from worm to almost monarch butterfly

leftwinger57

So I must be on grandpa time because by 9/10 pm I'm drooling in my sleep like Homer Simpson.So over the course of early of the early morning all the birds around me are screaming feed me mom and then gabage trucks and it's over Johnny I'm up.So I go into the living room look at the Polks and put on some very low tunes and lay out a blanket and carefully place left side speaker down.I got my tools and by hand no driver drill for this I started w/ the left passive and freaked for a second that there where no wires and then slapped myself in the face ,ther'er passives.Next on to the drivers all came out w/o a problem.Well if didn't take that long I went to right side speaker and took it apart also.I also marked both the speakers for polarity and I know there is a red dot but if it were to be covered I wanted to be sure and the same w/ the wires because it's not just red and black.
Now onto the Dynamatting,I found reallly theraputic and not hard at all and was very careful and took me time w/ every piece.
As for the gaskets Mosseman up there yonder in New England happened to be right.Not a one could be salvaged and I ran to H/D got the Armacell and that was a little more interesting.It was to hefty and the passives did not lay right until I carvred it up so to speak w/ no gaps.Done.
Rescrewing and replacing all the speakers I did it like changing a tire w/ pressure on side go opposite and so on now all are torqured down.
I did notice 1 possible disturbing thing , that one of the 2 x-overs on the left was a dangling in mid air. I didn't go for that so I gently pushed it up to catch the poly fill which was unbelieveably snowy white and it's now fairly secured
DATES----Passives born on12/8/87,11/7/87

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Drivers

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left side--12/10/87---1/27/87----right side-12/14/87----
1/27/88.
They are all cleaned up BUT it's still early here and my upstairs neighboor is a new cop and I can't rattle his cage he's already given me PBA cards and we get along great. Believeme I wil let you know if I hear any tighter sound ,I know, I know the tweeters but I can do them w/ a chair in their place and it's only 8 screws....

leftwinger57

Neighbor split and tunes o'plenty are on, no sh%t already I can hear a difference in bass punch which I always thought was pretty impresive to begin with.I forgot mention I did my own version of some floor deadening.I found a type of heavy duty floor mat in my house that had rubber on the bottom for no skid and and some material on top. No not astro turf or anything that moves.before I went H/D I had a tube of clear silicone which I applied then used a alot of heavy books to weigh them down till dried. Then went to work.ALL YOU GUYS WERE RIGHT IT PAYS TO DO MODS.Next up Tweeters in a month or 2 believe me I will keep you guys informed. Thanks to all who chimed in and call it caving ,call concensesous of opinion, call it egging me on but you guys were right and I was not......LEW

Moose68Bash

Well done, LEW!

You've now taken your first step into the notorious rabbit hole!

Welcome!

[Deleted User]

Looks good. Challenged, I have to re-do my man cave!
Do you or can anyone chime in on acousta stuff and
PRs? I have three sets of speakers that have PRs and
could use some advice. I've done some reading but have
not gone that way yet.

leftwinger57

Moosebash, Your going laugh at this one. You said p/u the Armacell at H/D.Ok again it's 3 minutes from me and after all the work and doing the bottoms it's near 9 so I go.Looking back you said p/u a sheet roll of the stuff, of course I forgot that and picked up the pipe fit stuff. Now I pressed the sh%t in my hands and it compressed well and it had a slit down the middle and great this will go all around the rim.Well it went all away around but it was way to thick even under the weight of the passives and or drivers.Oh no, now what ,thankfully I have exacto knives, actual scalple and new blades.So I shaved it down it compresed to the underline of the bezel that Jesse calls it I like motor board better but it worked.If you put a mouse in there he would dead in minutes from no air.I really should reread peoples' posts and replys alot closer not mention proofreading my own rambling, no Hemmingway here .Thanks again MM........Lew

leftwinger57

Redned do not take advice from me. I got very lucky after about 60,000 people convinced me that yes mods are worth it and if you can't afford to the whole deal at one time you can do it in parts like have to.Ask F-1 the absolute authority on woodworking and redoing your inards of your speakers if he's not to busy.Lots of other people will for sure chime in but be specific on what you want to do so the guys/gals here don't have to pull teeth to figure out what you want to do.

