saabracer23
Super Member
Did I save these or did I kill them?
So, my father brought home a pair of mis matched Dynaco A50s and they were in pretty poor shape. One speaker had the seas woofers and the tweeter mounted above the woofers and the other speaker had peerless woofers with the tweeter mounted below the woofers. The original tweeters were gone and replaced with some cheapo Philips drivers. My father mentioned how odd it was that they would mount a tweeter above the woofer and at a different time mount them below. This led the conversation into a direction of mirror imaging talk. He said that he had never seen a pair mirror imaged and that I should make them mirror imaged. Well they're his speakers so why not, I'll do it.
First thing I had to do was source the right tweeters. So I looked everywhere and found a pair of A30 tweeters which I guess were the ones used in the A50. I wanted to find two more SEAS drivers so I had a total of four and then sell off the peerless. Finding two SEAS woofers in 15 ohm was going to be near impossible so I decided to use one of each driver in each cabinet so they looked the same at least. I ordered new poly caps (I really like the Audyn caps from PE as they are about the same price as the Daytons and I think they're better) and my father wanted to replace the potentiometer made up of small resistors with a more modern one so I got one of those too.
I pulled off both front baffles and noticed that the board that goes through the cabinet that acts as the aperiodic vent, runs differently in each cabinet. In one the board runs straight across, parallel to the top and bottom and in the other cabinet it runs diagonally at about 22 degrees. So I had to make the, the same.
I apologize, I didn't take a ton of pics.
So I cut out the board that went straight across and made a new one that you can see here using plywood. I cut the vent using the same position and dimensions as the old one.
Here is the new crossover, every component is brand new. One of the old coils was pretty much destroyed so I measured the good one with my ESR meter and so I ordered two. I wish I had done a better job with the layout. If I could do it over I would have laid it out neatly on 1/4" ply and made all of the connections on the under side where they wouldn't have been seen. I was in a hurry though. Oh well, they won't be seen anyways, unless the cabinet is taken apart.
One thing I forgot to mention was that the cabinets were very scratched up. I sanded them down completely to the bare veneer and then stained them and finished them with poly. I don't have any of the cabs before so you'll have to take my word for it I guess. The cabinets turned out quite nice though!
Next was to remake the baffles. I wanted to flush mount all of the drivers. In the originals they counter sunk all of the drivers by quite a bit and I wanted to make them just flush.
They came out pretty flush don't you think?
I stuffed both cabinets with that ultra touch denim insulation. I love that stuff. If you have the room to keep a bag of that stuff it is quite the buy. It was on sale and I was able to purchase enough to do at least 20 pair of these speakers for $40. I also painted the baffles black after sealing the MDF.
Next was to mount the drivers and listen!
As you can see in the pic the cabinets aren't perfect but I did the best I could. They really do sound good. After all of the work was done I was told that they were mine!!! So I think I may have one of the few mirror imaged pair around.
So my question to you fine folks, did I save these or did I completely ruin them? They look better as they are, but would it have been better to have left them as they were as they are somewhat rare? Put it to a vote as I'm really curious as to what others would have done.
Dan
So, my father brought home a pair of mis matched Dynaco A50s and they were in pretty poor shape. One speaker had the seas woofers and the tweeter mounted above the woofers and the other speaker had peerless woofers with the tweeter mounted below the woofers. The original tweeters were gone and replaced with some cheapo Philips drivers. My father mentioned how odd it was that they would mount a tweeter above the woofer and at a different time mount them below. This led the conversation into a direction of mirror imaging talk. He said that he had never seen a pair mirror imaged and that I should make them mirror imaged. Well they're his speakers so why not, I'll do it.
First thing I had to do was source the right tweeters. So I looked everywhere and found a pair of A30 tweeters which I guess were the ones used in the A50. I wanted to find two more SEAS drivers so I had a total of four and then sell off the peerless. Finding two SEAS woofers in 15 ohm was going to be near impossible so I decided to use one of each driver in each cabinet so they looked the same at least. I ordered new poly caps (I really like the Audyn caps from PE as they are about the same price as the Daytons and I think they're better) and my father wanted to replace the potentiometer made up of small resistors with a more modern one so I got one of those too.
I pulled off both front baffles and noticed that the board that goes through the cabinet that acts as the aperiodic vent, runs differently in each cabinet. In one the board runs straight across, parallel to the top and bottom and in the other cabinet it runs diagonally at about 22 degrees. So I had to make the, the same.
I apologize, I didn't take a ton of pics.
So I cut out the board that went straight across and made a new one that you can see here using plywood. I cut the vent using the same position and dimensions as the old one.
Here is the new crossover, every component is brand new. One of the old coils was pretty much destroyed so I measured the good one with my ESR meter and so I ordered two. I wish I had done a better job with the layout. If I could do it over I would have laid it out neatly on 1/4" ply and made all of the connections on the under side where they wouldn't have been seen. I was in a hurry though. Oh well, they won't be seen anyways, unless the cabinet is taken apart.
One thing I forgot to mention was that the cabinets were very scratched up. I sanded them down completely to the bare veneer and then stained them and finished them with poly. I don't have any of the cabs before so you'll have to take my word for it I guess. The cabinets turned out quite nice though!
Next was to remake the baffles. I wanted to flush mount all of the drivers. In the originals they counter sunk all of the drivers by quite a bit and I wanted to make them just flush.
They came out pretty flush don't you think?
I stuffed both cabinets with that ultra touch denim insulation. I love that stuff. If you have the room to keep a bag of that stuff it is quite the buy. It was on sale and I was able to purchase enough to do at least 20 pair of these speakers for $40. I also painted the baffles black after sealing the MDF.
Next was to mount the drivers and listen!
As you can see in the pic the cabinets aren't perfect but I did the best I could. They really do sound good. After all of the work was done I was told that they were mine!!! So I think I may have one of the few mirror imaged pair around.
So my question to you fine folks, did I save these or did I completely ruin them? They look better as they are, but would it have been better to have left them as they were as they are somewhat rare? Put it to a vote as I'm really curious as to what others would have done.
Dan
