hornbostel
Well-Known Member
I did all of the work through the woofer cutout. There is plenty of room to work.
New score - Boston Acoustics A150s - Need Help!
- Thread starter efrance45
- Start date
hornbostel
Well-Known Member
I never really listened critically to my A150s before I did the work. When I got them some time ago the woofer surrounds were in pretty bad shape. At that time all I did was listen to confirm that the woofer, mid and tweets were functional.
In practice, anytime I replace surrounds on woofers I also replace the capacitors (and clean potentiometers, if any). I leave resistors and inductors alone. I figure that I've got access to the crossover, and capacitors are not too expensive. So I change them out. Then I seal the woofer up with Mortite or duct seal clay. Thus, there is no reason to re-open the cabinet for another 20 years (when the new foam goes bad)! Plus, I have the comfort of knowing that a capacitor isn't going to fail and ruin a tweeter or mid. And if I sell the speakers I am confident that the buyer is getting a quality product that will last a long time.
In the case of my BA A150s all of the original caps measured within 5% of spec. So I suspect that they would have sounded just fine. Of course it is likely that the equivalent series resistance (ESR) of the capacitors had changed significantly over the past 40 years. But I don't know what the original ESR would have been.
Same here, plenty room.
efrance45
Active Member
Hi everyone! Thought I would post an update for those interested. I received the woofer from cwh earlier this week (VERY well packed, I must say 
). Finished the refoam yesterday and got to listening! I did make a small mistake by having one part of the inner lip a bit more towards the center, but the woofer is still centered and works well. I haven't listened extensively yet, but I am a big fan.
I do have a question about placement though - currently they are just over a foot out from the wall because I didn't want my shelves interfering with the upper frequencies (it is 18" deep). Space is limited, but I could rearrange the room a bit so that the shelves are on a different wall for better placement for the A150s - would it be worth it to try this? I know they're designed for placement right along the wall. If I do that I could also play with placement width a bit more too!
Thank you again to everyone who has chimed in to help me out! I'll be trying the recap at a later date after I've gotten a chance to listen to these for a while - I am just really enjoying listening.
). Finished the refoam yesterday and got to listening! I did make a small mistake by having one part of the inner lip a bit more towards the center, but the woofer is still centered and works well. I haven't listened extensively yet, but I am a big fan. I do have a question about placement though - currently they are just over a foot out from the wall because I didn't want my shelves interfering with the upper frequencies (it is 18" deep). Space is limited, but I could rearrange the room a bit so that the shelves are on a different wall for better placement for the A150s - would it be worth it to try this? I know they're designed for placement right along the wall. If I do that I could also play with placement width a bit more too!
Thank you again to everyone who has chimed in to help me out! I'll be trying the recap at a later date after I've gotten a chance to listen to these for a while - I am just really enjoying listening.
A foot or so away from the wall shouldn't make a huge difference.
Congrats on a nice redo of a wonderfully satisfying pair of speakers.
The recap will add some sparkle, so do when you can.
Congrats on a nice redo of a wonderfully satisfying pair of speakers.
The recap will add some sparkle, so do when you can.
grillebilly
Empty Head
Give us your impressions down the road after living with them for a while.
efrance45
Active Member
Thank you! And I had thought they sounded pretty solid in the bass department during my short listening yesterday - I might end up playing around with placement still just for fun. I'll definitely aim to do the recap once I get a good baseline feel for them without.
I'll do my best to give my impressions eventually! I've never been one to describe very well how a speaker sounds to my ears, but I'll do some comparisons to my Elac B6s and let you all know my thoughts. I can tell that these will be long-term keepers for me.
I mean no disrespect to anyone here with what I'm about to say -
As I grew older and experienced better overall sound (by listening to much better systems, and systems set up in a better way than my own) that I learned to distinguish clean, accurate bass from boom.
I think it takes awhile before one realizes that all that boominess, so impressive to the china and dishes in the kitchen, is overpowering and coloring where the real magic happens, THE MIDRANGE.
But, these are only my experiences. I bet once you've enjoyed these awhile, you might only push them back a few inches, but otherwise be happy with true and accurate bass reproduction. My own 150's, recapped and refoamed, sounded just great in the middle of the floor.
As I grew older and experienced better overall sound (by listening to much better systems, and systems set up in a better way than my own) that I learned to distinguish clean, accurate bass from boom.
I think it takes awhile before one realizes that all that boominess, so impressive to the china and dishes in the kitchen, is overpowering and coloring where the real magic happens, THE MIDRANGE.
But, these are only my experiences. I bet once you've enjoyed these awhile, you might only push them back a few inches, but otherwise be happy with true and accurate bass reproduction. My own 150's, recapped and refoamed, sounded just great in the middle of the floor.
efrance45
Active Member
I take zero offense whatsoever! I've definitely already began learning to appreciate the midrange more. Still working on refining the ear, but my current systems are a HUGE upgrade from my first in high school - a "cheap" (although expensive) Sony party speaker system, one of the ones with a sub that really only plays one note
I'll probably experiment with moving these down into the living room at some point to give them a bit more room and more adjustable placement to play with, but I'm loving them so far!
Penn42
Well-Known Member
I've been following this thread and I am glad you're enjoying these speakers. A set of A70's were my first set of real speakers and I really loved those. my brother has them know but I want to get Boston Acoustics back in my life at some point. I almost picked up a set of A150's back in December but my better judgment got the best of me as I am super happy with the speakers I currently have and I really don't have the room for them.
Do you mean the Epi 20+'s ?? I have some Model 20's. They're amazing.
