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Speakerlab S7s Rebuild and Modding (Ribbon Tweeter Model)

Thank you

My tablet will not show me the catalog on that speakerlab site.

I think i need to get more juice going to them.

The lights on My technics sa 550 dim during loud bass notes.

I just moved into a new to me house.

My s7's are in a 18 by 20 foot room
 
Are the woofers 4 or 8 ohm ?

Are the woofers wired in series or parallel thru the crossover ?

Mine have a sticker on the back that say
4 ohm 275 watt rms

Are they considered amp killers ?

Should i be worried about my little technics sa 550 ?

Ha ha - groan - i'm bored and can't sleep
 
My only knowledge of your speaker is what I read in the catalog. The only way to know for sure what your woofers are is to pull them out and look and/or measure them. In the S7's the 2 woofers are 8 ohm and in parallel.

I don't know if you can destroy your amp with them, but you can for sure damage your speakers if you drive your amp into clipping for an extended time. Try using the search function with "Clipping".

Cheers,
James
 
I would highly recomend a more powerful amp with those 7's Mark. It's pretty easy to run out of headroom with an amp that size if listening to your music very loud. It's amazing what more power can do even though you're not pushing it. I just picked up another Onkyo Integra amp, preamp, and tuner for a resonable price $180 off C/L. I was running a pair of DAS 7's and Timeframe-600's together for a short while being careful of the output. When I switched them over to their own dedicated amp, what a difference. It was very noticable even at low volume levels (The wife and kids were home :^/ ).

James, Those 7's of yours look fantastic! Great Job! A buddy of mine had a pair back in 1985 or so, that he picked up at a pawn shop. It was my first introduction to Speakerlab's.
 
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Yes. If the Das-7's are at all like the earlier Speakerlabs they will respond well to more power. Mark, you mentioned that your Sa-550 outputs 70 wpc. Is that into 8 ohm or 4 ohm? Keep in mind that your amp will deliver more watts into 4 ohm speakers than 8 ohm ones, but will also run out of headroom sooner.
 
Thank you

I do need to use a bigger amp.

The most powerfull into 4 ohms amp i have is a working adcom gfa 1a.

It is rated at 350w into 4 ohms both channels driven but
It is verry old but it worked last time i used it.

I should find something newer because i fear if my old adcom blew up it
Might take out a driver or two.
 
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I am going to take mine back apart and replace the caps in the crossover.
I think i will mount the 10 and 12 inch drivers with nuts and machine screws.
I sure like the red gaskets you made for your drivers.
 
Can I make a suggestion? Perhaps you'd want to start a thread when you take them apart and use it as a vehicle to gather and share info about your DAS's. They do seem to be a pretty rare bird.

In any case if you want to take pics of your crossovers from enough angles too see all of the components and their connections, and note the component specs we could draw up a schematic of it for you. That might be doing the others that have them a favor also.

I cut the gaskets from some 1 and 2mm red/brown silicone rubber that I found. It seems to have worked well for everything except my 12"ers. Down on the bottom of them I can wiggle the seal a little bit so it looks like I don't have a perfect seal. I've been waiting for them to have enough time to compress a bit and will try tightening them a bit this afternoon. If that doesn't work I'll have to reconsider using silicone sealant. I don't have enough 2mm sheet to cut new seals for the woofers.

Cheers,
James
 
pa24pilot said:
James, Those 7's of yours look fantastic! Great Job! A buddy of mine had a pair back in 1985 or so, that he picked up at a pawn shop. It was my first introduction to Speakerlab's.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I envy you all back there sometimes. Thrift stores, Goodwill, Salvation Army and the like are (as far as I've seen) not existent here in Munich. Second hand stores that '
I've seen wand ridiculous prices for used gear. I read about what you guys are finding, and the prices, and just drool. It's enough to make a grown man cry.

Cheers,
James
 
DaWoofer said:
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.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't you need to change the high-cross point to use the LT215s? I haven't heard any 7WA's but have a feeling that your horn high end is as good or better than the ribbons.