[Deleted User]

Thanks LW57, will do. I've taken a guarded approach as well.
Maybe I'll start on the Altecs or the Nova 10s w PR and just
leave the 7's until I'm ready to do the Xovers and the whole
shootin' match...

heiney9

You haven't heard anything yet, just keep at it.

zane77

It's all good. step by step and you will finally hear what is is all about. Glad you are "nearly" convinced. Good luck with all the future mods.

leftwinger57

It's starting to swing the other way.The attitude I'm talking about. Also famous sayings out the window the old gag sayings If it ain't broke why fix it? Can't teach old dogs new tricks well this old dog is responding to that clicker and salivating at the same time. (for those who have no idea what I'm talking about, Pavlov's Dog's)

tonyb

Cool man, so you noticed some immediate improvements then ? It wasn't placebo.... or some other perceived gain to justify the money spent ?

I jest of course LW....congrats on some new found confidence. You'll start connecting more dots as time goes on. Kinda fun isn't it ?

leftwinger57

Tony ,Money spent ha, $20 for the pkg of Dynamat,$7 for the Armacell all the rest of the stuff I had .This is how I have to roll. Very economically.And absolutely yes ,I w/o a doubt heard a difference and could tell through the volume control of my pre at lower volume I was hearing better efficiency and bass boost.By now I would have said why do this but no it worked. I'm sure the clarity and sharpness for lack of a techy term the tweeters are the key for me.I get x-overs would seal the deal but they would have to wait till literally next year.

BTW

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people out there I don't think I have a need for my exposed piece of Dynamat which is way, way more than what I used to do my 2Bs p/m me and it's yours for the same price I got for ----NOTHING--- just come and we'll hear some tunes if not to early.......cenral N.J........LEW

mdaudioguy

Never heard of a worm turning into a butterfly... truly special! Congrats!

leftwinger57

That's a reference from my original post. Just a little self depricating humor ,of course it it changes from either a chrysalis or cocoon.Your talking to me ,always remember that .Thanks a lot I mean it!!!!

tonyb

leftwinger57 wrote: »

Your talking to me ,always remember that .!!!

Yeah, and it's painful at times too.

Joking with ya man...!!

zingo

Nice looking work so far, and I bet they sound great. There is a simple delight to those speakers due to only using one driver per signal; enjoy!

vmaxer

Moose68Bash wrote: »

Well done, LEW!

You've now taken your first step into the notorious rabbit hole!

Welcome!

And trust me it only gets deeper and deeper....

I never thought I would have the "stuff" i have now, really never thought I would be into vinyl again, but I have to say it is a lot of fun. I just don't seem to have time to sit, relax and enjoy it much.

Good luck and enjoy the speakers!!

leftwinger57

Thanks from all so far, I really like this place as you might tell by now, I p/md w/ someone why this place is way,way better then most other audio forums.1.1st and formost the traffic, not only daily but minute by minute and varied to the enth degree 2. not all that brand specific but if needs to be then their are experts on the brand. 3.Attitude clearly there is no snobbyishness (if such a word exsists) people here don't care what you own but what to improve on your product as I have learned over the the last 3yrs and this month is an anni for me being here.4. Site layout and for me a mental midget w/ this machine find it very easy even to post pixs ,which I cannot do on other forums.I will update when the tweets are ordered and are in you can bet the PFB on that one........Lew

drumminman

Glad it worked out for ya. You've only scratched the surface for mods though! The ideal way to do mods is one at a time, then listen for changes. Kinda cool to analyze the effect, if any, of your handy work when yo can isolate it like that.

I'm not that patient though! I tend to do several at once if others have done them and there is a general consensus about the sound quality improvement.

Moose68Bash

drumminman wrote: »

Glad it worked out for ya. You've only scratched the surface for mods though! The ideal way to do mods is one at a time, then listen for changes. Kinda cool to analyze the effect, if any, of your handy work when yo can isolate it like that.

I'm not that patient though! I tend to do several at once if others have done them and there is a general consensus about the sound quality improvement.

I did a bunch of mods all at once because it was clear to me that I would be blazing no new trails. The guys on the Forum have done the trailblazing and experimentation, and they know far more about this than I. Doing the "basic" mods about which they have documented positive results is an easy decision, if the funds are available, and it is a lot easier to do them all at once.

As new mods are tried and the results are known, then we can do them sequentially and verify results. At least, IMHO

PS: I'm impatient, too! The driving principle: Get to the best sound as fast as possible!