Removing Pots??? EV Aristocrat three way

[Iam Mahtiti]

Please forgive this question as I've never had speakers with pots on them. In this case I have a matched set of EV Aristocrat III (i think). The brilliance and presence pots are...noisy. If you can get them tuned to a spot where they are not as noisy (crackles and fuzz), I notice that the mids are quite distorted...its most noticeable when playing single instruments like piano or horns...but piano is the worst.

The distortion sounds like a piano is being played through a reed with a shrill vibrato. This is less noticeable with complex music...but its certainly present with single instrument music.

I don't care if i have the option to use these knobs...i would prefer full tone going to the drivers. As such...is it possible to just bypass the pots? Or are they a part of the crossover that MUST be there?

Sorry for my newbie question...but I am...with pots.

 

[Iam Mahtiti]

bump???

 

[DOBIEGUY]

First welcome to AK.
You are lucky to have a pair of Aristocrat llls.
Understand that they are 60+ years old. Don’t try and reinvent the wheel. Get a can of DeOxit and clean the pots.
There is nothing you are going to do with the crossovers, they are potted.
Plenty of info on these here on AK. Do a search.
Yours are llls if they look like this.
Good luck.

 

[Iam Mahtiti]

Yep...that is exactly what i have!!! I love them...they sound amazing...its just odd that there is a shrill with piano music and some other natural frequency sounds.
So if i understand...there is no bypassing the pots?

 

[DOBIEGUY]

That’s right. Forget bypassing the pots. Get them to work correctly and enjoy them the way they were designed.

 

[Neck Beard]

I'd clean those L-pads....easy enough. Use WD40 or some deoxit to get working like new. It's just a variable mechanical resistor. No problem!

 

[macyjrm]

Trust me because I have zero inherent technical skills—cleaning corrosion out of these pots is easy. Just pry up the metal tabs which cover the back side of the pot. Pull off the metal cover which exposes the innards of the pot. Liberally spray deoxit into the mechanism and exercise the pot multiple times across its entire range. Then using a q-tip or similar wipe any excess fluid and gunk out of the pot and reattach the cover. You should be good to go now.