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Speakerlab S7s Rebuild and Modding (Ribbon Tweeter Model)

OK C-atle. It will be at least 4 to 5 hours before I can move the cabinets and get some good pics for you. In the meantime here are a couple of teasers. Of course by that time it'll be morning over there on the west coast... :yes:

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Here are some pics of the finished cabinets. Not the best of photos I'm afraid. I suppose that I should just go ahead and admit the truth, no matter how hard it is. I'm... ...Camera Challenged. Deciding weather to use the flash or not is reaching the limits of my ability and is alone enough to make me dizzy. To take the thing out of automatic mode brings me to cold sweats. Don't touch that switch! There. I said it. I feel better now.

The last 2 shots are of the top that was so scratched up. You can still see a couple over to the right, but by and large it looks much better.

To say that I'm very happy with the results of the OSMO and scratch reduction is an enormous understatement. You just can't really tell from my pics but the boxes really gleam now. Color is rich and a bit deeper than before. The cabinets have never looked this good before.

Tomorrow morning when the wax has had 24 hours to really set up I'll carry them into my living room for final assembly and polish them a bit.

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Cheers,
James
 
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c-atle-79bay said:
Wow those came out great. That osmo is versatile stuff.
Click to expand...

There's a downside to that. My wife looked at the results and suddenly remembered that we have a very long oiled pine dining table. And again that her PC table is also oiled pine. And don't forget that the desk in the guest room is oiled pine... ...and there's more. She seems to think that that osmo will go to waste if it isn't all used up. See what you've gotten me into?
 
Well, they went back together today, I just finished a few minutes ago. In respect to fellow AKers I'm posting these and the next batches of pics before even turning my amp on for the first time with these refurbed sevens. Where I got such patience I'll never know. Everything went smoothly putting them together.

A couple of thoughts. When I first took them apart I noticed that one of the leads on one of the mid-ranges came off way too easily. Looks like I didn't pay close enough attention 15 years ago when installing them, I imagine that there wasn't a very good connection there. Today I took a pair of needle-nosed pliers and lightly crimped all connectors before pushing them on. I elected not to use the thick foam seal for the midranges, didn't like the way they squished down and became concerned about allignment issues. I cut new ones from 2mm rubber. And now I'll finally be able to use the banana plugs that I bought.

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I still haven't put any acoustic foam around the tweeter/midrange plate. Trying to cut 2mm off of a 2 meter long strip of 15mm foam proved to be an exercise in frustration. I'll be asking my brother-in-law to find me some 1/2" foam and send it over with my kids in January. Or, here's a question.

Would there be an acoustic benefit to getting a router and rounding off those sharp edges completely and skipping foam?

My wife is yelling that lunch is ready. More later.

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When I bought these kits Speakerlab also supplied some little stands, just some chipboard strips hooked together. They didn't look very pretty but did work. For some reason that I don't remember I didn't bring them with when I left the NW. I need to get these things up off of the floor a bit and tilted back a bit, so making some stands is one of my plans sometime in the next few months.

At present my DSP-800 is looped into the pre-out main-in connections of my AX-1090 so that it funtions as a control amp when I want surround. For pure stereo I can select the Pure Direct button on the AX-1090 and the DSP is cut out. But in both cases I have no access to the loudness or tone controls of the AX-1090. I've heard that some people hang the DSP on a tape loop, and am thinking of trying that out sometime.

I really need to address the room itself. Concrete outer walls and brick interior walls and the laminate flooring make for a very hard listening area. but I've been smacking up hard against the WAF wall. I'm going to be reading through the Listening Spaces forum to try to find some ideas that I might be able to sneak past my wife.

OK. Time to go wake up the neighbors.

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Cheers,
James
 
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1st listening test

2 things marred a fully enjoyable 1st listening test.

First, my wife and daughter sound attenuation circuit seems to be completely broken. Nothing I did seemed to get it to work, resulting in a constant nerving background noise to the left of my listening area.

Even worse I had to use an old Sony cheap scheit dvd player for playback. I've been so disgusted with my speakers that I'd moved my pc out of the room a long time ago. And the Sony refused to play 3 of my 4 blues selections. So no Joe Bonamassa, Jonny Lang, or Ry Cooder. Oh well. Next year I'll address building a new music server in the living room.

Today is Sunday so I had a bit of mercy on my neighbors. Looking at the volume dial as a clock I never took it much above about 8:30, or about "50" as Yamaha dials are measured. And it still got pretty loud.

