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Design Acoustics D-6 Rat Habitat Edition (restore log)

MarbleSwitchboard

MarbleSwitchboard

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Well I restored a pair of these earlier and they turned out very nicely. So I thought I couldn't go wrong with another pair.

Well this pair is in a bit rougher shape.

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Yes that is what you think it is.
Rat poop and half eaten seeds.
These speakers would be like a rat dream home though. Full of warm insulation and an easy entrance and exit. Also lots of room for all sorts of food.

Looks like these were stored in a barn. Or in a lake... who knows.

Also the bottom of one speaker is very damaged from water it looks like.

All cleaned!

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Interesting crossover.

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So pretty!

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And thats it for now.
Pretty nasty but shop vacs are the bestest!

More updates to come!
 
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Yes they are quite well received.

Many people quite like the sound.

I find that they are one of the speakers from this era that has a very accurate and detailed midrange while still maintaining detailed treble and decently impactful bass. They are certainly on the colder side of speakers though. Not warm and smooth like some vintage speakers of this era.

I am very excited to get these all fixed up and re-capped.
 
Are they stinky? That would be the determining factor for me. Otherwise a worthy restoration project.
 
They were stinky but some bleach took care of the smell.

They smell quite clean now. Still has that vintage audio smell though :)

And yes... I will need lots of luck.
 
Here is an update!

I wanted to post on the posts that I had "claim'd" but apparently I can't edit them :(

Anyways here you go.


Got the back panels off and scraped off the old grill. (it was broken)


Here is some close ups of the back panel. The writing has started to come off but oh well.
I took the binding posts off and will be putting new gold binding posts (or rhodium if I really like these speakers)


Sanded down the place where the old grill was. I forgot to do this on the last restore of these speakers and you can kind of see the old grill pattern.


Tons of painters tape later.


All ready for painting!


Before and after. Looking good.


Ok now for the front.
Yeah that took a LONG time to get all that tape on there.


See you have to get inside the edges. Its kinda tricky but doable.


Painting!


First coat.


Second coat!


Final result.

Yay!

Well thats it for now.

More to come soon.
 
Restoration threads are my favorite to follow. You're making very nice progress on those.
Keep the pics coming.

Glenn
 
Pulled and tested all of the drivers!



Both midrange drivers needed new surrounds. I measured and ordered 4.5 inch rubber surrounds. Hopefully these will work.
The original surrounds were paper but I think rubber surrounds will work just fine. I think?

3 of the 8 tweeters were blown. 3 others had ripped cones and buzzed. Only 2 of them actually worked. Even then they were rusted and in rough shape. (This is why you don't store speakers in lakes. Or pools, or flooded basements. Who knows!)
I ordered new tweeters and they should be here next week though.
https://www.parts-express.com/t-25-2-1-2-paper-cone-tweeter-8-ohm--279-452
These look good and should make nice replacements for the peerless cone tweeters.

The phenolic ring tweeters look to be in good condition. One has a minor tear in the dust cap but if it doesn't affect performance I will leave them. Luckily both woofers checked out just fine!

I still need to order the capacitors and resistors though.

Updates to follow!
 
JazmynFox said:
Both midrange drivers needed new surrounds. I measured and ordered 4.5 inch rubber surrounds. Hopefully these will work.
The original surrounds were paper but I think rubber surrounds will work just fine. I think?
Click to expand...
Maybe. The mass and compliance of the replacement surrounds will likely be completely different from the originals. This could end up seriously affecting the sound.

Nice work on the cabinets, though.
 
Updates!!

The cabinets are coming along quite nicely.

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Very nice and polished.

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Gorgeous wood.

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Looking good.

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Before polish.

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After. Such a difference.

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This is what happens when you store your speakers in a lake.

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And this too.

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I will have to clamp and epoxy this cabinet back to life.

That's all for now!
 
It's Christmas!!

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All of my goodies have arrived.

Uh oh the tweeters don't fit at all.

Well good thing I have my trusty metal cutters!

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Snip snip snip.

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Now they fit.

I will have to bend the metal straight and paint the sides black.

They will work just fine.
If I had to do it again I would order smaller tweeters but I couldn't find any of similar dimensions so this will have to work.

More updates soon.
 
Haha that made my day.

Yeah I think I would have done the same if I didn't already know how good these speakers sound when they are working.

Anyways here is an update!
Foam day!
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Needed a bit of cutting to fit.

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Fits nice and good now

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Glueing process.

Hooray!
I forgot to take pictures of them finished.

I will put them in another update.

More to come!

I would really like to get these finished by the end of this weekend.
 
Sorry for the long time in between posts!

Here is the final update.

I sort of spent all day finishing these.

Here is how it went.

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Put the woofers back in and added the grille cover.

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All of the drivers put back in and wired back up.

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With pure silver wiring!!
(just on this one wire I didn't have time to do all of them)

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Wires tinned and soldered together.

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STUFFFEEDD!!

Final result

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Oh and here are the new binding posts put in.

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Hope you enjoyed that speaker pr0n.

As far as how they sound. They sound just like I remember my last pair to sound. Bright with a lot of details, fast punchy bass and nicely presented mids. However they lack in mid-bass and to some might sound a bit cold. They go nicely with my Electro voice SP-12 single driver speakers though. Sound nice and full together.

Well I was actually hoping to use these speakers for a long time but since my KLH Model Nines will be here soon guess they will go to the bay or to the basement. Probably both.

Thanks for everyone who followed and commented!

I am so happy with how they turned out.
 
Hi JazmynFox-- Nice work! Speakers look very good. I might humbly recommend, however, that you tape or sleeve with heatshrink the exposed wire that was soldered together. While they probably won't ever touch one another and short out, is it worth the risk?? For that matter you could have one of the wires short to a driver basket. A quick few wraps of electrical tape and all risk is gone. Quite a difference start to finish. Congrats. :music: I have a pair of DA PS-10's that needed some work, but nothing like that. The PS-10s are pulling living room duty for movies and shows.
 
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