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Dynaco a25 Speakers!! Should I get em?

TheWolf82 said:
No, I can locate mine right now. I believe I still have one but it’s in my storage closet somewhere and it’s hard to get to right now with everyone sleeping. I really started getting into vintage speakers about 8 months ago and have been fairly lucky with my finds. No difficult repairs needed (caps, etc). Tomorrow I’m gonna locate my MM and test the tweet out...so if the tweeter is working fine, it’s either bad caps or corrosion on the tweeter switch? I suppose I’ll need to remove the woofer to see the switch inside..the little plastic knob for the tweeter level (on the back of the speaker with the bad tweeter) actually came off too...ugh, love my vintage audio gear hobby but soooo wet behind the ears when comes to repairs.
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Tweeters pop up on eBay fairly frequently, if the tweeter is the problem. The switch may just need to be cleaned or a cap may have failed.

If you want to take them to the next level, Madisound offers new upgraded tweeters (they also offer a modern version of the A25s, costing much more than what you paid).
 
So I never Measured the cabinets because I figured out they def are a25’s. I couldn’t locate my multi meter so I pulled out the woofer and checked the tweeter switch inside to look for corrosion. Didn’t look too bad at all. Put some contact cleaner in there and rotated the switch on the back a bunch. Still, no sound at all from the tweeter. So it could be a bad cap or a bad tweeter...Wish I could locate my multi meter to confirm.
 
TheWolf82 said:
So I never Measured the cabinets because I figured out they def are a25’s. I couldn’t locate my multi meter so I pulled out the woofer and checked the tweeter switch inside to look for corrosion. Didn’t look too bad at all. Put some contact cleaner in there and rotated the switch on the back a bunch. Still, no sound at all from the tweeter. So it could be a bad cap or a bad tweeter...Wish I could locate my multi meter to confirm.
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Even if it's not the issue ultimately it would be worth replacing the caps for reliability's sake.
 
Nightwisher said:
Tweeters pop up on eBay fairly frequently, if the tweeter is the problem. The switch may just need to be cleaned or a cap may have failed.

If you want to take them to the next level, Madisound offers new upgraded tweeters (they also offer a modern version of the A25s, costing much more than what you paid).
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Hey Nightwisher, If I were to go that route and replace it with the updated driver from Madisound, I definitely want to replace both tweeters with the updated ones right? I wouldn’t want to leave the original tweeter in one speaker and the new tweeter in the other?
 
Bodyblue said:
Not too hard. There are a ton of you tube vids to help you.
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Hey, would you happen to know the stock caps used in the a25. I have my local repair guy that will solder new caps for me for cheap...I'm not home and cant remember. I believe it was 4.7uf but cant rememebr the volts. Do you know?
 
TheWolf82 said:
Hey Nightwisher, If I were to go that route and replace it with the updated driver from Madisound, I definitely want to replace both tweeters with the updated ones right? I wouldn’t want to leave the original tweeter in one speaker and the new tweeter in the other?
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I definitely fall in the opinion of if you're going through the trouble you might as well swap both and keep things matched. The replacement tweeters will be better performing at high frequencies than what was originally used.
 
OutlawSun said:
I definitely fall in the opinion of if you're going through the trouble you might as well swap both and keep things matched. The replacement tweeters will be better performing at high frequencies than what was originally used.
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Ok, thanks man. Appreciate the advice....So in regards to the capacitor...The cap actually looked like it was leaking on one end so im thinking the cap is the culprit. HOWEVER - excuse my extremely newbie question - wouldnt the woofer not work if the cap was bad?
 
TheWolf82 said:
Ok, thanks man. Appreciate the advice....So in regards to the capacitor...The cap actually looked like it was leaking on one end so im thinking the cap is the culprit. HOWEVER - excuse my extremely newbie question - wouldnt the woofer not work if the cap was bad?
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There is not a capacitor in the woofer circuit.

A bad cap in the tweeter circuit will have no effect on the woofer.

If you aren't comfortable soldering, use wire nuts. Problem solved.

As regards tweeter circuit capacitor..I have seen several capacitance values in A25s. You should probably confirm what you have before ordering. Voltage rating of 50V or higher is fine.
 
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spark1 said:
There is not a capacitor in the woofer circuit.

A bad cap in the tweeter circuit will have no effect on the woofer.

If you aren't comfortable soldering, use wire nuts. Problem solved.
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Awesome....thank you for the info. I really appreciate it. I spoke to my local repair guy and he's actually gonna charge 30.00 just to do the repair, and then 10 for the cap....So 40 bucks just to replace one cap....I think I'm gonna just do this myself.
 
TheWolf82 said:
Ok, thanks man. Appreciate the advice....So in regards to the capacitor...The cap actually looked like it was leaking on one end so im thinking the cap is the culprit. HOWEVER - excuse my extremely newbie question - wouldnt the woofer not work if the cap was bad?
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It's part of the crossover that sits between the woofer and tweeter which filters out low-mid range frequencies and passes high frequencies to the tweeter. So if the cap dies the tweeter won't work while the woofer is still getting power. It seems to be fairly common for KLH speakers such as the KLH 17 to have the tweeter be dead because the cap failed.
 
spark1 said:
There is not a capacitor in the woofer circuit.

A bad cap in the tweeter circuit will have no effect on the woofer.

If you aren't comfortable soldering, use wire nuts. Problem solved.

As regards tweeter circuit capacitor..I have seen several capacitance values in A25s. You should probably confirm what you have before ordering. Voltage rating of 50V or higher is fine.
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Ok. 50V? I checked some pictures online and saw many pictures using 4.7uf 400V. I'm picking up some on my way home at a local supplier...They have 5uf 400v...Think that will be fine? Once I get home if I see they wont work, its not a big deal to return them the next day
 
OutlawSun said:
It's part of the crossover that sits between the woofer and tweeter which filters out low-mid range frequencies and passes high frequencies to the tweeter. So if the cap dies the tweeter won't work while the woofer is still getting power. It seems to be fairly common for KLH speakers such as the KLH 17 to have the tweeter be dead because the cap failed.
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Thankfully my model sixes sound perfect. No recap has been needed. Pretty sure they have the oil caps.
 
Just be sure you're getting non-polarized capacitors for the crossover, and not polarized ones (hint: if one terminal is marked with a '+' or a '-', they're probably polarized.
 
jberger said:
Just be sure you're getting non-polarized capacitors for the crossover, and not polarized ones (hint: if one terminal is marked with a '+' or a '-', they're probably polarized.
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Ok, cool. And I know its not preferred (as soldering would be), but using wire nuts for the capacitor is fine as our fellow member spark1 mentioned?
 
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