Penn42
Well-Known Member
Yep I'm absolutely loving them. My KLH 5's aren't too shabby either but on the whole I think the 20+'s win out. When I rebuilt them I decided to buy Huw's new replacement woofers because 2 of the original ones were in pretty bad shape. The more I get to looking at them the more I think they're salvageable. If that turns out to be the case I'm getting thoughts of buying some tweets off the 'bay and building some 202's. At this point I don't think I can have too many 8" Burhoe modules in my life!
cwh
33
Glad everything worked out!I received the woofer from cwh earlier this week (VERY well packed, I must say
efrance45
Active Member
Hi all! I know that this thread is almost a year old now, but I figured I would finally update with some listening impressions about the A150s compared to my ELACs. I guess I'll start off by saying that I have moved into listening solely to the A150s, whether studying at my desk or doing some more critical listening. This was partly due to switching around my amplifier situation to make A/Bing them harder, but I've found that I just enjoy how easy the A150s are to listen to, at any volume.
In the past almost year of ownership, I've listened to just about every genre, from country, to rap, to classic rock and even classical music, and the A150s still make me smile regardless of what is playing. Like @onwardjames had said, the midrange really is where the magic happens to my ears with these when compared to my B6s. Bass response in terms of output might be a bit more for the ELACs, but the A150s truly play a tighter bass line, which I've come to appreciate. For the past few months, the ELACs have been sitting on my desk (really just as decorations
), and so I decided to hook them up again a few days ago. Then I realized why I had switched to the A150s in the first place - the B6s, although very easy to listen to and a great speaker overall, just seemed a little dull and lifeless in the higher frequencies, and the lack of a dedicated midrange made some songs a bit less enjoyable than they are with the A150s.
I also changed the setup of my listening space, finding a shallower shelf so that the A150s could be spaced a bit wider and also up against the wall. Not only did this improve the bass response quite a bit to my ears, but I was able to find the perfect sweet spot with great center imaging. Currently I'm running them using the highest Spotify streaming through a Shiit Modi 3 DAC, using an old Marantz SR7200 in direct mode as a Pre to a Sonance Sonamp 1250mkII. Very thrown-together setup for now, but I'll upgrade to a better pre eventually. The Sonance I have bridged to 100w/channel, and it is honestly one of the more robust amps I have, and it sounds great to my ears, even though it was made for distributed audio installs. My one gripe currently with my A150s is that the woofer I re-epoxied rattles a tiny bit when playing very bass heavy songs at very high volumes. I don't usually listen to them at such volumes, so it hasn't been a problem yet, but once I graduate this May I'll probably get it reconed since I plan to keep these for a long time. I was also lucky enough to stumble upon a pair of BA T1000s for free a couple months ago that just needed one pair of woofers, so that has been another fun time listening to those!
In the past almost year of ownership, I've listened to just about every genre, from country, to rap, to classic rock and even classical music, and the A150s still make me smile regardless of what is playing. Like @onwardjames had said, the midrange really is where the magic happens to my ears with these when compared to my B6s. Bass response in terms of output might be a bit more for the ELACs, but the A150s truly play a tighter bass line, which I've come to appreciate. For the past few months, the ELACs have been sitting on my desk (really just as decorations
), and so I decided to hook them up again a few days ago. Then I realized why I had switched to the A150s in the first place - the B6s, although very easy to listen to and a great speaker overall, just seemed a little dull and lifeless in the higher frequencies, and the lack of a dedicated midrange made some songs a bit less enjoyable than they are with the A150s. I also changed the setup of my listening space, finding a shallower shelf so that the A150s could be spaced a bit wider and also up against the wall. Not only did this improve the bass response quite a bit to my ears, but I was able to find the perfect sweet spot with great center imaging. Currently I'm running them using the highest Spotify streaming through a Shiit Modi 3 DAC, using an old Marantz SR7200 in direct mode as a Pre to a Sonance Sonamp 1250mkII. Very thrown-together setup for now, but I'll upgrade to a better pre eventually. The Sonance I have bridged to 100w/channel, and it is honestly one of the more robust amps I have, and it sounds great to my ears, even though it was made for distributed audio installs. My one gripe currently with my A150s is that the woofer I re-epoxied rattles a tiny bit when playing very bass heavy songs at very high volumes. I don't usually listen to them at such volumes, so it hasn't been a problem yet, but once I graduate this May I'll probably get it reconed since I plan to keep these for a long time. I was also lucky enough to stumble upon a pair of BA T1000s for free a couple months ago that just needed one pair of woofers, so that has been another fun time listening to those!
hornbostel
Well-Known Member
The Elac B6 is a great small bookshelf speaker. Properly restored the BA A150 is on a whole different level. It’s not a fair comparison. I haven’t heard the B6’s. But as a comparison I have a pair of Klipsch RP 600m that I use as fronts in my surround system. But even driven by my best amps they don’t stand a chance to my pair of BA A150’s. Not even close.
DJSpinner
Member
Totally agree. I briefly had Klipsch RP-5000F' floor standing speakers in my second system and, while they had had slightly more detail, the A150s are just much more lively.
I constantly see A150's show up for sale on craigslist and estate sales for $100-200. If they are in good cosmetic shape, it would seem like a no-brainer to pick them up and spend a few more bucks replacing the capacitors and surrounds and you've got a speaker that easily competes with $1000-1500 new speakers.
efrance45
Active Member
Oh I know it's not a fair comparison! I just wanted to follow up with the few that had asked to eventually hear my thoughts since they are totally different speakers. I would like to try a good comparison to my Energy Connoisseur C8s or BA T1000s sometime on the same amp combos, but that'll have to wait for now.
I gladly would've paid $200 for these! Luckily I'm only in $50 so far with surrounds and the donated spare woofer from @cwh. I still want to get them fully restored with new caps and a recone on the slightly faulty driver to really hear what they're truly capable of.