But ok. A major improvement here. The bass is back now that the 12" have new surrounds and the cabinets are closed again. Midrange is a great deal better. Still not where it should be, there is only so much I'm going to get out of those cheap Goldwood mids, but taking out those resistors has helped, as well as an overall improvement in all areas that I attribute to the new caps.

This is my first experience in changing caps in a speaker so I have no idea if or how much more improvement there will/might be as the caps burn in. Wait & see I guess. But I do expect the bass to improve a bit as the new surrounds work in.

I have about 8 feet of distance from the speakers to my couch, but only about 5 1/2 feet of separation between the speakers. I really need another 18" of separation but am limited by other stuff in the room. And I need to get the harsh reflections down a bit.

But for a first step, I'm very happy. It can only get better from here. The end of this month I should have funds for new mids and at least some of the parts for new crossovers.

Cheers,
James
 
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This morning when I started the re-assemby my wife turned her kitchen radio on and the first song that I heard was The Beatles singing "Come together, Right now". Good timing.
 
Congrats! Those are some fine looking speakers and knowing SpeakerLab those sound awesome as well. My next move with the 7 would be tweets like yours or T-350 as this is what I would have avaliable and a logical alternative.
Enjoy those rare puppies, these things are getting hard to come across. AND, they weren't cheap then or now.
 
I have a pair of seven's with a rear facing 12 inch driver and a dome tweeter.

Factory made Speakerlab das - 7

I got them at a church sale for 35 bucks.

Last day of the sale they were 1/2 price

I had to refoam the 10 and 12 inch drivers.

They sound great - i am powering them with a little 70 wpc technics sa 550

Yours look fantastic

I think having all the drivers in the front looks killer.
 
Thanks guys. They sound better than the last years, but I still have a long way to go. But one step at a time. For now I'll start enjoying them again.

DaWoofer - I finally wrote Paul today asking about an update on the M654 replacement and if he knows of a suitable replacement for the LT215S. I'll post any info that I find out. I never had a chance to hear one of the 7's with horns. I'll bet they're great. I've often wondered if they switched to the leaf tweeter only because they were cheaper or if they really sound better. Would be interesting to be able to audition both.

Markdi - I'll bet your das-7's do sound good. When I first built my 7's I too had a small Technics (type long forgotten) to power them till I was able to get my beloved Yamaha C-50/M-50 combo (long since deceased). And they sounded good with the Technics. They don't need a lot of power to sound good. I hope that you can enjoy them for a long time.
 
Is there a way to tell when my speakers were made ?
Do you know the spl at 1 watt 1 meter spec ?
I wonder if mine are old enough that i should replace the electrolytic caps in the crossovers ?
Does new foam have a break in period ?

They seem pretty efficient.

Bass is verry good.- even at 70 wpc - stun small animals.

Sorry about all the questions
I do have a adcom gfa 1a that will put out 350 wpc into 4 ohms
 
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Hi Mark, let's see what I can do to help with your questions, but please don't be sorry for asking them. I'm new here and have been asking a lot of questions myself, and it feels good to "pay it forward" and help in the small ways where I can.

1) I don't know how to tell exactly when your Das-7's were made, but can at least put some borders on it. One of the only usefull things on the current Speakerlab site is their old catalog pages. The '86 catalog is the first there that shows the Das series.
http://www.speakerlab.com/catalog_16_1986.html
I know that in '83 when I bought my S7s's they hadn't brought out the DAS stuff yet, so at least '86 and possably as far back as '84, perhaps someone else here can fill that in better. By '98 when I was writing them seeking replacement parts they had drasticly reduced their lineup and I don't believe they had your speaks anymore, but I could be wrong about that, my memory isn't the best around. Speakerlab history is pretty hazy in that period. I haven't had any luck in getting any answers to my email to them but perhaps you might have better luck.

2) That same catalog page shows your speaker as having an SPL of 94db. Pretty darn good, I believe my 7's are only about 92db.

3) This is my first experience with replacing caps, but from what I've been reading here at AK, at potentially 20 yo you are probably at the point where it would not be a bad idea. Others here will have better knowledge of that than I. Replacing mine with new Mundorf electrolytics cost me less that €22 with shipping. You can probably do as well or better back in the states.

4) This is also my first experience with replacing surrounds. But my understanding is that compliance will get a little better after the speakers are broken in. Again, others here will have better answers than I.

5) Try playing some Blue Öyster Cult through those fine boxes. Eric Bloom plays a "Stun Guitar" that might help you with the larger animals too!

Cheers,
James
 
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