A fun little project.................
Polkaguy58
Posts: 352
I stopped by a Goodwill shop the other day and found a 6 dollar pair of original japanese made minimus 7 metal speakers.
Although I didn't need them, the price was right and these had the metal face plate silk dome tweeters.
I hooked them up to a Dayton Audio class D, 15 watt per channel amp mated to my computer and they sounded pretty nice.......................but, I knew I could improve them ! (famous last words)
The first thing I did was to tame the shouty tweeters with some adhesive backed black felt that I bought at Joan's Fabrics.
I disassembled the metal tweeter face plates, stuck on the material and used an exacto knife to cut out the holes.
The crossovers in these early models were a bit nicer than the Malaysian built models that later followed, but while I had them opened up, I replaced the 30 year old metallized 4.7uf cap with newer yellow mylar ones that I had in my stash.
They sounded much better with the mods.................but I knew that I could do better !
I thought that the tweeters were still too loud, which is normal I guess for a tiny cab, housing a mere 4" woofer.
Remembering that I still had my Niles stereo L-Pad box somewhere, I decided to integrate it into the system.
I did this by drilling a small hole in the back of the cabinets and feeding the tweeter wires to the outside, then snaked into the same hole external speaker wire leads and sealed them up with putty.
After marking the ins & outs, I hooked them to the Niles box.
I now can dial down both tweeters symaltaniously and found that three clicks back yeilds the best results.
The Dayton amp perches just right on top of the Niles unit and I couldn't be happier with my 6 dollar find !
Although I didn't need them, the price was right and these had the metal face plate silk dome tweeters.
I hooked them up to a Dayton Audio class D, 15 watt per channel amp mated to my computer and they sounded pretty nice.......................but, I knew I could improve them ! (famous last words)
The first thing I did was to tame the shouty tweeters with some adhesive backed black felt that I bought at Joan's Fabrics.
I disassembled the metal tweeter face plates, stuck on the material and used an exacto knife to cut out the holes.
The crossovers in these early models were a bit nicer than the Malaysian built models that later followed, but while I had them opened up, I replaced the 30 year old metallized 4.7uf cap with newer yellow mylar ones that I had in my stash.
They sounded much better with the mods.................but I knew that I could do better !
I thought that the tweeters were still too loud, which is normal I guess for a tiny cab, housing a mere 4" woofer.
Remembering that I still had my Niles stereo L-Pad box somewhere, I decided to integrate it into the system.
I did this by drilling a small hole in the back of the cabinets and feeding the tweeter wires to the outside, then snaked into the same hole external speaker wire leads and sealed them up with putty.
After marking the ins & outs, I hooked them to the Niles box.
I now can dial down both tweeters symaltaniously and found that three clicks back yeilds the best results.
The Dayton amp perches just right on top of the Niles unit and I couldn't be happier with my 6 dollar find !