Rectilinear xii questions

[WickedSharp]

Hello,
A great fellow AK'er passed a "fix-er-up-er" set of Rectilinear XII speakers my way today and I'm going to rehab them.

First...
Whats the best way to release the silicon holding the tweeters in place?

Second...
I need help to identify what capacitors I should use to replace the originals. There is a thread here in the Speaker forum that says:
"You can see the two capacitors. Mine had one 105 uf, and one 2.5 uf"
So my question is, assuming I find the same values inside of my speakers, what exactly should I order to replace them? Seriously, like what site do I order from and what part number, style, type of capacitors should I purchase?

Last...
Speaker cloth- Has anybody found something that resembles the original speaker cloth? What was it called and where did it come from?
Badges- Are replacements available anywhere?

Thanks

 

[drbiggles]

Hey WickedSharp!

There are tons and tons of threads here on AK in regards to Rectilinear speakers. Mostly you'll find the III referenced, these will be useful to answer your questions.

That being said, use a razor to cut through the silicone. Before you do, why are you removing a tweeter or two? Do you have blown ones?

You also need to remove the woofer and get us a picture of the crossover and make sure the crossover values are visible. There are some variances and until we know what's inside yours, we cannot tell which ones to buy.

Generally speaking, we haven't found anything to replace the original brown/orange grill cloth. If that's what you're looking for.

You may or may not be able to find replacement badges on the auction site that nobody will name.

Biggles

 

[WickedSharp]

Hey WickedSharp!

There are tons and tons of threads here on AK in regards to Rectilinear speakers. Mostly you'll find the III referenced, these will be useful to answer your questions.

That being said, use a razor to cut through the silicone. Before you do, why are you removing a tweeter or two? Do you have blown ones?

You also need to remove the woofer and get us a picture of the crossover and make sure the crossover values are visible. There are some variances and until we know what's inside yours, we cannot tell which ones to buy.

Generally speaking, we haven't found anything to replace the original brown/orange grill cloth. If that's what you're looking for.

You may or may not be able to find replacement badges on the auction site that nobody will name.

Biggles

I was told that one of the tweeters is blown by the seller. I have what I believe is the proper 2-1/2" Peerless 8ohm paper tweeter on a shelf in my basement. I was asking about removal in case I actually do need to replace it.

I'll try to get into them tonight and confirm the crossover details with a photo or two.

 

[drbiggles]

Ahhh, gotcha. I would wait and test yourself. They may have a bad connection somewhere too, that could be the issue as well. Those are pretty darned awesome tweeters and don't fail that often. Yeah, the silicone is easy to slice out, no worries.

Biggles

 

[ra.ra]

Good advice from Biggles - - - check 'em out yourself before bringing out the scalpel. The cap values sound about right for that mid and tweet which were used in other models, but I've sometimes seen 90uF for that octagonal Phillips mid - - - but that was for the smaller Mini-III. Meanwhile, begin reading up with these threads. Congrats on your new speaks, Rectilinears are definitely worth some time and effort.

http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/rectilinear-xii.328012/
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/rectilinear-research-xii-questions.609358/

 

[WickedSharp]

Ok, here's what I've got



I can't really tell on the smaller cap, but the larger one is 105uf.

Do the numbers on the woofer indicate manufacturer? Jensen?

 

[kirk57]

EIA code of 589 indicates Bogen, which is kind of surprising.

BTW the other cap is 2uF

 

[WickedSharp]

Good "surprising" or bad "surprising"?

How about some pointers to the right type of caps to pickup.

 

[ra.ra]

Same 10" woofer found in the Rectilinear XI. Mine dates from 13th week of 1970; yours is 7th week of 1971. And yeah, those Temple caps should be replaced. The 105uF cap could simply be replaced with a 100uF cap which should still be within a very reasonable tolerance, and you'll have tons of choices at that value. The smaller cap appears to be a simple 2.0uF cap, and I think the K represents a 10% tolerance, so a more common 2.2uF might do just fine. Here's a few suggestions just to get you started, all good caps at good prices:

from Parts Connexion
http://www.partsconnexion.com/capacitor_ele_mundorf_bipol.html
Mundorf M-lytic (71852) 2.2uF 70V $1.25 per
Mundorf M-lytic (71878) 100uF 100V Raw $3.41 per

from Parts Express
http://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-dmpc-20-20uf-250v-polypropylene-capacitor--027-414
http://www.parts-express.com/100uf-100v-electrolytic-non-polarized-crossover-capacitor--027-360
Dayton DMPC (027-414) 2.0uF 250V $1.61 per
Generic NPE (027-360) 100uF 100V $1.50 per

from Erse
http://www.erseaudio.com/Products/PulseX250v/MPX25-03-2-20
http://www.erseaudio.com/Products/NonPolarElectrolyticAll/ANP10C-05-100-0-PB
Erse Pulse-X (MPX25-03-2.2) 2.2uF 250V $1.63 per
Erse NPE (ANP10C-05-100.0/PB) 100uF 100V $1.31 per

 

[kirk57]

Good "surprising" or bad "surprising"?

Bogen made some fine gear years ago; I was just unaware that they were an OEM manufacturer of speakers as late as
1971, which is the date of manufacture of your woofer if I read the EIA code correctly.

