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From crap to favorites. Crummy speakers you did something to that changed them for the better.

Ds2000

Ds2000

The fi must be higher.
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These Onkyo F1's were the worst I’d ever heard, considering the original design and cost. Turds. Something good had to be in there.
Did a woofer coil repair, added a tweeter guide pair and re-lined the entire cabinet with top grade cotton batting and a little poly fill for voids. Also damped the mid chamber far beyond the factory. They'd not paid a speck of attention there. New Ti tweeter diaphragms replaced the poo water alumi-mag coated trash cans they used too.
Now they are favorites.

Post yours switcharoos. IMG_7302.jpegIMG_7308.jpegIMG_7307.jpegIMG_7455.jpegB7F6967E-8E40-4AB3-B2CB-58F84F3F1ADE.jpegIMG_8118.jpegIMG_8117.jpegIMG_8122.jpeg
 
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What I did to a pair of University Senior II speakers from the early 1960s, seems to qualify for this thread. A simple crossover change- remedying a cripplingly simplistic original crossover, to separate the tweeter and midrange onto separate caps- made a HUGE difference. Transformed from basically annoying for long-term listening, to very pleasant and engaging, for however long one wanted to listen. You can read about the details here:

GordonW

Thread 'University Senior II speakers- unexpectedly good (with a catch, though)...'

Wow! Just got through re-working a pair of University Senior II speakers... circa about 1963 or so, if IIRC what the owner told me (he bought them new!). 12" 3-way, with accordion-surround 12" woofer, 4" paper-edge cone midrange, and 3/4" phenolic dome semi-horn-loaded tweeter. Cabinets are classic "large bookshelf" size... almost dimension-for-dimension match for the JBL L100, to give a point of reference...

Hooked them up at first... was somewhat non-plussed. Highs were dull, but hissy. Like a peak between 5KHz-10KHz, and a rolloff above that.

Well, first thought- tired cap. Went...
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Regards,
Gordon.
 
Several years ago I built a set of ported book shelf cabinets for A/D/S 320i high end auto speakers from the 80s and they sound WAY better in the house than they ever did in the car. Recently moved out that SX750 and hooked them up to the 4 ohm taps of a pair of Eico HF12s and they sound wonderful for what they are!
 
airscapes said:
Several years ago I built a set of ported book shelf cabinets for A/D/S 320i high end auto speakers from the 80s and they sound WAY better in the house than they ever did in the car. Recently moved out that SX750 and hooked them up to the 4 ohm taps of a pair of Eico HF12s and they sound wonderful for what they are!
Click to expand...

Taking a good set of speaker drivers and companion crossovers, and putting them into a much more controlled and predictable enclosure, not to mention potentially much better placement with regard to the room and listener- yeah, that can give much better results.

I'm dealing with the opposite situation- using EPI 8" woofers (such as were used in the M100, M150, M200, et al) in a car. It's taken some REAL re-working of the car interior panel structure to make them behave themselves in the car. And I am still not done, I don't think.

Regards,
Gordon.
 
My kids' school had a pair of Infinty SM 120s in the music room that needed refoaming. Refoamed them, added cabinet stuffing, and braced them heartily. Were they great? Nope, but a damn sight better than they were before.
 
GordonW said:
Taking a good set of speaker drivers and companion crossovers, and putting them into a much more controlled and predictable enclosure, not to mention potentially much better placement with regard to the room and listener- yeah, that can give much better results.

I'm dealing with the opposite situation- using EPI 8" woofers (such as were used in the M100, M150, M200, et al) in a car. It's taken some REAL re-working of the car interior panel structure to make them behave themselves in the car. And I am still not done, I don't think.

Regards,
Gordon.
Click to expand...

I'll bite...

Why on earth are you fitting epi drivers in a car?
 
The picture below is too dark to really make them out. But sitting in the middle, on top of my "reptile skin" speakers are a pair of Technics speakers. They were just a pair of bare cabinets, so I added some Audax drivers : an 8" woofer, cone midrange and dome tweeter.

seas-driver-towers-6-jpg.1801338
 
This doesn't seem to fit the idea of your thread, but is like the post above about repurposing cabinets.

An acquaintance due to a downsizing move gave me a pair of Yamaha speakers he bought new, all of the foam surrounds needed replaced.
They looked like this:

yamaha-ns-a1035-speakers.jpg

I never really cared for them when I heard them at the Yamaha dealer way back when, so instead of repairing I took out all of the drivers and cut out the baffle.
A new baffle was added to fit some TB W8-1808. They sound much better to me now. :)

TB_Yamaha.jpg
 
The clearest difference I've experienced was applying heavy DSP correction to a Fane 12-250TC, which sounds pretty decent with it, but crap without it.
I used mine in a 25L (iirc) closed box, rolled off pretty agressively below 110hz.

These measurements are not mine, but they illustrate the difference quite well:
Fane 12~150TC.jpg

I was intrigued to try this speaker because of it's wide bandwith for a 12".
Their dispersion is quite narrow though. I might pull them out some day and experiment with an omnidirectional setup. Or perhaps use them as (stage or booth) monitors.
 
loudnoises said:
I'll bite...

Why on earth are you fitting epi drivers in a car?
Click to expand...

Relatively high Qts, relatively low Fs, relatively large X-max, good linear, flat bandwidth up to where I need it (400Hz), effectively 4 ohm impedance, inexpensive, and I have LOADS of them around.

I've managed, with four of them (one in each front door, and one in each side of the rear deck), on only about 45w/ch in the bass amplifier, to get usable bass down into the low 20s. And other than some phasing issues with the rear drivers (I don't have steep enough crossover slopes on them, I don't think, yet), they sound quite focused, clean and dynamic.

Regards,
Gordon.
 
opnly bafld said:
This doesn't seem to fit the idea of your thread, but is like the post above about repurposing cabinets.

An acquaintance due to a downsizing move gave me a pair of Yamaha speakers he bought new, all of the foam surrounds needed replaced.
They looked like this:

View attachment 3832871

I never really cared for them when I heard them at the Yamaha dealer way back when, so instead of repairing I took out all of the drivers and cut out the baffle.
A new baffle was added to fit some TB W8-1808. They sound much better to me now. :)

View attachment 3832872
Click to expand...
This is like adjacent but in the universe. A good full range can be great.
 
Awesome! Did you do any cap or crossover parts upgrades?

I've added new woofer surrounds, wool batting, and better caps to a cheap pair of Paradigm Triton V3s....they went from trash to a reasonably good speaker. Also did cap upgrades , and more batting on a pair of Energy CB5...they went from ok to better. :thumbsup:
 
knotscott said:
Awesome! Did you do any cap or crossover parts upgrades?

I've added new woofer surrounds, wool batting, and better caps to a cheap pair of Paradigm Triton V3s....they went from trash to a reasonably good speaker. Also did cap upgrades , and more batting on a pair of Energy CB5...they went from ok to better. :thumbsup:
Click to expand...
The crossovers in these are excellent, high cost things full of WIMA and other niceties. The issue was elsewhere.
 
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