In Sydney today I picked up a pair of Monitor II's, which had been advertised for a couple of weeks on eBay. I have been reading all the extensive threads regarding these speakers and especially the Walsh tweeters, so I know a bit about what I've got myself into, both good and bad!
The seller was the second owner (5 years) but had the original manual, receipt and paperwork from the original owner, who appears to have bought them in Hong Kong in 1975.
Externally, the speakers are beautiful:
I had a bit of a listen and immediately concluded that one Peerless tweeter was not working at all and the Walsh from the same speaker was also not working. The Walsh on the other one had sound emitting but it sounded a bit raspy. I don't think the old guy even realised that these drivers weren't working properly.
I completely forgot the existence of the tweeter volume controls on the back; maybe they would have helped me determine the drivers' condition?
I asked the seller (in sign language), whether he'd mind me removing the suspect supertweeter to put a meter across it. He seemed impressed that I had a socket set and DMM in my car; little did he know that I'd only bought them last week in anticipation, and that my technical acumen was far from commensurate to his expectations!
Anyhow, I removed the screws from the plate holding the Walsh to the cabinet, being awfully careful not to damage the cone - bloody hell they are so delicate! Crazy design!
But once I'd removed the screws it was immediately clear that the plate was adhered firmly to the baffle and it was not going to be possible to remove unless I pried it off with some kind of lever. He handed me a screwdriver but I knew that if I started digging around with that I would definitely damage the baffle, if not the bloody cone.
So on the basis of both woofers being good, both mids good, one tweeter good, one tweeter bad, one Walsh tweeter bad and the other Walsh possibly bad, I bargained him down to the equivalent of about USD$450 and took them home. Good deal? I've no idea!
When I got them home I tried to remove a tweeter and a mid and ran into the same problem; screws all came out but they seemed veritably cemented to the baffle! (Btw the screws are all straight into what looks to be pretty average quality chipboard. I'm wondering if these screws might benefit from the Hurricane nut mod that the Polk boffins recommend for the Monitors and SDAs etc so ensure tight a grip on thread.)
I managed to pull a woofer out and it measured well on the DMM (I think it was 7 ohms). I've not handled woofers with big square boxes over the magnets, but these are heavy and strongly constructed.
Behind almost unreasonably generous clouds of dacron, I could just make out a crossover.
My initial questions are:
I am committed to bringing these back to as perfect condition as possible with the view to long term ownership, so I see it as quite a project.
Thanks so much for your help!
PS photos are poor quality. I can take better ones tomorrow.
The seller was the second owner (5 years) but had the original manual, receipt and paperwork from the original owner, who appears to have bought them in Hong Kong in 1975.
Externally, the speakers are beautiful:
- Cabinets are quite untouched, grills are intact
- Drivers are all original and look good
- The woofers are heavily doped, lovely gloss black and are in excellent condition, having been refoamed (very expertly) sometime relatively recently
- The faceplates on the tweeters were a bit corroded but looked ok
- The Walsh tweeter cones look pristine, perfectly round at the top with no dents etc. The foam, of course, had deteriorated
I had a bit of a listen and immediately concluded that one Peerless tweeter was not working at all and the Walsh from the same speaker was also not working. The Walsh on the other one had sound emitting but it sounded a bit raspy. I don't think the old guy even realised that these drivers weren't working properly.
I completely forgot the existence of the tweeter volume controls on the back; maybe they would have helped me determine the drivers' condition?
I asked the seller (in sign language), whether he'd mind me removing the suspect supertweeter to put a meter across it. He seemed impressed that I had a socket set and DMM in my car; little did he know that I'd only bought them last week in anticipation, and that my technical acumen was far from commensurate to his expectations!
Anyhow, I removed the screws from the plate holding the Walsh to the cabinet, being awfully careful not to damage the cone - bloody hell they are so delicate! Crazy design!
But once I'd removed the screws it was immediately clear that the plate was adhered firmly to the baffle and it was not going to be possible to remove unless I pried it off with some kind of lever. He handed me a screwdriver but I knew that if I started digging around with that I would definitely damage the baffle, if not the bloody cone.
So on the basis of both woofers being good, both mids good, one tweeter good, one tweeter bad, one Walsh tweeter bad and the other Walsh possibly bad, I bargained him down to the equivalent of about USD$450 and took them home. Good deal? I've no idea!
When I got them home I tried to remove a tweeter and a mid and ran into the same problem; screws all came out but they seemed veritably cemented to the baffle! (Btw the screws are all straight into what looks to be pretty average quality chipboard. I'm wondering if these screws might benefit from the Hurricane nut mod that the Polk boffins recommend for the Monitors and SDAs etc so ensure tight a grip on thread.)
I managed to pull a woofer out and it measured well on the DMM (I think it was 7 ohms). I've not handled woofers with big square boxes over the magnets, but these are heavy and strongly constructed.
Behind almost unreasonably generous clouds of dacron, I could just make out a crossover.
My initial questions are:
- How can I remove the drivers that seem permanently glued in place? Is this adhesive original, or applied by an overenthusiastic tech at some point?
- If the only way to do this is to wrench them out with a lever of some kind, is it easy enough to re-apply black vinyl to the baffle once I've damaged it?
- Is there any other way i can diagnose the tweeter/supertweeters before excising them by force?
- Since the tweeters are originally Peerless OEM's, is there an acceptable replacement I could drop in?
- I see one original tweeter available on ebay right now. Should I grab it straight away, just in case it's the last one in the known universe?
I am committed to bringing these back to as perfect condition as possible with the view to long term ownership, so I see it as quite a project.
Thanks so much for your help!
PS photos are poor quality. I can take better ones tomorrow.
