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HPM 100 Cabinet Rebuild

Ray122

Ray122

Member
Love em' or hate em', in great condition they sell for a profit. I've wanted a set for a while and scored them at a pretty good price, but the cabinets are shot. Normally I'd just take a set of rough cabinets and clean them up, but there are small chunks missing from these cabinets, so I'm thinking about rebuilding them altogether and just keep the face and rear panels. The real question I have is can I use 3/4" walnut ply and get the same acoustic results as the 3/4" partical board originally used? And if not, what kind of particle board should I be looking at? Its obviously not the same cheap sheathing stuff you get at home depot.
I'd love some insight on this one!
Cheers!
 
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There are different grades of particle board. Low - Medium and High Density. High Density is often used in as the substrate for Fomica counter tops. It can be routed and drill with out falling apart like low density particle board does.

I have had a pair of HPM100's for the last 10 years, they are my go to speakers for classic 70's rock. Well worth rebuilding -Chris
 
Have you considered using a "wood bondo" product to rebuild the corners and missing chunks of your cabinets?

There are various ways to remove the original veneer, but you can test the bottom of the cabinet to determine the "relative health" of that veneer to determine if you can prep the old and apply new veneer over that.
 
ghazzer said:
Have you considered using a "wood bondo" product to rebuild the corners and missing chunks of your cabinets?

There are various ways to remove the original veneer, but you can test the bottom of the cabinet to determine the "relative health" of that veneer to determine if you can prep the old and apply new veneer over that.
Click to expand...
I considered using a fill, but some of the corners are completely chipped away, and I'm just a little too inexperienced with filling corners and veneering to give it a shot. I may have to research that a little more and reconsider
 
ChrisMarantz said:
There are different grades of particle board. Low - Medium and High Density. High Density is often used in as the substrate for Fomica counter tops. It can be routed and drill with out falling apart like low density particle board does.

I have had a pair of HPM100's for the last 10 years, they are my go to speakers for classic 70's rock. Well worth rebuilding -Chris
Click to expand...
What are your thoughts on MDF? Or do you think that would change the sound too much?
 
Ray122 said:
What are your thoughts on MDF? Or do you think that would change the sound too much?
Click to expand...

It's probably impossible to say - there are as many opinions about cabinet materials as there are stars in the sky.

All things being equal - if you stay true to the original design as much as possible - unless you have golden ears (and another pair to do a side-by-side comparison - you'll probably never notice any difference.

Also, don't assume that whatever difference there might be would be a bad difference - you might make them better. . .

As a last resort - you can do what I - Turn it up Louder - Chris
 
wood bondo then veneer of your choice, they will look fantastic and lot less labor intensive
 
Based on my mucking around occasionally with speaker cabs I would always prefer MDF over particle board. A good thick MDF will be a lot denser and presumably more inert that particle board and a hell of a lot easier to work with too.
 
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