Cerwin Vega D-15EE recapp or not to Recapp

[Ron_j]

Hi,
I just acquired a pair of Cerwin Vega D-15EEs. They have their surround rotten and I am gonna re-foam them.

Once I opened one of them, I noticed that all the X-over caps look Mylar/polyester or the cheap polyprop variety and don't look good polypropylenes. Also the internal wiring looked very thin.

As anyway I have opened up the speakers for re-foaming; I was just wondering whether I should re-cap and use better polypropylene caps. And may be change the wiring?

Your comments are really appreciated

Thanks
Ron

 

[Ron_j]

Some pictures of the crossover and speaker terminals

inal

 

[Ron_j]

And how about the wiring? leave'em alone? I just realized that, at least the 1MFD cap look like the polypropylene I have in some Pyle speakers and China speakers, but the cheap variety...

Will they benefit from recapping with say MUNDORF M-Cap/MKPs and changing to good 18AWG or 16AWG OFC cables? Or save myself the trouble and leave them alone? Especially when their X-overs are PCB-less so messing up is very likely?

Sorry guys, I am like all charged up as these are my first pair of real old school type big speakers except for a pair of cheap Sansuis... Esp with their 15" low drivers, they kind of sit in a league of their on among the other puny floorstanders I have; like the Wharf Diamonds and the Mordaunt Short Carnival 6s.

 

[Sir.Byrd]

I would start with replacing the film caps with higher quality ones, and then go on to replace the resistor with a high quality non-inductive resistor (increase the power to 10 watts if you want to), clean the L-pads or replace them with fixed resistors. Lastly I would do the wiring, and the inductors if you want to, make sure you measure the DCR, and try to get inductors of similar DCR (DC resistance), but since those are air core to begin with, you may have to change the series resistance on the midrange and tweeter to attenuate them more.

 

[Ron_j]

Thanks for that... But are these speakers worth such mods? That was my main question. I don't know how good are they in their original form....

 

[Ron_j]

I was thinking of only going up to Mundorf M-Cap MKPs not supreme or "oil" types. They just will cost me less than USD $30 together for both the speakers. Not a substantial amount when the speaker is a "give away"

 

[Ron_j]

I am surprised to see the port-hole which more or less look like a hand sawed MDF piece glued on the cabinet after making a rectangular opening on the back side of the cabinet...

Here is one more pic...

The orange/red dust on the left corner, you guessed it, the rotten foam-surround dust


One more question, should I buy a so called "official" orange color re-foam kit off ebay or from here http://www.simplyspeakers.com/cerwin-vega-speaker-foam-edge-repair-kit-fsk-15fr.html


Or buy a normal 15" foam surround, which I can locally procure here in Singapore. It costs something like USD $10 per piece for a 15 incher here... And they are normally black or dark-ash colored. But am worried with out the orange/red colored one, the speakers would lose their classic charm/value(if there is any)?

 

[Dave1027]

Even if you do recap or re-resistor or rewire, don't expect miracles. It may only be a subtle effect. If there is something you don't like about the tonal balance, for sure don't expect a recap to fix it unless you plan on a modification.

 

[Bellair]

Yeah the result would not be worth the effort. As long as they are not electrolytic they should be fine the resistor change is not needed either.

 

[kconnor]

It won't hurt but realistically you probably won't hear any difference.

 

[avguytx]

Personally, I wouldn't mess with the inductors or wiring. You won't see major changes in doing those. Even the resistors are most likely ok and can be measured. Some people go way out there with replacements but in keeping it simple and doing the basics, you can see if the benefits are worth it as you go. Do the caps, clean the pots, refoam the woofers, and see what you think.

 

[Ron_j]

Ok thanks a lot guys. Considering the simple equipment I am using to pair with it. I have decided not to touch anything on the speaker X-Over. Since there are no electrolytes, I assume the crossover should be fine. Cleaning the contacts and cleaning the L-Pad is probably the only thing I would do. Thanks a lot for your inputs. Appreciate it.