Learn something every day. Today I learned this, and how to properly set up cantilever brake pads on a bike.

 

[WickedSharp]

Good stuff! It'll be a little bit before I can really dive in on these. I want to do some work on the cabinets and think about ideas for the grill cloth.
I flipped the faded original grill cloth over and it's better but I'm not really digging it



If they clean up nice, and sound nice, I'll put them in the living room with my Pioneer SX-780.

 

[jbailey930]

Good grab on these. I have the highboys in my main system for the past year. I used Daytons on my recap. I hate the 70s brown/orange so I went with standard speaker cloth from Michaels. Really nice imaging.

 

[WickedSharp]

Same 10" woofer found in the Rectilinear XI. Mine dates from 13th week of 1970; yours is 7th week of 1971. And yeah, those Temple caps should be replaced. The 105uF cap could simply be replaced with a 100uF cap which should still be within a very reasonable tolerance, and you'll have tons of choices at that value. The smaller cap appears to be a simple 2.0uF cap, and I think the K represents a 10% tolerance, so a more common 2.2uF might do just fine. Here's a few suggestions just to get you started, all good caps at good prices:

from Parts Connexion
http://www.partsconnexion.com/capacitor_ele_mundorf_bipol.html
Mundorf M-lytic (71852) 2.2uF 70V $1.25 per
Mundorf M-lytic (71878) 100uF 100V Raw $3.41 per

from Parts Express
http://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-dmpc-20-20uf-250v-polypropylene-capacitor--027-414
http://www.parts-express.com/100uf-100v-electrolytic-non-polarized-crossover-capacitor--027-360
Dayton DMPC (027-414) 2.0uF 250V $1.61 per
Generic NPE (027-360) 100uF 100V $1.50 per

from Erse
http://www.erseaudio.com/Products/PulseX250v/MPX25-03-2-20
http://www.erseaudio.com/Products/NonPolarElectrolyticAll/ANP10C-05-100-0-PB
Erse Pulse-X (MPX25-03-2.2) 2.2uF 250V $1.63 per
Erse NPE (ANP10C-05-100.0/PB) 100uF 100V $1.31 per

This will sound dumb, but will what's the difference between non-polar and bi-polar?

Edit: and I mean in capacitor context, not mother-in-law context

Edit again: I see they are the same thing

 

[ra.ra]

The mother-in-law comment made me chuckle, but generally speaking, large uF values of caps tend to get very large and very expensive when you use poly caps, so many people use NPE caps for the larger values.

The Rect. Mini-III's came with three grille cloth fabrics - - two are shown in this pic and the third in the ad.

 

[Leben]

Those should be some nice sounding speakers once you get them sorted out. When I restored a pair last year, I used a non-polar for the larger value capacitor and a Dayton 5% poly for the smaller. I really liked how they sounded! The silicone is a major pain and there aren't any shortcuts that I'm aware of. If you end up needing a tweeter, let me know and I'll look and see If I have any extra.

Careful not to breathe any of that yellow oxidation when you work with older equipment (saw in your pictures). Not good for ya.

 

[SiliconTi]

Hey, glad to see you jumped on getting them up and running so quickly. I'll be watchin'.

 

[WickedSharp]

Update:
New replacement tweeter installed and new caps installed (Dayton and generic NPE). One of the baffles was rattling a little so this was fixed as well.

After about 2 hours I know these are special. I'm pretty excited. I'm going to do the grill cloth next using natural colored 20 count "scrim linen". I'm going to play them for a while before I do anything to the cabs.

Steve

 

[Gazdatronik]

Same 10" woofer found in the Rectilinear XI. Mine dates from 13th week of 1970; yours is 7th week of 1971. And yeah, those Temple caps should be replaced. The 105uF cap could simply be replaced with a 100uF cap which should still be within a very reasonable tolerance, and you'll have tons of choices at that value. The smaller cap appears to be a simple 2.0uF cap, and I think the K represents a 10% tolerance, so a more common 2.2uF might do just fine. Here's a few suggestions just to get you started, all good caps at good prices:

from Parts Connexion
http://www.partsconnexion.com/capacitor_ele_mundorf_bipol.html
Mundorf M-lytic (71852) 2.2uF 70V $1.25 per
Mundorf M-lytic (71878) 100uF 100V Raw $3.41 per

from Parts Express
http://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-dmpc-20-20uf-250v-polypropylene-capacitor--027-414
http://www.parts-express.com/100uf-100v-electrolytic-non-polarized-crossover-capacitor--027-360
Dayton DMPC (027-414) 2.0uF 250V $1.61 per
Generic NPE (027-360) 100uF 100V $1.50 per

from Erse
http://www.erseaudio.com/Products/PulseX250v/MPX25-03-2-20
http://www.erseaudio.com/Products/NonPolarElectrolyticAll/ANP10C-05-100-0-PB
Erse Pulse-X (MPX25-03-2.2) 2.2uF 250V $1.63 per
Erse NPE (ANP10C-05-100.0/PB) 100uF 100V $1.31 per

Surprising to me, my XI's have CTS woofers.

 

[ra.ra]

Any pics or dates on the CTS woofers, Gaz?

 

[EarHole]

Here is a picture of some Rectilinear III's & JBL 4311 I did in a non original covering.