I haven't gotten a response from Paul regarding a replacement, but have been looking around a lot, probably looked (webwise) at 50 tweeters. So far the most promising looking replacement for my ribbons that I've come across is the Visaton MHT-12.

http://www.visaton.de/en/chassis_zubehoer/ht_baendchen/mht12_8.html

I'm seeing them at around €140 and up. Looking at the FR and SPL they might actually be a better choice than the original. The limited info that I've found on the LT215/Foster E100T10 shows them seriously dropping off below 5khz. Even Speakerlabs catalogs recommend a higher cx point than the S7s uses. They really stretched things to use them with the 6.5" mid. The info that Paul provided for the M654 doesn't show spl, but every 4 ohm 6.5" that I've looked at so far starts to seriously drop off above 3khz, and usually show some wild swings as they do it.

Cheers,
James

And the Visaton's look like they would fit right in without having to make some kind of adapter plate.
 
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OK. Looking the specs and measurements over carefully the MHT-12 is a drop-in replacement for the LT215S, and has a freq and spl response that would allow dropping the crossover point to 3khz. This looks very promising.

Cheers,
James
 
Are your tweeters bad? Did I miss that earlier in the thread? Just wondering as I can't find it. Probably not enough patience while searching.

Great thread and fun to read.

Thanks,
John
 
nerdorama said:
Are your tweeters bad? Did I miss that earlier in the thread? Just wondering as I can't find it. Probably not enough patience while searching.

Great thread and fun to read.

Thanks,
John
Click to expand...

No, they aren't bad. They are working within their limits. But they're 31yo and one never knows when they could go, si I decided to start looking for a good replacement. And that got me to thinking about how big a jump Speakerlab did when choosing the high/mid chassis combo. Finding the info on the Visaton really started to get me interested in a tweeter upgrade and possably bumping the crossover point down a little.

Cheers,
James
 
In the Seattle area these tweeters show up now and then. I can watch for you, or you can watch our craigslist, and I could try to grab them for you. They also show up on the famous auction site.

If the Visaton model is for you a reasonable price, then maybe it IS a good way to go as you'd have all new. It looks like they are around a 90dB sensitivity, so they woud probably work ok with the original crossover. I'd use them at the original crossover point first. They are specified at rated power with a 4kHz @ 12dB high pass. A lower crossover frequency would put much more excursion on the ribbon and might increase distortion quite a lot.

John
 
Thanks John. At this point I'm only speculating and playing with ideas. There are several things in play. My speakers, a limited future for the old parts, and ideas for the future.

For me it's an Odyssey. A trip through the past, repairing the now, and looking to the future. My goals with this thread are only partly what's going on with my speakers now, but also what might be improved, and what might be usefull to others. We can let everyone benefit from my mistakes and successes.

But one thing is in my mind. My existing tweeters have a rated load of 20wrms and are being used outside of their optimal range on the low end. The Visatons have a rated continuous load of 100w, and show on paper that they can be used down to 3khz and lower, so appear to be an interesting choice. At this point they look potentially promising, and so far the best alternative that I've found to the originals. But the game is still young, and we're just beginning.

But, having said that, thank you for your kind offer. If I come to the point where I need to find originals I won't be bashful about taking you up on it.

Cheers,
James
 
nerdorama said:
I'd use them at the original crossover point first.

John
Click to expand...

Exactly what I was thinking this afternoon.

Tenative plan: replace mid-range with something better, using my current crossovers. Next address a new and hopefully improved tweeter, possibly the Visatons. Then, and only then, after selecting the respective speaker chassis, plan any changes to the crossover. The mid and high end part of the crossover are in series, so would have to be dealt with more as a single system than the bass, which are in parallel to the rest of the crossover. Is that logical? Am I making a thinking failure here? Wouldn't be the first time.

Cheers,
James
 
What happened to your old midrange drivers
Can you have them fixed ?

Oh

Foam failed and you don't have the original drivers anymore

I hope you can find some new ones
 
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