Inherited SS-TL5s - Need Help!

[JHN272]

Thanks everyone! I appreciate all the advice.

- No luck on eBay at the moment but I will save some searches and dig around each day. This will probably be a long-term activity for me.

- Ds2000/swechsler, I checked out Millersound for the midrange driver and it looks like Sony isn’t one of their serviceable brands. Any insight on if they’d repair it despite that? I can check and the worst they could say is no.

- And swechsler, thanks for the link to the manish’s thread (looking for a replacement tweeter). I sent him a message asking if he ended up getting the Polk SL6001 as a replacement. It’s an 8-year-old thread but maybe he’ll see the email notification and get back to me (worth a shot). Those may be a challenge to source as well but good to know other AK'ers have replaced these.

- I’m not opposed to trying to repair the tweeters, like you said A400…nothing to lose. I think this will also be an option for me. In the meantime, I may grab some replacements. These are quick to swap, so if I end up with a replacement that has a sound I enjoy more, I may stick with that.

As far as looking at replacements goes, there’s a ton of options but it’s difficult to find an exact fit. For the midrange driver, it looks like full diameter with frame is 5”, with the back section at 4”, and 2.5” depth…which makes sense, given the cutout is 4” and the recess is 5”. I think the tweeter is 90mm, the cutout is roughly 2 7/8” and the recess is a little over 3 1/2”.

I had emailed Madisound over the weekend and after some back and forth, they recommended this for the midrange and this for the tweeters. Cheaper tweeter option that might fit, I found this.

 

[Ds2000]

Thanks everyone! I appreciate all the advice.

- No luck on eBay at the moment but I will save some searches and dig around each day. This will probably be a long-term activity for me.

- Ds2000/swechsler, I checked out Millersound for the midrange driver and it looks like Sony isn’t one of their serviceable brands. Any insight on if they’d repair it despite that? I can check and the worst they could say is no.

- And swechsler, thanks for the link to the manish’s thread (looking for a replacement tweeter). I sent him a message asking if he ended up getting the Polk SL6001 as a replacement. It’s an 8-year-old thread but maybe he’ll see the email notification and get back to me (worth a shot). Those may be a challenge to source as well but good to know other AK'ers have replaced these.

- I’m not opposed to trying to repair the tweeters, like you said A400…nothing to lose. I think this will also be an option for me. In the meantime, I may grab some replacements. These are quick to swap, so if I end up with a replacement that has a sound I enjoy more, I may stick with that.

As far as looking at replacements goes, there’s a ton of options but it’s difficult to find an exact fit. For the midrange driver, it looks like full diameter with frame is 5”, with the back section at 4”, and 2.5” depth…which makes sense, given the cutout is 4” and the recess is 5”. I think the tweeter is 90mm, the cutout is roughly 2 7/8” and the recess is a little over 3 1/2”.

I had emailed Madisound over the weekend and after some back and forth, they recommended this for the midrange and this for the tweeters. Cheaper tweeter option that might fit, I found this.

I’d go ahead and ask Bill at Millersound about the fix on them anyway.

 

[JHN272]

I wanted to post a quick update, for anyone else in a similar situation with these speakers and to show what I ended up doing. After checking out this thread and chatting with Sean (OP), I replaced the tweeters with two Morel MDT30S textile dome tweeters. Sean was in the unique position of having multiple sets of SS-TL5 speakers and vouched for the accuracy of these slightly crispier but very close tweeters. They were a perfect fit, just required drilling a few new holes. Thanks @sean518 ! Then the midranges were replaced with Scanspeak Discovery 12W/8524G drivers. I hadn't heard back from Bill so I went ahead and pulled the trigger on these. This was the closest fitting, decent quality driver I had came across. They were ever so slightly smaller than the old drivers, so I did drill new mounting holes for these as well. Overall, it was a pretty good fit. Thumbs up to madisound for the fast shipping and quality customer service in helping me find them.

I hooked them up in my secondary HT room in my basement (powered by a Yamaha RX-V1800) and wow, they sound absolutely fantastic. Overall I'm pretty impressed and very happy with the direction I went here. Thanks again everyone for your help!

 

[Sprague w]

I recently came into a pair of these Sony ss tl5’s. Did you possibly take pictures of the 8”woofers or maybe they’re sub-woofers? Mine have been replaced. Trying to determine what the originals were.