• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

NHT 1.3A, busted dustcaps

D

dakmensa

Active Member
I picked up a pair of NHT 1.3As recently. These are probably no-ones "holy grail" speakers, but they have sentimental value for me as they were the model used in-store at a record shop I visited often as a kid- and they are actually very good speakers.
Unfortunately, the soft plastic dustcaps on both woofers are cracked and broken in multiple places. Ordinarily I would attempt to "resurface" a cracked dustcap with a very thin layer of 3M NF30, a very light, flexible adhesive. These caps are too far gone, with small pieces missing. The broken caps are causing rattling and buzzing at volume.

I'm thinking about two options:

1) Remove the dustcaps, run the speakers without them.

2) Remove and replace the dustcaps with a similar sized felt or paper cap.

I'm not sure how important to performance and overall design something like this is. Opinions welcome. And if anyone wants to pose this to Ken Kantor, I don't know him, but I'm sure someone here has talked with him.

Thanks,
David
 
Register to hide this ad
Hello!

My suggestion would be to buy new dust caps, and use an Xacto knife to remove as much of the old ones as possible, and glue over top of the old.

Maybe Parts Express or Madisound?? Just spitballing here.

And NHT gets MUCH love in this house. Good luck!
 
And Ken don't come round no more, sadly.

Mad respect to Ken, but he is a man of, shall we say, bold opinions?
 
I just picked up a set of these, unfortunately one of the woofers appears to be blown. In your case a dust cap replacement is a fairly simple thing to do. Just make sure you have a nice bead of glue around the edge of the dust cap when you install it and wipe away the excess.
 
Thanks for the replies, the replacement route was the one I was figuring would be best. As long as the new caps are close on size and weight to the old ones, even if a difference in response could be measured, it seems unlikely it would be audible.
 
A felt dust cap would have the closest response characteristics to the soft plastic, IME. Better than paper or screen/fabric.

Regards,
Gordon.
 
Vaughn, you've probably thought of this but check the woofer itself, there could be a problem in the wiring to and from the woofer, solder joints, and the connection of tinsel leads to the terminals on the woofer. All of which is fixable.
 
I just picked up a set of these on the weekend , first set of NHT for me and I am impressed . I bought dust caps and glue from Simply Speakers to do a job on another set of speakers and was easy , but my caps were gone so no cutting involved . Worth fixing those 1.3's for $15 worth of parts .
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom