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hard time finding proper fitting replacement tweeter

bluepine27

bluepine27

Active Member
Hello, all

I have a pair of Lafayette 1003 speakers that I changed out the caps in and wanted to swap out the tweeters as well. It’s not for me but for my friends as a thank you for recording with me. I refoamed these as well so feel pretty invested but feeling a lil hopeless on this tweeter search.

the back of the cabinet said these are 2 1/2 inch tweeters so I didn’t measure it and scooped up the T-25 2 1/2 tweeters from Parts Express and these ones are a good bit bigger.

Lafayette’s 2 1/2 inches is measured from the inside edge of the screw hole to the inside edge of the screw hole across from it.

The Parts Express 2 1/2 inches is measured where the cone flattens out on one side to where it flattens on the other side

basically the width of the whole tweeter can’t be more than 3 inches. The parts express tweeter is 4 inches.

Bottom width of the Lafayette speaker is about 1 3/4 inches

I think I would rather save these tweeters for something in future and find proper fitting ones for these Lafayette speakers. The default tweeters I kind of messed up while fixing. I think I very faintly blew one of them. Sounds just a lil duller than the other and the other I ripped the cone just a tiny bit while putting the wire clip on it. This one sounds a tiny bit hissy but more full and detailed I think. Just would like to get them to be the same.

Any leads that aren’t crazy expensive would be appreciated. I tried some sites and can’t find anything that would probably fit
 

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Tweeters in those days were often shared across multiple speakers, I wound think you'd have luck finding a correct used tweeter. Bartertown or the bay.

Someone should be along who can id it better for you.
 
Lavane said:
I like silk domes. Nice and smooth. That paper cone tweeter might work also that was posted. Do you know the crossover frequency for the original tweeter?
Click to expand...

the t-125 that @dr*audio commented isn’t a circle face plate so I’m not sure how it would fit in there.

how would I figure out the crossover frequency of the tweeter ? Feels like something I would only know if on a spec sheet
 
dr*audio said:
Something like this should work. They don't have the drawing so you can e-mail them or call and ask for the hole to hole mounting distance.
https://www.simplyspeakers.com/replacement-speaker-tweeter-t-125.html
Click to expand...



I just messaged them with some measurements and measurement questions for them. Thanks for the recommendation. The one I posted definitely will not fit. I was reading the measurement definitions wrong and think the cutout for the one I posted would be too big for the hole in my cabinet
 
bluepine27 said:
the t-125 that @dr*audio commented isn’t a circle face plate so I’m not sure how it would fit in there.

how would I figure out the crossover frequency of the tweeter ? Feels like something I would only know if on a spec sheet
Click to expand...
The link he provided shows the frequency response, which lists the
lowest it's recommended to run the speaker.

I'm guessing the tabs for the new tweeter would fit outside the ring
of the original (on the actual baffle board). Hard to tell from the pics
I see.
 
Whats the impedance of the original tweeter? If you have a multi meter you can check the ohms reading across the terminals. That round dome tweeter may fit well as long as the original tweeter was 8 0hm and not 4 ohm. Sometimes the impedance is written on the magnet.
 
Lavane said:
Whats the impedance of the original tweeter? If you have a multi meter you can check the ohms reading across the terminals. That round dome tweeter may fit well as long as the original tweeter was 8 0hm and not 4 ohm. Sometimes the impedance is written on the magnet.
Click to expand...


The original tweeters are 8 ohms but the cutout hole for this dome tweeter is 2.8 inches and the hole in my cabinet is about 2 1/8 inches wide. I just measured it though and got around 7, sometimes a little bit more than 7 even.
 
I second replacing the tweeter with an original... No Xover or fit problems that way... I replaced a blown tweeter on a Lafayette 3 way system a while ago,,, found it on the auction site for 10bux shipped...
 
knockbill said:
I second replacing the tweeter with an original... No Xover or fit problems that way... I replaced a blown tweeter on a Lafayette 3 way system a while ago,,, found it on the auction site for 10bux shipped...
Click to expand...

