Calling all audio (speakers in particular) experts !

I've got myself a pair of HLX-5P's ! ... these are some speakers that were sold at a Leiser Sound, Inc. Store in Groton, CT way way back in the late 70's, early 80's. I actually remember going to the store with my Dad when he bought these... along with his Akai receiver ! (some fond memories there...) Anyway... Dad was throwing these out (about 3 years ago ) and now i'm interested in finally replacing the drivers as they are ~30 years old and falling apart !

Specs.

22" tall, 12" wide, 10.5" deep (outside dim's)
Rectagular port (baffle?) on the bottom (10 5/8" W x 4 1/4" H), which has a sloping piece that runs back (9.25") and down from the front.
Constructed of 5/8" particle board, coated with an oak veneer.
Label on the back of the speaker lists the following:
10" woofer (hard to read from the woofer, but is says something like AOR-10W)
3" Tweeter (JVC HSA0607-01F 8ohm max, 45W, 12706)
Crossover 2800Hz (this is 3 caps in parallel, 4+1+1ohm)
8 Ohm
34-20,000 Hz.

I'm looking to replace the Woofers, Tweeters and/or "crossover" (ie. caps) to get these sounding nice again. I'm looking for someone familiar with speaker design to kind of give me a hand with this (if you don't mind). I've looked around at partsexpress.com, but don't really know what i'm doing... any help here would be appreciated !

Cheers !
gs

I kinda remember these...partsexpress is your place to go, but dont browse their site. CALL THEM!
They have knowledgeable people there who usually know what you are talking about or are willing to help. They MAY even be able to suggest replacement speakers that sound better than the originals.

Dont forget that PartsExpress has a user forum too. Lots of audio geeks there.

SJ

Some of the best sounding speakers ever built were sold in the 60s and 70s, often quite cheaply. It seems to have been the sweet spot for the technology advancing enough to get it right, and not so far that the builders started cutting corners or trying something "new and improved"

I had a set of 1963 RCA speakers that I bought at a garage sale in 1986 for $5 and sold in 1991 for $1800, and I'm kind of kicking myself for selling them.

If the problem is just the speaker surrounds, it may be worth investigating a repair kit for the drivers. If the voice coils have been nicked though, then you've gotta replace them.

Hey, thanks for the advise guys.

Speaker Surround Repair Kit... hmmm.... I think this is something i'm gonna look a bit closer at as that is the major problem (at least I think so).

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Yeah, those surrounds have ... deteriorated.

Check that the cone still moves smoothly. If it does not, then you'll be better off replacing the drivers, since the voice coils will be damaged.

Yea. The cones appear to "float" ok. I realize now that the cone must have a the coil on the end, much like a tin can w/o a top or bottom and it gets centered into a matching groove in the base magnet. The surrounds must simply keep the coil centered, but not touching, within the magnet ? I've never actually "thought" about how a speaker was constructed before... I need to do a little googling around to educate myself...

This looks like to be a good idea for me, if I can actually achieve the goal of replacing the surrounds. I didn't want to sink a whole bunch of $ into it as i'm not sure of their "final" purpose. At the moment, they are going to give me some "tunes" in the basement workshop area, but if they sound better than the "mains" that came with my Onkyo HTIAB (Home Theater In A Box), which they likely are, then I will be using them there.

Thanks for this... I would not have thought to simply replace the surrounds... this is likely to be a more challenging and interesting project than I first thought !!! ... i'm just starting to wonder where the $1000 machine I need to complete this tast is gonna come in !!! ... oh wait, the CNC Robot I was gonna use for the new HT speakers !

I found a simple, effective article here: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/speaker5.htm
So at least I have the vocabulary to talk about the parts. The spider is the next thing I need to look at I suppose... so long as they are not falling apart I guess they will be ok.

Parts express seels a kit that will allow you to replace two foam surrounds on ten inch speakers for 14.99...It includes shims, foam surrounds, dustcaps, glue and a nice set of directions. If you take your time, its amazing how simple it is...

