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XP-10 front grill removal?

Here's a little update on my XP-10's.

Should have titled this thread "XP-10 restorations"

The Dayton tweeters and new Solen capacitors arrived last Thursday and I was able to finish cutting the baffles for the new tweeters.

First time I've used Solen caps, man are the 50uF caps hughed and expensive!

I've installed the new base which raised it up about 2.5" over the orginal base. Not sure I like the new height but will give it a chance for a while, maybe it will grow on me??


http://www.flickr.com/photos/81961710@N02/8075339321/

What I do like about adding a new bottom of 3/4" ply is that I can cut it so that it will now support the back cover that holds the Xover and supports the back part of the top case. The top over the years started sagging a little in the back, putting stain on the cover screws forcing everything down. I have to guess previous owners had something setting on top like a plant/light/pictures etc..


http://www.flickr.com/photos/81961710@N02/8075196465/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/81961710@N02/8075309455/

The cover now fits very tight and I replaced the older 1-1/2" screws for 2" and washers.

I made new mid/tweeter baffles and reused the orginal mid box's and added 4 extra screw points to really seal the baffle to the front.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/81961710@N02/8075196037/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/81961710@N02/8075195585/

The finished baffle with orginal Fisher mid and new Tweeter installed. Every edge was glued then sealed with Silicone sealer.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/81961710@N02/8075189670/

I tried to keep the new tweeters positioned the same as the old ones so the imaging wouldn't change to much.

I've only rebuilt one of the cross overs with the new caps to see if I can hear a difference from the $10 caps I had installed years ago.

Guess what??? I can't tell a difference in the caps, cheap versus not so cheap, nada, no difference to my ears!

The new Dayton Audio Silk Dome Tweeter's turn a good speaker in to a great speaker. Really glad I tried them.

The tweeters are 4 ohm's and the orginal I measured at 9.3 ohms so you can play around with the resistance you feed the upper end to make the tweeters stand out or have them melt in with the mids. I finally settled on a 3.9 ohm Xicon rated at 25 watt power resistor and to my ears this setup sounds close to the orginal while still giving me room to use the tweeter Lpad to adjust as necessary.

I still need to open both cabinets and seal around every corner which should help the bass, not that bass is lacking in any way.

I'm pretty happy with the out come having tried playing Rock, Jazz, Soul, Blues, Classical and Country. All music types sound really good and not tiring listening all day long.
 
sipuser said:
Now if you notice in this next picture, Fisher placed the woofer nuts on the front of the baffle so if the nuts falls out there is no way to hold them in place to remount the woofer. The first screw I removed the nut fell loose, so I'm not at this time removing the others.:tears: This was not one of Fishers better ideas :nono:
Click to expand...
Hello - and fantastic documentation and community here. I'm hoping you're still out there, sipuser! I am looking at a pair of XP10s later this week and am not afraid of a bit of work, but that front grille non-removal is a serious issue, especially if the woofer needs anything. A couple of questions:

Did you ever pull the front grille? The longer sides look like they are just screwed, not glued but yes, it looks like top and bottom would be glued along with the fabric. I would be hesitant to break that glue seal apart.

About the woofer being a "doped cloth rolled edge" are those longer lasting than foam or regular paper? I just refoamed my first set of speakers and no, they aren't photo worthy without surrounds that actually fit, but they sound good. ;>). I don't expect these XP10s to be hooked up to anything or be able to open the back so it is a gamble, for sure. The problem is they would look great in my home and the La Scala Industrials I recently lucked upon, absolutely wonderful sounding in the garage, simply don't fit in the house.

Hoping y'all are well out there, thanks in advance for any comments.
 
A note to whomever comes along next - I did pick up the pair of XP-10s, and am in process of discovering the answers to my questions above -

1. Those grilles do not come off. I pulled the corner bracing from inside the cabinets, looked super closely for any brads or screw or anything front and rear and find that the grills must be glued in place. They have zero give along the sides.

2. This is not so bad for the nuts to the woofer as six of the eight woofer nuts align with the grille slats and are held in place by them and whatever else was used ( I can't tell what holds them - do those nuts have cleats of some sort?...). I pulled one bolt out at 3 o'clock (meaning one that didn't align with the grille slats) and got it back in and through to the nut securely. Fortunately, the woofers look to have been reconed already and sound and look great so I am not expecting to need to pull them. Ohms measured 3.4 and 3.3, about the same as my K43's.

WooferBoltGrillAlignment2jpg.jpg

3. The tweeters, as expected, were shot. Almost no sound coming out with 10watts peaking. Ohms measured 8.3 and 9.0. Will do a bit of diving in before ordering replacements, but the answer seems obvious from other posts here. Here's a photo of the diaphragm under one of mine:

Tweeter1Diaphragm copy.jpg
The mid in both speakers had been reconed, I think. I haven't seen a factory one but would think a gasket would have been used to cover the paper attaching to the frame. Would love to know if anyone thinks this woofer or mid is original.
MidTweet2 copy.jpg

Images of crossovers and wiring to the mid and tweeter follow:
Connections copy.jpgxOver2 copy.jpg

Last up is a closeup image of the treble control pot showing a fair amount of a slightly yellow buildup of something. On the other crossover it appeared more white than yellow. Without the tweeter it's hard to tell if this pot for treble on the back of the speakers works, the mid range controler certainly does. With both tweeters shot, the speakers did put out nice mids and surprisingly nice bass. I bought these as much for the cabinets, wanting some furniture speakers that I could rebuild to a different spec, but will wait for new tweeters before diving in to other possible needs.

TrebleControlBack copy.jpg
 
A couple more notes - I found the cabinets are a nice 1/4" walnut veneer over 1/2" particle board. The particle board being screwed into for the back panel, even when treated gently (or not so) on the times it has likely been opened in 58 years, is beginning to separate. The gap isn't enough to work any glue down in there, which would be option #1 and then clamp while drying, So I am thinking of cross braces, not to prevent possible flexing as sipuser did, but to compress the fiberboard. More info as that comes together but this is an example of what I'm seeing:
XP10_FiberBd.jpg

Lastly for the moment - I did manage to pull one of the 15" woofers and get it back in, more out of curiosity that it could be done without losing nuts. I had found ALL woofer bolts were loose to touch, barely snug at most, and tightened them up to (I think) draw the nuts the have cleats of some sort ( I think) that hold them in place while bolts are out. The only other 15" I've pulled was on a Klipsch La Scala, and those are unreachable nuts, too. So advice is - always snug woofer bolts up before removing them, you are likely pulling the nuts more firmly in place, and probably best not to move or jostle the cabinet while the woof is out for fear of nuts falling out. Anyone have a photo of those nuts, would love to see it.
XP10_WooferOut.jpg
 
Richard, thanks for adding to this thread. I'm surprised that no one else piped in. Have you finished the rebuild yet? If so how do they sound?
 
ronrico - I have them in my living room and they sound great. The bass comes up through the wood floor and the clarity or mids and highs is fabulous. There is much more info at the link above that I found only after a while on this thread. I think the link gets you to page 10, so dive deep if interested. Speaking of which, I go a pair of Pioneer PAX-30 speakers and am amazed by them, too. There came a point where I realized there is a wide range of what can be considered a great speaker, much of it being the tuning of what goes into it to levels that make up for both the speaker design and the room placement. Thanks for the comment, ronrico, something to do on a rainy day! : https://audiokarma.org/forums/index...eakers-1959-1973.479002/page-10#post-17425354
 
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