Electro Voice Speaker Project

[MFP4073]

A few years ago I purchased a set of EV Lancaster speakers that had obviously been hand built. They were loaded with the Wolverine series low cost drivers, LS12 woofer, MR10 mid horn and TW35 tweeter. The crossovers needed attention so I decided to install a pair of Crites X8 / X36 crossovers. Although not optimum for these drivers, I installed knowing that eventually I would be upgrading them over time.

I run these on my MC30 monoblocks with a C11 preamp. The sound after the crossover upgrade was decent but nothing special. I decided to make a modification to the cabinets to see if I could get a little more bass out of them. The baffle board had a 2" hole for a port originally. I came across some EV port sizing information for specific drivers as well as detail drawing for the EV Marquis and decided to make a rear firing bass port modeled after the one in the Marquis drawing. There was a nice improvement in the sound of the speakers and I have been listening to them for a couple years in regular rotation with my other few sets of speakers (JBL 4311B, Fisher XP10 and Boston VR975).

I stumbled across a really nice set of original EV SP12 woofers for a great price a few weeks back and scooped them up. This got me motivated to finally upgrade the mid / high drivers.The time has come for the next phase of this project. and I am in the process of that upgrade right now. I thought I would share some photos of the various steps along the way. The new mid / high drivers should be in by Saturday.

The final set will be as follows;
EV SP12 woofers
EV 1824M mid driver on a Crites G700 horn
Crites / B&C DE120 tweeter
Crites X8 / X36 Crossover for EV

The two compression drivers are perfectly suited for the X8 /X36 crossover. I am waiting on them to come in. I will update once they have been installed.

 

[djnagle]

I looked on the Crites site and on that horn page it does not say what type of horn it is.....do you know?

Bet they will sound great when you complete them.

 

[MFP4073]

I looked on the Crites site and on that horn page it does not say what type of horn it is.....do you know?

Bet they will sound great when you complete them.

I hope so! It's been a really fun project tweaking them over time. I suspect upgrading the mid / high is going to have a drastic change. Fingers crossed for the better!!

I decided to go with the G700 with over the EV 8HD that I believe was originally used on the 1824M driver. Crites says the G700 is very similar to the Klipsch K700 used in the Heresy speakers.
Edited: as I reread your post.

I am not sure what kind of horn it is other than what is described on the Crites page.

 

[djnagle]

The problem with the klipsch horn is it is an exponential horn which is old school and can sound shrill.

 

[MFP4073]

That is why I decided to shy away from the EV 8HD horn. I believe it is almost the same as the horn no the MR10 I am removing which I found shrill (could be the driver as well). I selected Crites horn as the flange size will work on the opening already cut in the baffle and I am limited on options. Many seem to like his speakers / horns so I figure I'd give it a shot... You have peaked my curiosity now though. I think I am going to shoot them an e-mail and ask to confirm the type of horn design they use on the G700

 

[twiiii]

Reconed SP 12's have a much better low frequency response and a lower resonant frequency. I have forgotten what the newer resonant frequency is but as I remember its about a half to 3/4 octave lower the the early SP-12. The early T-35 tweeter have a flatter response than the later units Klipsch was using. You might want to use the Klipsch 18 db per octave crossover components to protect the T-35. I would probably use the original crossover for the midrange. You will have to do home work for the answer as wether to update the crossover slope for the woofer. Changing cones and suspensions for the SP-12 will meaning retuning the low frequency port. Good luck.

 

[MFP4073]

I looked on the Crites site and on that horn page it does not say what type of horn it is.....do you know?

Bet they will sound great when you complete them.

I received a message from Bob on the horn. He says he believes it would be called and exponential type horn. I will find out how it sounds on the driver I'm using by Monday. Fingers crossed.

 

[MFP4073]

Reconed SP 12's have a much better low frequency response and a lower resonant frequency. I have forgotten what the newer resonant frequency is but as I remember its about a half to 3/4 octave lower the the early SP-12. The early T-35 tweeter have a flatter response than the later units Klipsch was using. You might want to use the Klipsch 18 db per octave crossover components to protect the T-35. I would probably use the original crossover for the midrange. You will have to do home work for the answer as wether to update the crossover slope for the woofer. Changing cones and suspensions for the SP-12 will meaning retuning the low frequency port. Good luck.

Thanks twiiii!

I am leaving the SP12s as is for now as they are in very nice condition and do not want to mess with what is not broken.

I am not using a T-35 tweeter on these. I removed a Wolverine TW-35 (cheaper version of the T-35). I opted to go with a new Crites / B&C DE120 tweeter. This will cross over at the same 3,500hz while using the X36 crossover that the TW-35 did with the C35 network that needed to be replaced.

The mid range driver I am using is an EV 1824M which, according to its data sheet, is designed to be used with the X8 (800hz) and X36 (3,500hz) networks I currently have installed. The Wolverine MR10 mid that I removed utilized a old CR10 network that crosses over at 1000hz.

All the drivers and crossovers are 8ohm. The sensitivity of the drivers is fairly well matched and L pads will help fine tune the mids and highs. From what I can see, at least on paper, the components should all work well together. Although the Lancaster enclosure is small for the SP12, it was designed for the Wolverine LS12. I am hoping it will still provide a nice sound with the bass port installed. I will know soon enough!