Even if they are floating well, it mau be worth the time to replace the drivers. PE has a good selection if you can match the parameters of the woofer.

This is a mystical speaker...

The 10" surround replacement kit I saw was here: http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cf...tnumber=260-925
this one is $23... if I missed the $15 one, please let me know... the extra $8 will buy me a yard of speaker grill cloth to change the existing brown to black.

Hmmm...prices have gone up...

Sorry for going a little here GS but I gotta question about speaker cloth. Currently I'm using A/C foam filter material - very open "foam rubber" type stuff about 1/4" thick for my projector vents. Not very opaque though. Do you think speaker grill cloth would be better at bocking light without restricting airflow to an undesirable extent? I haven't exhaustively pored over fabric store selections around here yet either so I might get lucky locally but I'm guessing this grill cloth is fairly unique and there wouldn't be anything truly comparable at a typical fabric store.

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hmmm... if I had the $, i'd buy a new excile.

BTW, pantyhose is supposed to work pretty well too... i'd think it would be similar to speaker cloth as far as transparency is concerned.

Since speaker cloth aims for acoutical transparency, Im pretty certain it would lead to a good amount of light bleed. I would be tempted to try one of the car engine filters. They are supposed to be the least restrictive and the waffle/accordion pattern should cut down on stray light. Especially if you get the black or grey ones...

Just a thought...

i got given a pair of celestion ul8's the drivers are perfect, the boxes need cleaning up a bit but man they sound great..

regaeds marc

Well, I ordered a surround repair kit, speaker grill cloth, and some pressfit grill guides (figured I should maybe replace the stapled on velcro being used now). While awaiting the arrival of the kit I will prep and clean the baskets & cones... and pick off any remaining surround material .

One question I have is about the gasket around the outside edge of the basket. It needs to be removed prior to installing the new surround, but my question is, what purpose does the gasket serve ? It may be that it helps keep the edge of the surround attached to the basket, in which case i'll be careful when removing it so I can re-attach it. I guess I was thinking this gasket might only be used if mounting from inside the box ? ... in which case I wouldn't need it as my speakers are mounted from the outside ? Not sure so I thought i'd ask...

Thanks again guys, for the repair advice.

cheers.

The gasket is indeed there for rear mounting. It can be removed, though I'd keep it myself.

I would not, however, remove the remaining surround until the kit arrives. The remaining surround is keeping the cone centered, and at the very least, you're going to want a good reference when you install the replacement. It'll make the job easier.

Good luck with these!

Thanks. I will try to remove them carefully and re-install, but at least I have the comfort in knowing if I really "screw the pooch" removing them, then it won't (shouldn't) effect speaker performance.

Ah, well, time has pretty much removed the surrounds ! ... i'll just be basically "cleaning up" the remains. (there is literally nothing left of the surrounds in order to keep the cone centered !) I'll have to do a good job with the shims in order to center the cone properly. From the instructions at partsexpress, it looks like the shims get installed in such a way as to not only center the coil & cone, but also serve to set the cone position axially. If i've read correctly, the surround gets attached to the cone first (centering important w/ the shims), then before the surround is attached to the basket, the cone position is set so there is a small gap between the basket and surround allowing the glue to set (~5 min) before the surround is gently pushed down against the basket to make the seal... i'm not sure if the cone just gets lowered a bit to keep any "lifting" of the surround from the basket... guess it will depend on how "tacky" the glue is at the time the surround gets attached to the basket.

Thanks. I'm looking forward to resurrecting these speakers.

I've also got a pair of Boston Acoustic A60's that belonged to my uncle. These are smaller, sealed cabinets with an 8" woofer and ~2" tweeter. The woofer surrounds are pretty much in the same state as the HLX's, and one of the plastic binding posts in the back has melted (too close to their wood stove) I decided to fix the HLX's first as i've listened to them for a long time growing up and always liked how they sound. I've not heard much except Jimmy Buffet on the BA's during some summer pool party get together's at the aunt and uncles house. If the HLX repair goes well I may fix the BA's up too and stick 'em out in the shed ! (be interesting to see how the paper cones stand up to the shed environment)

I received my shipment from parts express yesterday.

