Electro Voice Esquire (pics)

[RawdonDNA]

Talk about FROSTING! Looks just like ice crystals. Thanks so much for your warning about cleaning them safely. I donned a mask, gloves and proceeded to carefully wipe with a moist cloth and q-tips. Was extra cautious!



One cleaned.




The binding post connections are hidden by this piece of insulation-like material.

 

[RawdonDNA]

So do I just shoot some DeoxIT D5 into the holes here? Should I use anything else?



Also, there's a wire that's not soldered to anything? Could this be why the tweeter isn't working? It's right beside that resistor.



Thanks @Lucky Pierre !

 

[tgmartin]

@RawdonDNA I believe you are on the right track. Looks to me like the floating wire should be connected to the middle terminals on the L-pad that the other white wire of that bonded pair is attached to. The 12 ohm carbon resistor that's soldered across those same terminals doesn't show up on the schematic in message #8 and the wire colors aren't the same ... but I think that's what ya needs ta do. You do have two of these speakers, don't you? Compare to the one that works.

 

[Lucky Pierre]

Looking great!

Re: deoxit--yep, just squirt it in the holes and work the wiper back and forth a bunch of times.

Re: the inner "cabinet"--I assume it is a semi-bass reflex box for the LS-8.

It does appear that the loose wire is supposed to be attached to the pot. I will look at my crossovers closer for the exact location.

 

[RawdonDNA]

@RawdonDNA I believe you are on the right track. Looks to me like the floating wire should be connected to the middle terminals on the L-pad that the other white wire of that bonded pair is attached to. The 12 ohm carbon resistor that's soldered across those same terminals doesn't show up on the schematic in message #8 and the wire colors aren't the same ... but I think that's what ya needs ta do. You do have two of these speakers, don't you? Compare to the one that works.

Yes, I will for sure open the second speaker and compare. Should get around to it this evening.

 

[RawdonDNA]

I opened the second speaker and can confirm that the floating wire should be connected to the other side of the resistor on the L-Pad. Will clean this second one up, DeoxIT the L-pads, connect it all and see how it goes! More to follow.

 

[RawdonDNA]

Well I borrowed a iron and soldered the floating wire to the appropriate terminal and, of course, the tweeter is just fine and playing fantastic music! The deoxit D5 cleaned those old l-pads or pots just perfectly, I'll follow it up with some F5, as per recommendations I've read.

Next, I'll consider sourcing the correct values for a crossover recap, but I'm in no rush as this is really just for background music. Many thanks @Lucky Pierre and @tgmartin , I'll post my comparison to the (untouched) Heresy 1 in my space.

 

[Lucky Pierre]

Excellent!

 

[tadawson]

I've seen cases in speakers where wires did not first have a good mechanical connection and the speaker was run hard where they have heated enough to come off (power resistors as well). From the look of the loose lead, that may be the case here where it was just shoved in the eye and soldered without crimping.

 

[RawdonDNA]

I've seen cases in speakers where wires did not first have a good mechanical connection and the speaker was run hard where they have heated enough to come off (power resistors as well). From the look of the loose lead, that may be the case here where it was just shoved in the eye and soldered without crimping.

It would make total sense. Most other connections are twisted then soldered, but this one clearly wasn't.

 

[RawdonDNA]

This is the schematic for the Esquire 200 from: https://products.electrovoice.com/binary/Esquire 200.pdf

I see three caps: 140, 100 and 2.84 MFD, correct?

Would anyone have any suggestions for reasonably priced (ie budget minded) replacement caps? I live near Solen in Quebec if that can be of any help. I suspect I'll need to combine a couple in parallel for the higher values.

So far I'm just LOVING these speakers. As I've mentioned, they've replaced the Heresy 1 which were in my living room. They share similarities, very efficient and low distortion but subjectively I find these to be smoother in the mid range and with a generous helping of bass. Voices on the radio sound more pleasant or natural. I could gladly live with them as is, but can't help but wonder if a recap would be of benefit.