Boston A100's with replacement drivers...

RuSsMaN

I picked up a pair of A100's at a local pawn-o-matic for $10, probably about 2 months ago.

Needless to say, the foam was shot on both woofs. I finally got around to removing the woofs, ready to take them in for a re-foam. I notice one of the woofs cones seemed to move a little TOO much (side to side). Well, didn't take long to figure out the vc was rubbing.

Long story short, I had one woof I could re-foam, and the other, well - it'll make a nice small boat anchor.

I took the good driver into my local shop, and had them spec it out. Turns out, it specs nearly IDENTICAL to the Dayton 295-315 10" woof from Partsexpress.

What the hell, worth a try, right? I ordered 2 of the PE 10's, and got them installed today. WOW. They still have that Boston sound, but the bass is un-real compared to the stock version. I didn't expect what I'm hearing - and from a sealed enclosure at that. I can honestly say they hold their own now, musically, with deep(er), articulate bass.

So for $22 each, give the Dayton 10 a shot. Not only is it a great drop-in replacement, but I'd consider it a substantial upgrade over the stock woof.

On another note, when I removed the Boston 10's, they appeared almost identical to the drivers in my Advent Legacy's. I may have to pull one of the Legacy drivers and see where it specs out.

Cheers,
Russ

gatemplin

Looks great Russ,

But where do you take your drivers to get the T/S specs?

RuSsMaN

I take them into a local shop that does my re-foaming. The have some little box hooked up to pc that somehow pulls the specs from the driver it's connected to.

Cheers,
Russ

rskarvan

That is perhaps the simplest looking speaker that I have ever seen. Its pretty - in a minimalist sort of way.

In my attic, I have an old set of bookshelf (decent size) American Acoustics. I'm sure they are nothing fancy. They are ported. They have an 8" woof and some sort of little horn tweeter. They sound awful compared to Polk. I so want to rebuild them into something nice - just as a mini project. I've thought on many occasions of throwing a 2-way crossover in there, and a new Dayton woofer and maybe some sort of tweeter and see how they would sound.

The only reason that I want to fix-them-up is because they were the very first set of speakers that I ever purchased for myself -- back in 1985 or so. To their credit, they held up throughout all my college years at insane volumes and never were damaged. The tweets in them are more durable than polk's - for sure. Actually, just replacing the woofer with a Dayton (now that I think about it) might just be a good start. Hmmm

gidrah

Congratulations buddy. Nice snag.

RuSsMaN

Ron,

I've heard lots of good things about the Dayton 8" woof. Downright stupid amounts of bass, especially in a ported enclosure. It has a resonant freq of 29Hz, and the optimum ported box is 1.46 cu ft, with a 1 7/8" wide, by 4 3/4" long port - tuned to a solid 34Hz.

If the speaker has a horn tweeter, you might need to pad it down a bit, because of the likely efficiency mis-match. If it's a typical motorola-style horn/peizo, its probably running in the 98-100db range, and the Dayton woof will come in at 88db. Then again, there are a lot of GREAT tweets out there for under $20 a pop. The Dayton 1 1/8th's silk dome runs 89 db, and will give you similar characteristics of the soft-dome sound that you like from your SDA's

Gidrah,

Thanks bud, I was going to sell these at the gathering on the cheap, now I'm not so sure anymore.

Cheers,
Russ

TroyD

GREAT snag.

The Boston A100 was designed, well, actually it was a blatant rip off of the original Large Advent. The guys (can't remember thier names) who started Boston Acoustics were employees of Henry Kloss so it would follow that they thier designs would mimic Kloss designs.

The A100 was my first audio purchase back in, oh, 85 I think it was. My brother and I pitched in and went halves on a pair. The cabinets are still in my parents basement. Looks like I'll have to follow Russ's lead on these next time I'm home and I can get my meathooks on 'em.

Good on ya broham. I'd say that those are keepers.

BDT

RuSsMaN

Troy, repo those bad boys, and get you a couple of these Dayton woofs. Out of the box they are simply flooring me with the low end, if there is any break-in period, things will only get better with time.

Overall, they sound REALLY good, and not just for the $55, give or take, that I have in them. Actually, I'll being paying a little closer attention to Boston A series that pop up locally now.

Cheers,
Russ

jcaut

Great looking retrofit, Russ. Wish I could join the party next weekend to hear them! The Dayton woofers are a terrific bargin, and they all seem to provide phenomenal bass for their respective sizes. And rubber, not foam, surrounds!

I have a setup for determining T/S parameters of drivers as well as measuring most passive crossover components. Relatively simple procedure using MLS analysis and added-mass method of determining compliance: Takes about two minutes. I have a lot of confidence in the accuracy of my T/S measurements. If anyone else is contemplating a similar swap-out, I might be able to help.

I can also get frequency response and phase data, but I'm not real comfortable with my degree of accuracy on those.

Jason

Tour2ma

BA made some very nice, very affordable speakers. I did not realize their lineage tied back to Kloss...

dorokusai

Very nice Russ.

I remember hearing about them when you first bought 'em ...never thought they would turn into something larger

RuSsMaN

They weren't going to be any larger, physically.

I do still have the 10" passive radiators, and MIGHT still implement them, but only after I am 100% sure of my calculations and projected response.

Last thing I want to do is fubar a good pair of speaks.

Cheers,
Russ

hotwheelman

Russ,

May have dibs on a pair of the a400 with some foam rot, friend of mine knows a guy that has these and may let go of them on the cheap possibly for nuttin. Let you know if it pans out.


Mike