Cracking open the 2A's...

hochpt21

Wish me luck...

Planning to armacell, dynamat, secure the magnets and put in larry's rings.

zane77

All of those are very easy, just take your time and have fun. Enjoy the music after you finish.

hochpt21

I hope there are a few SDA masters checking the forum today. I'll be posting in this thread as I run into issues. I'm sure these may be silly questions or have been answered a million times before, but I'll try to only ask the ones I can't figure out on my own.

I have a number of SDA modification threads up as we speak.

hochpt21

First Question...Is there too much polyfill jammed in by the mids and tweets?? It seems pretty stuffed.

Second question...Is there supposed to be styrofoam inside the passive? Looks built into it, but I've never seen that before.

Thank you!

hochpt21

If anyone can answer the questions above, especially the one about the polyfill, that would be helpful.

Also, am I supposed to armaflex the tweeter as well?

Thanks,
Paul

EndersShadow

Cant help ya with the first one...

hochpt21 wrote: »

Also, am I supposed to armaflex the tweeter as well?

But yes

F1nut

Is there too much polyfill jammed in by the mids and tweets??

No, there is suppose to be lots of polyfill. It should all be behind the mids/tweets, you don't want any behind the PR's.

Also, am I supposed to armaflex the tweeter as well?

If your stock gaskets are not damaged, you don't need to change them on anything.

Is there supposed to be styrofoam inside the passive?

Yes.

hochpt21

Thank you Enders and F1!

hochpt21

Before I took these apart I ran the white noise test, and when the balance was shifted to the left, I was getting noise out of one driver on the right side....but when the balance was shifted to the right, I was getting no sound out of the left speaker at all.

So I know I have a problem.

My question then is regarding wiring...I'll go one speaker at a time.

Is it correct if the right channel has two drivers....and the driver on the right has a white and a blue wire...and the blue wire is connected to the lead with the red dot on the driver?

Is it correct if the right channel has two drivers....and the driver on the left has a white and a black wire...and the black wire is connected to the lead with the red dot on the driver?

pitdogg2

Black and white wires are for stereo colored wires(blue yellow green) are for dimensional side. White always neutral colored always positive. LABEL EVERYTHING if you plan on any XO upgrade. Take pictures of wires where attached to i.e. Cup and blade/blade interconnect.

hochpt21

pitdogg2 wrote: »

White always neutral colored always positive.

The SDA handbook says driver is correctly wired when the black lead is connected to the terminal marked with a dot or red paint. Ok I got that for the stereo side....but does the white or blue wire get connected to the red dot on the dimensional side?

leftwinger57

hochptt21, I found that the SDA Handbook was very help w/ color codes when I did the 2Bs. Like finding out black was positive on tweeters and whatever else you need to find out should be in there.When pulling the mids I marked location w/ sharpie on their back labels and pos. and neg. signs before the Dynamat would cover up the color coded terminal markings.I also used painters tape on wires for easy removal and photocopied the exact schematic for my speaker so I didn't have to run from workplace to computer.As said before the polyfill is plentyful and should be snowy white and when reinstalling reroll it carefully,it should not go lower than the bottom of the drivers and not in the passsive cavity.

http://vr3mods.com/uploads/SDA_Handbook_2011_Rev2.pdf

hochpt21

Leftwinger, I have the handbook open, and there's potential that I'm and idiot, but I can't find any info on wiring other than the schematic, which I am having a difficult time reading.

hochpt21

BTW...thank you guys a ton for the help.

I do have another issue.

There is a vertical board separating the interior space between the stereo and dimensional drivers. It seems that board isn't exactly centered on either of my speakers. On the first speaker, I got the tweeter, left driver and passive in just fine....however, the right driver ring won't fit because the vertical board is closer to that side. Even though that part of the ring is flat, the board is flush with the hole for the driver.

Does that make sense?

Do I try to cut the ring so that it looks like a "C"? I will still be able to get all four posts through.

pitdogg2

hochpt21 wrote: »

The SDA handbook says driver is correctly wired when the black lead is connected to the terminal marked with a dot or red paint. Ok I got that for the stereo side....but does the white or blue wire get connected to the red dot on the dimensional side?

thought it was clear but I'll try again " White always neutral (negative) Colored ALWAYS POSITIVE (that red dot thingy)"

hochpt21

pitdogg2 wrote: »

thought it was clear but I'll try again " White always neutral (negative) Colored ALWAYS POSITIVE (that red dot thingy)"

Sorry pitdogg, you were clear. I read too quickly and thought your statement said white always positive. My bad.

So then they were wired correctly before I took them apart, and I may have a different issue since the white noise test didn't work. I'll get them back together and do the test again.

hochpt21

My last remaining issue (hopefully) is that I can't fit the dimensional driver ring in either speaker.

The vertical board is flush against that side of the hole for the driver so even though the flat part of the ring slims down to like 1/16"...it won't allow the holes to line up on the rings.

Does anyone see an issue with cutting the ring so it looks like a "C". I should still be able to get all four holes in.

Sorry for all the questions!

pitdogg2

Due to some cabinets having a center partition that was not straight from the factory YES that had to be done. I used a grinder on mine(ring) a little at a time so all holes would line up. Just make sure you remove all glue that is in the way. I used a sharp chisel and a utility knife.....Short answer is yes some of us needed to modify the rings..

F1nut

Either that or chisel/grind away on the board.

leftwinger57

We have/had similar problems. The brace in the middle of the 2b cabinets did not allow for a flush fit of the ring. The template was fine but when you go under the brace is a hair wide and I did shave it down then sanded a bit. About that schematic rap before, the there was a technical drawing and a simple figure layout of the color code and what wire went where. I think the handbook missed the same w/ the 2As and I still don't know what the difference is. I'll tell you something that I was real lucky to look closely at the drawing because all the drivers look the same(hence marking the backs) and as I now know there are 2 different sets in very specific places.So maybe we're the idot twins.

hochpt21

Thank you very much, everyone, for helping me out today.

I ended up cutting the rings, and everything is now in and back together.

Family is home now, so I won't be able to check things out till tomorrow.

hochpt21

Here is a few shots of the product I used to secure the magnets. It was self mixing and had similar psi to the JB Weld. Super easy to use.

hochpt21

Not sure why pics aren't loading correctly...

Here is a shot of what I ended up doing to the one ring on each speaker that wouldn't fit...worked like a charm.

zane77

That should work just fine.

hochpt21

zane77 wrote: »

That should work just fine.

Thanks for the help today BTW...

drumminman

Nice work hochpt21 - let us know your before and after listening impressions. Have you rebuilt that Xovers yet?

hochpt21

drumminman wrote: »

Nice work hochpt21 - let us know your before and after listening impressions. Have you rebuilt that Xovers yet?

No, all that has been done so far is new tweets, armacell, dynamat, secure the magnets and larry's rings. I think I'm gonna let them settle for awhile before I do anything else.

I don't think my impressions are different than what others have experienced, but the biggest to me was the following two points.

1) The music in general, not just the bass, seemed weightier in general. More solid feel all around.

2) Before the rings, I feel like the highs, mids and low bass were great and the mid bass maybe was missing a bit. After the rings, I feel like the speaker was more cohesive top to bottom.

I don't have much listening time under my belt, but to me the rings were a nice upgrade.