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Pioneer HPM-100 Recapping Walkthrough

I used the OP's parts suggestions and could not be happier. I expected the decreased harshness in the highs, but was most suprised with the way the bass woke up.

I have stopped looking for speakers on CL now. (For a few days at least :music:)
 
Finished recapping and also refinished the woodwork; very happy with the results! These were the 200 watt versions. Doing the parallel and series jumping was really quite easy - more so than other speakers I've recapped - as there is room enough to get everything on the board; just the usual fight getting the old glue off . . . I swear, that's the toughest part about recapping!
 
I've been reading a lot about the HPM recaps and trying to make a decision, so today I decided to order 2 Jantzen .15uf 1200v precision caps to replace the electrolytic's. They were $9.58 ea. at Parts Express. I think the speakers sound pretty good as is, so I'll see how this mod turns out. After this experiment, I'm going to order the sonicaps to replace the 4.4uf and 3.0 uf.
 
in a pair of HPM-150 I used a Dynamicap, an Obbligato oil filled and an auricap - had to move the xo to a separate board due to the size of the Obbligato -
It is a stunning speaker now imo - the HPM-100 uses the same mids and tweeter...I would guess you would get similar results. I have some HPM-100 but have just never got around to putting the money in those.
 
Recapped my HPM 900's about a month ago with cheap Axom caps all were less that 1% off as tested by cheap meter :lmao: and some solen 400v caps for the tweeter and ribbon. Diffrence in sound was immeadiate. (Ironwork not as pretty as other posters.... ) :tongue: But was sold on the Idea. Recapped my dynaco a 25's / b&o mc120.2's same day. Since then I have recapped almost all my collection have found logically that the greatest diffrence has been in speakers with more crossover points.


Thanks heaps for the beautiful work, posts and pics.
:music:
 
I recapped mine a couple of weeks ago to the same spec as in post #55 and frankly the result is that the bottom end seems to have dropped out.:tears:

The wiring was done exactly as before I took the cross-overs out.
 
Man, SOMETHING must be very wrong.

That just can't be right. I would double check everything.

Any pics? Someone wanna chime in, help this guy out??:scratch2:
 
Now that I'm back in town and listened for quite a bit in the last two days I have to say that the highs and mids are very much more nuanced with voices, snares, and cymbals the most obvious improvements. I'm wondering if the "opening up" of the higher end is just making the bass seem further back in the mix in "flat" reproduction.

I have a fairly good Marantz A/V receiver that has the ability to bypass all tone/eq/processing which is how I normally listen to vinyl and cd's. It also has the ability to sample the room at your listening position and program in an eq model to theoretically allow you to hear a "flat" response. In this mode everything sounds awesome.

I bought some stock cross-overs on ebay today as I threw out the old components (what an idiot). I even stood over the bin contemplating them before they got pitched. Everyone's rave reviews of the new stuff swayed me! Anyway I will now have another set.

I have a sound pressure meter and a tone generator program on my laptop as well as a Cardas record. Can I use these tools to ensure that the drivers are all the same polarity?
 
First make sure you have the polarity of the speaker wires at the amp/receiver output terminals correct there and at the speaker binding posts. If that is correct try reversing the speaker leads at the binding posts of one speaker. If you get increased bass than the blue leads from the crossover board to one of the woofers may have been inadvertently reversed when you reinstalled the crossovers.
 
Here is the schematic - note the differences in how the tweeter and super tweeter connect as opposed to the midrange and woofer
 

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So this diagram indicates that there should be no change to the woofer response with the change in components. Is this correct?
 
Thanks. My options now appear to be to disconnect the super tweeter and use the attenuators for the tweeter and mid-range driver to dial back the high end until I like it.

Funny thing though is that now after a few weeks it seems better after using the attenuators. Maybe my ear is getting trained. The vocals are far superior for sure.

Thanks for everyone's input.
 
Gonna dredge up this long going thread and add to it. I'm ordering the caps for my HPM-100's that my best friend and I are rebuilding to give/loan to his dad and let him enjoy some good ol' vintage tunes. I figure I've got more speakers that aren't going to get much use for awhile longer so why not let some of them be enjoyed. I'm ordering the Dayton 5% caps and doing the dual cap (0.47 and 0.22) in series to get the 0.15uf value because of expense. Me, my buddy or his dad can hear the HF range good enough to substantiate going to that expense on the super tweeter caps. :D We had already changed out those crap binding post connections for some banana style so that part has already been done. Also recovered the grills over the weekend (MUCH better!) and applied some Watco Walnut Danish oil on them and they look very nice...not perfect, but darn nice.
 
Hey there, that's great!

Would you mind sharing your speaker post upgrade info with me? I was thinking about doing this to my HPM-100's after all this time...
 
Honestly, it was probably about a year and a half ago that we did it but it wasn't too terribly hard to do. The holes had to be enlarged a little bit bit for the new binding posts to go thry but they bolted up solid. I used a pair of these from Parts Express and they work very well. I've used about a dozen pairs of these binding posts, I think.

091-1150_s.jpg
 
Thanks, I am familiar with them; I used them to replace the stock binding posts on a Pioneer SPEC-4. They worked great!
 
Just did this last night using the OP's exact parts list and the pics provided as a guide. Ended up pulling the woofer to, made things a lot easier. Cost was around $48 from parts express. Took about 2 hours as it was my first real project of this type. Made me realize how bad they needed it. Boy these speakers are bright!!! Wife said "did you get new speakers?"

Better sound all the way across the board. Thanks very much for the guide and advice !!!
 
Hello everyone. I just picked up a beautiful Pioneer SX-1250/HPM100 combo and this is my first post on AK. So far I'm loving the vintage gear, but boy-o-boy those HPM100s absolutely sizzle! I think the word "forward" might be a bit of an understatement. Anyway, I am hoping that recapping the crossover as discussed in this thread will smoothen them out a bit.

I certainly don't expect them to sound as good as modern speaker designs (that wasn't the point in the first place) but in any event, the build quality is second to none and I am amazed at the quality and engineering that went into these vintage components. Wish me luck!
 
pognoot said:
Hello everyone. I just picked up a beautiful Pioneer SX-1250/HPM100 combo and this is my first post on AK. So far I'm loving the vintage gear, but boy-o-boy those HPM100s absolutely sizzle! I think the word "forward" might be a bit of an understatement. Anyway, I am hoping that recapping the crossover as discussed in this thread will smoothen them out a bit.

I certainly don't expect them to sound as good as modern speaker designs (that wasn't the point in the first place) but in any event, the build quality is second to none and I am amazed at the quality and engineering that went into these vintage components. Wish me luck!
Click to expand...

No reason they can't sound as good as modern speaker designs. Bart Locanthi was pretty sharp in his design. A recap will definitely help, and I personally run my HPM's with the tweeter setting rather low.

And SX-1250 with HPM's???? Got both myself. If you are just jumping into vintage, wow, what a start!:sigh::D:music:

Use the best caps you can afford, and good luck!
 
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