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... and i've begun the gasket removal and cleanup of the old surround.

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... next, I have to remove the dust cap for the voice coil... the ones in the kit I believe are much smaller than the existing ones, which I think are rather large. I'm wondering if leaving some residue from the existing dust caps on the cone will effect the speaker performance at all ? Maybe not noticeable to the ear i'm hoping... i'll try to do a good job cleaning the residue from the cone when removing the larger dust cap, but I don't want to risk damaging the cone, so i'm gonna take it easy...

stay tuned...

I found that using a window scraper is the best way to remove the old glue between the surround and the basket. For a couple of spots I had to use a small flat tip screwdriver to really get it cleaned up.

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I think it's pretty clean now
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The new dust cap is much smaller than the existing ones. Unfortuately I cut through the existing dust cap to remove, only to have the whole thing just pop off as the glue holding it to the cone was so dried out. The new dust cap will not do as it interferes with the wires that connect the cone to the voice coil. Oh well... I'll have to go back to parts express and see if they sell larger dust caps.

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Next is to install the voice coil shims. I set the height of the cone such that when the surround is laid in place it sits nicely on the edge of the speaker cone. This will make gluing of the surround to the cone easy.

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Next I take a look at the two types of surrounds that come with the repair kit.

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Surround choice 1

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Surround choice 2

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I've decided on going with surround choice 1 as it seems to have a better fit on the cone (choice 2 seems a bit larger), plus there is more area on the outside of the surround for glueing to the basket.

I ran it all by the "QC manager" of the house and it got her "seal of approval"

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Well.... I just got off a "chat" with PartsExpress. I inquired about returning the repair kit I have and getting a "custom" one with 4" dust caps, but apparently they don't do custom kits, they only sell the kits they have as they are designed to fit the majority of speakers. Much to my surprise, the tech offered to send me a pair of 4" dust caps at no charge ! Wow! Thanks PE ! I also inquired about the material as the existing dust cap was paper, but the cone is poly. I was told just to stay with what was originally on there, which will be good as I won't need any of the gel type superglue they recommend when gluing poly/poly. In the meantime i'll get this surround installed and the next one. I should be able to test the speakers before the new dust caps arrive and just glue them in once they get here.

Hey!!! Where'd you get that house elf???

Ordered through "Storks 'R Us" ... about 9 months from date of order to delivery!

I'm gonna give the speaker cloth a try at knocking down light spillage from my PJ as well...

Despite repeated deposits with that company I've only had one order actually delivered but so far it's high-quality goods.


Good luck with that. Just one layer?

Why not just wait for your RoGR and machine some crazy-ass louvered light baffle? Maybe you could use that deposition technique for a really far-out 3D thingy?

well. partsexpress came through in a hurry, the 4" dust caps arrived yesterday, i wasted no time intalling it. I removed the existing grill cloth and installed the new pressfit grill guides. I can officially say that working with partical board is a PITA ! I wouldn't exactly call this "precision" work as even the grills were cut out of particle board by a jigsaw from the looks of it. Not exactly fun to work with, but it does the job . As you can see from the pictures, the new grill cloth is a bit more transparent than the old, so I had to give the grills a quick coat of black paint before installing the new cloth so they wouldn't be seen. I'm using a flash in the pics so the drivers are clearly visible, but all you can really see under "normal" conditions is a bit of the silver mounting plate for the tweeters. If this becomes a distraction if/when installed in the theater, then I may mask off the tweeter and give that mouting plate a quick coat of flat black.

So officially i'm 50% finished... one down, one to go... I'm extremely happy with the way they turned out and as i've said, they really do sound good again ! Thanks again for the great suggestion of replacing the surrounds on these !


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