More work on the Allied Knight 2330K speakers

Wigwam Jones

Wigwam Jones

Caesar non supra grammati
These came to live with me recently. They were painted black, grill cloth was badly stained. Allied Knight kit speakers, originally a DIY job like Heathkit. Drivers are all Utah - 12 inch woofer, 8 inch mid, 3.5 inch tweeter, all paper cones. Simple crossover - 2 caps and an L-Pad. Ported design.

I have pulled out the drivers, removed the baffle boards, and stripped the cabs. Nice walnut underneath. Even found the original coffee cup stain on one that probably made the original owner decide to paint them black.

The nice thing is, with the baffle boards removed, I can pick the one side that refinishes the best to be the new 'top' and leave the dinged up one for the 'bottom' of the speaker. I am also considering taking the port tube off of one baffle board and reversing it so that the final speakers when remounted will be mirror-imaged. Probably not worth the effort, but it appears I could do it easily enough.

I'll refinish the cabs, put new cloth on the baffle boards, and recap the crossovers. I have a set of late-model Pioneer horn tweeters that are said to be the cat's meow to drop in as replacements for the cone tweets - everything else stays as-is.

Hopefully by the time this is done, I'll have the 50C5 tube amp done and can use these efficient speakers with it.

More pics as work progresses...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wigwam/sets/72157630532246486/with/7575921046/

Before:


100_3963 by Wigwam Jones, on Flickr

Now:


100_4025 by Wigwam Jones, on Flickr


100_4027 by Wigwam Jones, on Flickr

100_4028 by Wigwam Jones, on Flickr


100_4030 by Wigwam Jones, on Flickr
 
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Looking good!!
Keep us posted on how they turn out. It's amazing what nice veneer can be hidden under layers of poorly applied paint!!
 
Andyman said:
Looking good!!
Keep us posted on how they turn out. It's amazing what nice veneer can be hidden under layers of poorly applied paint!!
Click to expand...

Thanks, Andy. I do plan to make this a 'photo project' so that anyone who wants to can see what refurbing a set of low-buck speakers can be like. Both the good and the bad.

FYI, I know this sounds dumb, but I've got a spare set of Wharfedale 12 inch woofers just sitting around doing nothing... :scratch2:...just wondering how they'd sound in these boxes. Well, I can always experiment once the cabs are refurbed.
 
Here are the driver model numbers (all Utah drivers) and WT3 specs:

12" Woofer (stamped frame, open back):

* Manufacturer: Utah
* Model: V12 JP16
* Piston Diameter = 254.0 mm
* f(s)= 28.26 Hz
* R(e)= 5.89 Ohms
* Z(max)= 17.90 Ohms
* Q(ms)= 3.359
* Q(es)= 1.649
* Q(ts)= 1.106
* V(as)= 202.900 liters (7.164 cubic feet)
* L(e)= 1.27 mH
* n(0)= 0.26 %
* SPL= 86.33 1W/1m
* M(ms)= 56.38 grams
* C(ms)= 0.56 mm/N
* BL= 5.98

8" Midrange (sealed back):

* Manufacturer: Utah
* Model: V 8E X1
* Piston Diameter = 0.0 mm
* f(s)= 600.20 Hz
* R(e)= 14.32 Ohms
* Z(max)= 16.90 Ohms
* Q(ms)= 0.000
* Q(es)= 0.000
* Q(ts)= 0.000
* V(as)= 0.000 liters (0.000 cubic feet)
* L(e)= 1.48 mH
* n(0)= 0.00 %
* SPL= 0.00 1W/1m
* M(ms)= 0.00 grams
* C(ms)= 0.00 mm/N
* BL= 0.00

Tweeter (sealed back):

* Manufacturer: Utah
* Model: V35 CR-1
* Piston Diameter = 76.2 mm
* f(s)= 1645.00 Hz
* R(e)= 3.53 Ohms
* Z(max)= 4.96 Ohms
* Q(ms)= 3.866
* Q(es)= 9.589
* Q(ts)= 2.755
* V(as)= 0.000 liters (0.000 cubic feet)
* L(e)= 0.25 mH
* n(0)= 0.00 %
* SPL= 0.00 1W/1m
* M(ms)= 0.00 grams
* C(ms)= 0.00 mm/N
* BL= 0.00

I have managed to get most of the black paint off with stripper and then some sanding. I need to do some more work on the decorative front trim, as it is a compound curve and not flat, so it's hard to get at. The walnut grain looks nice, and I didn't discover anything horrible lurking below the black paint that a previous owner had slapped on it. There is some paint deep in the grain of the paint, we'll see how that looks once I get some tung oil on the speakers.

I have removed the cloth from the baffles. It was beyond repair; the stains were not actually stains, but damage to the cloth grain itself. I bought some interesting patterned cloth on eBay for $3, and it has arrived and looks pretty good. I'll try to mount that this weekend. The old cloth was glued and stapled to the baffle.

I am ready to recap and rewire the speakers, but I think I will wait and do that after I have mounted the new speaker cloth. I've decided to simply replace the existing caps, nothing fancy. The old caps tested within specs, but given their age and the fact that I have some cheap new caps of the same value handy, I'm replacing them anyway.

More info later.
 
The cabinets are lookin' nice!

