Pioneer CS-99 recap help

[Tennangler]

I bought a pair of CS-99 speakers that were in very good cosmetic shape about 3 years ago. The sound is kind of dull (no detail in the tweets and no thump in the bass.
I have read they are not great sounding so decided to try a recap. The replacement film cap kit was bought from an Ebay supplier. I was able to replace the caps in one of the speakers.
I expected some improvement but instead the volume on the recapped speaker is now lower than the other. It is also still dull. There is very little bass with the loud button on the receiver turned off.
Can I get some suggestions how to get better sound from them?
Thank you,
James

 

[malden]

The first thing I would do is to pull the drivers (tweets, mids, woofs) and test them individually with an ohm meter to verify that the voice-coils are not damaged

Regarding the lack of bass, make sure that the polarity of the speaker wires from the speakers to the amp are correct

Unfortunately, the idea of "recapping" has led far too many astray

 

[Tennangler]

Thanks for repling malden.
I resisted the recap for a long time but got bored and jumped in.
Ive measured tweets before at 6.5 ohms. What ohms should I get with the midrange and woofs?

 

[malden]

just make sure they give you a reasonable reading

while you're at it, make sure the woofers are connected properly, i.e., polarity is correct

if the polarity is reversed on one of the woofers, you will not get good bass out of them

 

[Govany]

My pioneer cs series speakers that I found in a thrift store had almost no bass when I tried them for the first time..all the drivers tested good on my DMM..

I noticed the woofers seemed very stiff when I tried to exercise them by hand..turns out the doping on the original cloth surrounds had dried out and become very hard..so much so that the surrounds had cracks in them..

My solution was to replace the original surrounds with new foam surrounds..they now sound like a completely different set of speakers..much better bass output..

Granted this is a major modification and I was worried the foam surrounds wouldn't behave like the original cloth as far as damping and such..but I took a chance and I'm glad I did..one of my worst sounding pair of speakers has become one of my favorites..

The foam on the tweeters had also disintegrated..giving them a raspy edge that made them sound terrible..new foam is available and made a world of improvement in the high range

 

[Nyjblbob]

Are they the 99a’s?
If so , while the bass is not Deep it is plentiful.
The previous 2 responders had great advice.
I would add ,change the now corroded internal wires with heavier gauge pure copper
and put some better binding posts in
Check the mid and high pots and detox if they are intermittent
Bobhorn

 

[Tennangler]

These are the 99s, not the 99a's.
Govany, the surrounds are something Ill definately check. I have replaced surrounds in the past, easy fix. Its not practicle to replace the drivers. I wound just use them as end tables before I invest that much.
Can the speakers be accessed from the front?
James

 

[Govany]

These are the 99s, not the 99a's.
Govany, the surrounds are something Ill definately check. I have replaced surrounds in the past, easy fix. Its not practicle to replace the drivers. I wound just use them as end tables before I invest that much.
Can the speakers be accessed from the front?
James

If you need to remove any of the drivers I'm pretty certain the rear panel must come off..drivers are mounted to the rear of the front baffle..

Good luck, they really are nice sounding speakers when working proper

 

[Tennangler]

There are nuts on studs that hold the woofs on from the back. I reversed the wires to the woof but could hear no difference. I measured 4.0 ohms across the speaker terminals.
I can see the woof surrounds from the open frame on the back of it. The surrounds do not feel dry of cracked. With the loud button on I saw and felt no real movement of the cone, just vibration. Could this be telling me there is something wrong with the voice coil?
James

 

[malden]

I reversed the wires to the woof but could hear no difference.

reversing the wires of the woofers will not increase or decrease bass response.

What decreases bass response is when one woofer is in phase and the other woofer out of phase and both woofers are played at the same time, in the enclosures of course.

The out of phase woofer will move in the opposite direction as the one that is in phase, this is what decreases bass response

I measured 4.0 ohms across the speaker terminals.

that's a good sign

I can see the woof surrounds from the open frame on the back of it. The surrounds do not feel dry of cracked.

some overall photos of the speakers, front, back would be helpful as well as the individual drivers and crossovers

 

[Nyjblbob]

Pics of the backs and fronts of the speaker would help
If I’m not mistaken they are sealed cabinets?
No ports?
These early Pioneer woofers have limited Xmax so they don’t visibly move much .
Run a direct from your amplifier line to just the woofers and use an app with low frequencies
And see how they sound

 

[malden]

I would test the woofer polarity with a AA or AAA battery

If the woofer cone moves out, the terminal connected to the + side of the battery is +

do this to the individual woofers then install them in the cabinets and do the same test at the speaker terminal to make sure you didn't wire something incorrectly

then make sure the speaker wire is correctly phased, you can double check by doing the same test at the ends of the speaker wires that connect to the amplifier

 

[Tennangler]

I connected the speaker wires to the amp and speakers a week ago. Double checked and they are right. I reasoned if one of the woofs terminal connectors was reversed then switching one of them would make it match the other and they would be in phase. Is this not correct?
The closed cabinet design I can understand why there is not much movement of the cone.
Attached is a photo.

 

[Govany]

I think you are OK on the surrounds..I didn't realize the CS-99 used a different woofer than the CS-99a.