I think I'm going to have a hard time finding the specific, original tweeter in this speaker. And I feel like it's hard to know if the ones you're buying used aren't semi messed up to begin with.

I did find these Lafayette super tweeters that are the exact measurements but the crossover issue is still the problem I guess? I don't know much about what to watch out for with crossovers, like dropping non original tweeters or woofers into a cabinet.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Al...569111?hash=item548bf87657:g:3IkAAOSwejpfdNPb

I did get the measurements for the T-125 from Simply Speakers and I think they should fit but be a little tight and maybe look a little awkward in there since it's not circle shaped. Even though the measurement he's giving me from middle screw hole to the middle of the screw hole next to it seems to be wider than what I'm getting on mine.
 
bluepine27 said:
I think I'm going to have a hard time finding the specific, original tweeter in this speaker. And I feel like it's hard to know if the ones you're buying used aren't semi messed up to begin with.

I did find these Lafayette super tweeters that are the exact measurements but the crossover issue is still the problem I guess? I don't know much about what to watch out for with crossovers, like dropping non original tweeters or woofers into a cabinet.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Al...569111?hash=item548bf87657:g:3IkAAOSwejpfdNPb

I did get the measurements for the T-125 from Simply Speakers and I think they should fit but be a little tight and maybe look a little awkward in there since it's not circle shaped. Even though the measurement he's giving me from middle screw hole to the middle of the screw hole next to it seems to be wider than what I'm getting on mine.
Click to expand...
If the tweeter mounts flush to the speaker baffle, then the shape of the speaker doesn't matter, as long as the hole to hole spacing is the same or a little bigger. You can rotate the new tweeter so you don't drill the new holes into the old holes.
 
anybody see a potential problem with throwing in these Lafayette Criterion CR-VI tweeters in there? I like that these are also from Lafayette and from a similar time period and look cool but didn't know what sound issues may be faced with the crossover? Is there a way I could put these in and adjust the sound other ways, capacitor or something else to get a good sound. I like the way these look and the price is the same as getting the T-125 from Simply Speakers. Also I think the Lafayette tweeters should fit pretty snug into the holes I have. Might have to do a little sanding at worst, whereas the T-125 speakers I think I would have to rotate and drill new holes for them, which isn't terrible. Like how much frequency could I be missing out on from not putting correct tweeters. Still trying to grasp the concept of crossovers so any good threads for understanding them would also be appreciated.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/284208821531?ViewItem=&item=284208821531
 
feeling pretty defeated fellas,

I got the Lafayette CR-100b tweeters and put one in and compared to the other Lafayette speaker with original tweeter.

The CR-100b highs are way too chirpy and crispy and start to distort kind of at a high pitch. It’s allowing higher frequencies than what the other tweeter is allowing to pass through. The CR-100 is also missing some lower/upper mids I think that seem to be present in the other speaker.

Is there any way I can shift the range of the tweeter down some to include more mids and less upper highs? I tried wiring up another 4.7 cap in series and in parallel to see if I could hear a difference or if it would help and that didn’t help.

I feel like the CR-100b was incorporated in a more complex crossover system with multiple speakers so it’s not been utilized properly in this speaker or can’t do what I want it to do.

might just cave and buy the T125’s and drill it in and call it a day. Spent a lot of time on these Lafayette 1003’s that aren’t even mine and would like to finish this up
 
knockbill said:
I second replacing the tweeter with an original... No Xover or fit problems that way... I replaced a blown tweeter on a Lafayette 3 way system a while ago,,, found it on the auction site for 10bux shipped...
Click to expand...

oh damnnn, look what i found without even trying to look for it lollll. https://www.ebay.com/itm/143992412784?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&fromMakeTrack=true

i've been trying to ID some mysterious speakers https://audiokarma.org/forums/index...-2-ways-need-help-iding.958229/#post-14749653
thought maybe they were also Lafayette by small chance and stumbled across the exact replacement tweeter I would need. I think i'm going to scoop this up even though the T-125 tweeters that @dr*audio recommended should be arriving any day now. I can feel out those replacements and compare to the old ones later and make a final decision then. I'm excited to be done with these and give them back to my friends to test out with their system.
 
listening to the T-125's now in there. I first did a quick A'B with the good original tweeter in the one, and new T-125 in the other. The original crossover has more vocals coming in through the woofer and kind of gives this warmer, more together, rounded sound. The T-125 speaker seems to take a lil more vocals in the tweeter. It sounds good but I think could come across as fatiguing after awhile maybe at higher volumes. I'm going to listen to them with a Realistic STA-78 the next day or two and pump them up a little more and see how it goes.

So far, I think it's an improvement from the semi burned out original tweeter with the good one, having the speakers sound the same now with the new tweets. Just feels like the tweeter is taking on a little more of the sound than maybe it should be? Is this a personal preference thing or something I should try to even out more? It does feel like depending on the vocal range, the tweeter and woofer are sharing the vocal pretty well. Wasn't sure on the appropriate range of both speakers in a two way sharing frequencies? Again, not sure if this is subjective or if there's something you should be shooting for in a crossover?

I have a range of capacitors I could test out and see if there's something that speaks a little more to me.

I will say in general it does sound pretty decent and good. Just feels like the woofer could be doing more, especially since the bass isn't great in these already to begin with and feels like it's doing less with these new tweeters. I recorded some excerpts from The Wipers' "Is This Real?" album off the radio and was sounding pretty swell. But then I caught Hank Williams doing "Lovesick Blues" and "Hey Good Lookin'" on the radio tonight and the tweeters were kind of not handling the old recordings of Hank's nose that well. Not unlistenable but definitely felt sharper and harsh than it should be. But everything else sounds decent. I think I would ideally just give a little more to the woofer as right now it feels like the tweeters are doing most of the sound and are more forward rather than the speaker behaving more cohesively. But definitely listenable as is so I"m happy so far.
 
When I do this type of work I plug my audio oscillator into the bench amp and slowly sweep the frequency from 200 Hz to 20KHz, listening for peaks. If you get peaks from 4KHz up, it's the tweeter. Below that, it's the woofer.
You can experiment with putting 10W resistors in series with the tweeter, starting at 1 Ohm and working up, see what difference it makes. When you think you have it tamed, then listen to pink noise or FM interstation hiss. Listen for any frequency that stands out. You can also try different caps for the tweeter. Go to a lower value cap to increase the crossover frequency. Also experiment with swapping the wires on the tweeter to invert the phase. You may be getting cancellations or reinforcements at certain frequencies. If you don't have an oscillator, download a program for your computer or phone, or just use hiss. Then when you think it is flat, listen to music. Go with music that is acoustic in nature, like classical music. Studio recordings with electronic instruments are manipulated and you don't know what it should sound like.
 
dr*audio said:
When I do this type of work I plug my audio oscillator into the bench amp and slowly sweep the frequency from 200 Hz to 20KHz, listening for peaks. If you get peaks from 4KHz up, it's the tweeter. Below that, it's the woofer.
You can experiment with putting 10W resistors in series with the tweeter, starting at 1 Ohm and working up, see what difference it makes. When you think you have it tamed, then listen to pink noise or FM interstation hiss. Listen for any frequency that stands out. You can also try different caps for the tweeter. Go to a lower value cap to increase the crossover frequency. Also experiment with swapping the wires on the tweeter to invert the phase. You may be getting cancellations or reinforcements at certain frequencies. If you don't have an oscillator, download a program for your computer or phone, or just use hiss. Then when you think it is flat, listen to music. Go with music that is acoustic in nature, like classical music. Studio recordings with electronic instruments are manipulated and you don't know what it should sound like.
Click to expand...

thank you for this detailed response, it’s much appreciated and good things to keep in mind going forward. I think what I’ll do for now is change out the 4.7 caps for 2.2 and maybe throw in a 1.5 in parallel and see what that’ll do and try swapping the wiring on the tweeter These speakers aren’t for me or else I would be more inclined to get some resistors but now I feel like I should just have some on hand.
 
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