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Speakerlab Seven restoration

BwanaJim said:
And yes Sir that is a custom enclosure and Baffle.
SpeakerLab would never have back mounted a horn tweeter or any tweeter for that matter
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We don't think its a custom baffle. It is more than likely a custom enclosure. The horn is a front mounted horn, now the tweeter is a rear mount. Why they probably mounted the tweeter on the back of the baffle is because whoever owned the speakers before me, probably thought that mounting the tweeter to the front and putting a pop sickle stick to cover up the magnet inside the cabinet was tacky.
 
If you look at the front baffle you will notice that the woofers are closer together than normal, the mid horn is shifted in tword the center and the tweeter is positioned outboard of it's normal position and there is no cutout for the tweeter magnet in the tweeter relief hole.
The crowding of the drivers near the conjunction of woofer's and midrange will substantially lower the rigidity of the front baffle, Speakerlab never did it that way.
The proof is in the tweeter relief hole, did the owner fill in the factory relief holes for the magnet clearance?
Initially I thought the tongue depressor fix was a weak point on the 7's design but over the years as my meager engineering skills improved I came to realize that if properly installed there would be no leak's and the Qb of the box would not change measurably due to depressor flex, not even with today's computer driven testing methods.
The midrange part numbers are crucial because I believe what you have there may be built from the SUPER 7 Hardware kit which added another 100 watts of power handling and boosted the tweeter high end rolloff from16-18K hz to 30,000 Hz.
That extra 100 watts really tightened up the bass at higher SPL's.
Great project guy's I look forward to meeting both of you and hearing the final result.
 
BwanaJim said:
Is there a link to Bob Crites website handy?
Thanks,
Jim
Ps hotter tomorrow.......
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I don't think we have the budget right now to buy the crites diaphragms. We should at least put them back together and listen before we do that!

BwanaJim said:
And yes Sir that is a custom enclosure and Baffle.
SpeakerLab would never have back mounted a horn tweeter or any tweeter for that matter
Click to expand...

You are right, they are different, however if this is a custom job they did a damn good job modding the baffle.

BwanaJim said:
One last thing Sir, what is the part number of the horn midrange?
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I'll get back to you on that.

BwanaJim said:
If you look at the front baffle you will notice that the woofers are closer together than normal, the mid horn is shifted in tword the center and the tweeter is positioned outboard of it's normal position and there is no cutout for the tweeter magnet in the tweeter relief hole.
The crowding of the drivers near the conjunction of woofer's and midrange will substantially lower the rigidity of the front baffle, Speakerlab never did it that way.
The proof is in the tweeter relief hole, did the owner fill in the factory relief holes for the magnet clearance?
Initially I thought the tongue depressor fix was a weak point on the 7's design but over the years as my meager engineering skills improved I came to realize that if properly installed there would be no leak's and the Qb of the box would not change measurably due to depressor flex, not even with today's computer driven testing methods.
The midrange part numbers are crucial because I believe what you have there may be built from the SUPER 7 Hardware kit which added another 100 watts of power handling and boosted the tweeter high end rolloff from16-18K hz to 30,000 Hz.
That extra 100 watts really tightened up the bass at higher SPL's.
Great project guy's I look forward to meeting both of you and hearing the final result.
Click to expand...

Good to know!

We are going to thoroughly brace the baffle, it really needs it. Especially with the massive amount of pressure these speakers can make!
Like we said before, many 1" dowels front to back. The sides are much better, and pass the knock test, must be the shape of them I suppose.

Well I hope we get them done by the DIY fest! I didn't get a chance to go in today, too busy with the ladies, and it was probably about 120° in the shop (and I am not kidding, Laith knows) Poor cats!
 
Hi LHA1992. The tweeter is a horn too, that's why I suggested that back mounting it would affect its performance. To have it working to its full potential it really should be front mounted. A P.I.T.A. I know but the end result will be better music.
 
ArtD said:
Hi LHA1992. The tweeter is a horn too, that's why I suggested that back mounting it would affect its performance. To have it working to its full potential it really should be front mounted. A P.I.T.A. I know but the end result will be better music.
Click to expand...

Its on the queue.
 
ArtD said:
Hi LHA1992. The tweeter is a horn too, that's why I suggested that back mounting it would affect its performance. To have it working to its full potential it really should be front mounted. A P.I.T.A. I know but the end result will be better music.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah I know, thats what me and Will are going to be doing. We're just trying to figure out how to cover up the hole that has to be cut for the magnet.
 
I would like any references to EV's Practice of back mounting v.s. front mounting as IMHOP back mounting would create serious dispersion problem's.....
But I'm always open for a new Idea's/proposal's .....
Please site references.........
Thanks,
Jim
 
I will E-Mail you the Installation specs if you Pm me with your E-Mail. It`s four pages with Illustrations.
 
Well EVERYTHING got in today, the blue fabric looks fabulous, and all of the caps/resistors are good. I'm impressed with the build quality of the Dayton binding posts we got as well for only around $15!
 
Well, as Will said all the parts and everything are in.

So tomorrow I'm going down to Seattle and we're gonna put in all the caps and stuff, and maybe just maybe we might give them a test run to adjust the L-Pads. Thats as long as we get everything installed.

And to just let everyone know, we still haven't chosen the veneer yet, but we will hopefully choose tomorrow.
 
So, a big change in plans today. I woke up today and found out my dad was real sick and couldn't bring me down to seattle to work on the speakers.

Lets hope i'll be able to go down there tomorrow to work on them.
 
lha1992 said:
So, a big change in plans today. I woke up today and found out my dad was real sick and couldn't bring me down to seattle to work on the speakers.

Lets hope i'll be able to go down there tomorrow to work on them.
Click to expand...

I'm already down here, so I'm going to work on them today. I thought you were just going to be 2 hours late again so I left you a note and left for the shop with all the parts.

I am planning on mounting the grills today, and putting the cloth on, bracing the cabinet a couple of times, and finding a good place for the new binding posts (I was thinking putting them on the back, because they are so nice looking)
 
Okay then. Sorry I couldn't come down there. I'll come down there early tomorrow so that we can work on them again. Don't be mad.
 
Man these tweeters are a BITCH to get out! They recessed them BACKWARDS and glued the whole front flange.
 
yes they are-Speakerlabs loved the HD RTV glue for everything mounted. I have seen bent woofer frames from trying to remove them from it!!!
DC
 
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