 

[MFP4073]

Quick update. I finished up both speakers. I am very happy with the sound. Very detailed from low to high and not "shrill." I think the combo of components works well. I'm running the tweeter at -5 db and the mid horn at -7db at the moment and the mix seems to work well for most types of music I listen to. I need a solid day of listening to really get them dialed in but so far I am very happy with the upgrades. I lucked out on the fit of 1824M drivers. They barely fit at the top of the cabinet. I did have to open up the throat of the G700 horn from 3/4" to 7/8" to match the ID of the 1824M drivers. Anyway... here are a few photos of the components installed.

 

[doctorolds]

Congratulations on completing your EV project! I'm also glad to hear that you are very happy with their sound quality so far, especially since you have invested your time and money in hope of having much better sounding speakers. Mission accomplished, and thanks for sharing!

 

[soundoc03]

Resurrecting this old post after completing a very similar project. I found a beat up “economy” Lancaster which was 7000cu” and had a large rear directed port. The only drivers were a pair of SP12Bs and some generic alnico magnet cone tweeters with no crossovers.

I subsequently had a friend rebuild the cabinets with 3/4 mahogany plywood which I refinished with BLO and Polyurethane. I replaced the woofers with SP12s and purchased the Crites DE 125 tweeters and G700 horns. I lucked out and found custom made 36x/8X crossovers which had oil main caps with PIO bypasses. The inductors were all air core. After getting it checked out by my tech i replaced the PIO caps with Jansen Z-Silvers.

Since all of the components to this point were 16 ohm, EV TA25as were the only option for mid drivers. They didn’t come cheap but I found a nearly mint pair of early chrome ones on eBay. Fortunately they screwed right into the Crites horns without modification. The crossovers also came with 15 ohm 3 gang Clarostat CiT-15 Tpads that I have not yet figured out how to wire in.

I am quite pleased with the result despite having no way to tame back the mids and highs at this time. As I expected the bass is somewhat limited by the small cabinet but lining the inner walls with thick batting and the port help significantly. Hooking up a sub brought them to a whole other level however. Overall I’m happy with the project but will be on the lookout for a pair of Aristocrat or Marquis cabinets.

 

[soundoc03]

 

[grindstone]

Thanks for all the glam shots and congrats on your project. Better work than I have skills & patience to do.

If you seek Aristocrat or Marquis cabinets, know that they are not built of stock as thick as yours and IMO would benefit from having been built thicker (but...economics). Point-being, if you want those, you would end-up with better results just building (or having your friend build) them. Plans are out there for the searching, but you basically already have a slightly-hopped-up version of the earliest Marquis.

Is it bass improvment that you seek? If so, it will change things quite a bit to make the rear chamber air-tight. Plug the gaps between the cleats and get all that flush with the back panel. Then put some weather-stripping or otherwise "gasket" that rear panel. FWIW. If I'm seeing what I think I see, you have more bass left to be had and almost for free.

Thanks for posting them, they look pretty great and congrats again--they look ready for 65 more years

 

[kevintomb]

Just curious...what did you do with all the original actual EV horns...

The MR10 and T35 tweeter...?

 

[soundoc03]

I agree. I need to router out a 4 inch recess in the back panel to accommodate the mid driver’s magnet after which I will seal it up tight as you suggested.

The original cabinets had only SP12Bs and cheap 3” cone tweeters so someone had altered them previously. I really lucked out finding those homemade crossovers and TPads and replacing the PIO bypass caps with Jantzen Z Silvers really made a difference.

 

[dexter018]

Quick update. I finished up both speakers. I am very happy with the sound. Very detailed from low to high and not "shrill." I think the combo of components works well. I'm running the tweeter at -5 db and the mid horn at -7db at the moment and the mix seems to work well for most types of music I listen to. I need a solid day of listening to really get them dialed in but so far I am very happy with the upgrades. I lucked out on the fit of 1824M drivers. They barely fit at the top of the cabinet. I did have to open up the throat of the G700 horn from 3/4" to 7/8" to match the ID of the 1824M drivers. Anyway... here are a few photos of the components installed.

Hi there. I just wanted to see if I could check in on this old thread and project. I really like what you did!

I would like to do a similar upgrade around some Michigan MC12s. Are you still a fan of their sound? Any notes?

A couple more specific questions, do I need to request a custom X8 / X36 crossover network from Crites? Or how would I find such a network as I cannot find it by that name on their website? Also, what were the L pads you used?

Thanks.

 

[Dswankey]

.. I really like what you did!...Are you still a fan of their sound? Any notes?

A couple more specific questions, do I need to request a custom X8 / X36 crossover network from Crites? Or how would I find such a network as I cannot find it by that name on their website? Also, what were the L pads you used?

@dexter018

The member you quoted and asked questions to hasn't posted or been seen in 7yr's, so I doubt you'll be getting a reply

 

[dexter018]

Probably true but the for sure way to not get a reply is to not ask! Plus, this little back and forth might budge something loose from @MFP4073...one can hope.

Or maybe you @Dswankey have a lead on my question about Crites crossovers?