just asked me if I wanted another pair of speakers, of course I took them, Luv speakers lol. However, the foam needs to be redone, I'll order the red foam today...or should I get gray... My first pair of Cerwin Vegas. I'm super excited to hear them. Figured I'd share the before and after shots with you all. The after pictures to come when the foam arrives. Has anyone had experience with these?? If so how is the sound? Ive never even heard a pair of Cerwin Vegas playing before.
Click to expand...
I am not a fan of the sound of those but they will play at high spl for hours with a big amp... use a QSC or Crown. They will get along famously. If I'm not mistaken those are the models rumored to survive being plugged straight into the wall.
 
dogwan said:
Those are old style Rheostat type of pots. The metal horizontal bar across the back is the clip which holds the two halves of the ceramic case together.
Click to expand...
Thank you for telling me this. I assumed that bar was a contact of types. Good to know lol. I can actually see that wiper moving on the inside. I will have a look at the insides today after work seems easy enough to open now that I know how to. Someone else also said to soak them. I will give that a go as well.

doctorolds said:
Here is a link to some Rectilinear speakers that had the same controls, see post #7. They clean up good if not terribly corroded.
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Thank you so much. Wow. Those pots on your speakers look almost exactly like the ones I have on the CV speakers. Also those are some pretty sweet speakers you have there. I have a few Jensens that have those same fried egg tweeters on them. Excellent tweeters. Love Jensen speakers from the 70s. You did great at showing pictures and explaining what to do. You give me hope that this can be done. I need to go buy vinegar now lol. As for that newer speaker wire attached, I put that there as a jumper to by pass the potentiometer. and test the speakers out. I will remove that once everything is working fine.

avguytx said:
I had those same controls on some AR speakers and i believe my Infinity Quantums. Had green gunk buildup on the wipers.
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Looks like these were a common type used b ack then. I can see green gunk on the outsides of the controls. Can only imagine the insides.
 
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