I grilled a marinated tri-tip steak tonight on our Weber...
we oft have grilled weenies this time of year for Saturday lunch, but we ate light today as we have fresh-picked blueberries (Mrs. H, yesterday) and she's making blueberry grunt for 'zert tonight!
 
I think they look orders of magnitudes better.

Are you going to test them with the new caps on the old tweeters, or go straight to the PE tweeters???
 
Andyman said:
I think they look orders of magnitudes better.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I feel like Mark Knopfler (I got a blister on my thumb).

Are you going to test them with the new caps on the old tweeters, or go straight to the PE tweeters???
Click to expand...

Good question! I hadn't considered keeping the old tweeters in there at all, even to test, but I probably ought to at least try them once I've recapped the crossovers, huh?

I pulled the old L-Pads out today and hit 'em hard with Caig contact cleaner and a toothbrush, so they'll either work or not (I've got some new P-E units I can use if they're crappy).

From the design of the crossovers, you can see that this was indeed a kit - and an easy one to put together. The woofers have screw-down terminals and all the wires and caps are soldered to the tweeter and mids. Looks like they probably came pre-wired and the person building the kit just had to screw down all the black wires to one terminal on the woofer and all the white wires to the other, and Bob's your uncle. Easy-peasy. To re-do the caps, I'll have to unsolder and resolder the old ones, but that's no problem.

I also thought it was interesting that the mids measured a very high resistance compared to the woofer and tweeter. Don't know if they're just old, or if they were designed that way. That's why I posted the T/S parameters I could get out of them.
 
mhardy6647 said:
The cabinets are lookin' nice!

I grilled a marinated tri-tip steak tonight on our Weber...
we oft have grilled weenies this time of year for Saturday lunch, but we ate light today as we have fresh-picked blueberries (Mrs. H, yesterday) and she's making blueberry grunt for 'zert tonight!
Click to expand...

Mrs. Wiggy says the Blueberry Slump sounds terrific, she's oohing and ahhing over the idea. Enjoy!
 
I got some cloth from a seller on eBay ($3 a yard, yay) and this is how it looks dummied into position. This is not the final placement, so it is stretched kind of funny. But it looks like it's going to work, and I really like the look of it. Very late 1950's.


100_4031 by Wigwam Jones, on Flickr


100_4032 by Wigwam Jones, on Flickr
 
I think they look great!!!!!


I love the sound of my Knight speakers...
The more I turn them up, the better they sound...
Sure hope I don't blow them.... :nono:

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Great job on the restoration. I have to share my recent pickup at the GW. These will be going to my brother in law. All I had to do was remove some surface scratches and apply conditioner. $25.00 for the pair
 

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Very good work done here- you should feel quite proud for the work done, the speakers saved and the sound revived. I really admire you people that take the time on these and revive them for others to experience once again. Great job done!
DC
 
OK, the speakers are done, this should be my last update of photos.

I did the crossovers, replacing the 4 uf 50V with a 4 uf 100V, just a generic NP electrolytic cap from P-E that I had a bunch of. I also replaced the 8 uf 50V with 2 4 uf 100V caps in parallel - didn't have a 8 uf cap handy. Same deal, just a cheap generic electrolytic.


100_4038 by Wigwam Jones, on Flickr

I decided to go ahead and replace the stock paper cone tweeters with horns. I was going to use a suggested set of Pioneer horns from P-E, but I realized I have them in another set of speakers right now and I don't want to take them out (Pioneer CS-77 speakers). However, I had a set of vintage Foster horn tweeters from a set of Zenith Allegro speakers, and I've liked them in every speaker I've tried them in. They're quite efficient, so they have to be padded down. However, this speaker system has an L-Pad, so in they went.


100_4033 by Wigwam Jones, on Flickr


100_4035 by Wigwam Jones, on Flickr

I had to pad the edges of the tweeters because the stock paper cone tweeters had a raised lip around them that created a seal and kept the speakers flush against the back of the driver baffle.


100_4042 by Wigwam Jones, on Flickr

The new tweeters were a drop-in replacement. No holes to drill, no hassles. I had to make a couple of hook up wires a bit longer. Not a problem.


100_4043 by Wigwam Jones, on Flickr


100_4044 by Wigwam Jones, on Flickr

Then I took the mounted drivers and baffle boards outside and stretched and glued some speaker cloth down on them. I used spray low-tack adhesive on the cloth after tacking down the top edge with thumbtacks. Then I wrapped the cloth, thumbtacked it all down (I don't have a staplegun, or I'd have used that) and trimmed it up some.

After that, I mounted the baffles back in the cabs again. The original owner (or maybe the factory) had marked the strips of wood used to hold down the baffle board, so it was easy to line up the holes again.


100_4045 by Wigwam Jones, on Flickr

Listening to one of them while finishing the second one...


100_4046 by Wigwam Jones, on Flickr

And here they are.


IMGP8010 by Wigwam Jones, on Flickr


IMGP8011 by Wigwam Jones, on Flickr


IMGP8013 by Wigwam Jones, on Flickr

Listening to Son Volt and Squeeze. Strange combination...


IMGP8016 by Wigwam Jones, on Flickr

Using my Lepai amp and my 1986 Toshiba CD player.


IMGP8009 by Wigwam Jones, on Flickr

Here's the BEFORE photo:


100_3962 by Wigwam Jones, on Flickr

And the AFTER photo:


IMGP8012 by Wigwam Jones, on Flickr

Thanks for reading. Hope you found it entertaining!
 
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