Site Links
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Categories
A really rough set of high end speakers (surround glue question)
Today I just picked up a really rough set of Triad Silver Monitors. They're an MTM design wit Scanspeak Revelator woofers and Seas Prestige tweeters. One of the tweeter domes is pushed in, as are all 4 dustcaps on the woofers. I'm going to take the tweeters apart to clean them and to pop the dome back out. If they're bad enough, I'll get replacement dome & voice coil assemblies. I should be able to pop out the woofer dust caps, hopefully well enough that they look OK. The one thing I'm unsure of is what glue to use to reattach the rubber surround to the Revelator cone. I want to minimize the effects on cone resonance. About 2-3" of it seems to be affected. I don't think the usual white elmers shit that usually comes with recone kits is the right stuff because that will soak into the cone and permanently alter it. I have some M-3035 adhesive that came with the rubber surround kit for some Paradigm 7SEs. Is that my best option or something else?
Comments
Use the glue that came with the Paradigm rubber surround kit, or you can search for surround repair and see if the sites have the glue available separately.
I suppose it will be interesting to measure the woofers and compare to see if this one ends up any different. Hopefully it won't change the response in the passband region.
So, here come the pictures!
...or not. Do I need a certain post count for pics to work?
Here is the pair of speakers. Rough overall.
[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51149146536_13d197d358_z.jpg[/img]
I quickly function checked them and all of the drivers work. I didn't do any real listening but my initial impression is that they are really weak in the lower midrange and bass. They5 a small sealed design with a claimed f3 of 70hz, so I had no expectations of much bass, but I'd hoped for a lot more lower mids. I'm guessing that Triad used the same crossover as their inwall version and didn't account for baffle step losses. This would also explain their claim of 92dB sensitivity.
The tops of the enclosures are scratched and the corners are chewed up, but it's all repairable.
[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51149924694_99581b3e18_z.jpg[/img]
It looks like more of the surround separated from the cone than I thought. The tweeter is looking pretty sweet too.
[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51149146246_57578d34d0_z.jpg[/img]
The Revelators are labelled 8531K03, which turned up nothing. It looks like a stock 8531k00 with 2 bucking magnets added, presumably to raise the Qes to lower the f3 in these tiny enclosures. Speaking of which...
[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51149369338_2fb22e0333_z.jpg[/img]
10lbs of shit in a 5lb box. There's bracing everywhere, ceramic plates glued to the enclosure walls, and some ceramic cylinder running vertically. I didn't look over the crossover yet, but I did see a Solen air core inductor, so I'm guessing that the rest of the components will be good quality.
GASP! Those POOR Revelators!!
InDIYana Event Website
Are my pics showing for you? They don't for me.
Anyway, I can access the back of the dust caps through the pole piece vent, so hopefully I'll be able to get them back into shape with minimal cosmetic damage, and then once I give them a good cleaning and reglue that surround, they should start looking much better. Then I need to decide whether to put these back together and use them ir repurpose the drivers.
Wow - looks like most of the speakers on display at Best Buy, but even worse!
Had to click on them.
InDIYana Event Website
Do the SS's have vented motors? If they do, you try a cotton tipped (long) applicator to push out the dust cap.
Yes. I can see the back of the dust cap through the pole vent.
You could try a straw and suction to pull out the dome. As long it's not creased.
Seas domes can be disassembled, so I'm planning on taking them apart so I can fully clean and massage the dome into shape from the back side.
I made some progress today. I gave the woofers a quick cleaning and popped the dust caps out. I used a rounded dowel rod to do the heavy lifting, then used an angled coat hanger for the precision work. They don't look great, but they're as good as they'll get. Next I need to glue up the surrounds on 2 of them, then do a more detailed cleaning. I also took the tweeters apart, popped out the dome and cleaned them both. As far as I can tell, these tweeters only differ from the standard Seas T25CF-002 in that the front face is cut to match the diameter of the woofers and the copper faceplate insert is black. The dome is still dimpled, so if it measures differently than the other one may need to nuy replacement coil/dome assemblies.
Dowel and coat hanger
Semi cleaned and dust caps popped out
Dome popped out and all cleaned up
The tweeters have Hexadym hexagonal neo magnets? Then I would be inclined to agree.
InDIYana Event Website
Yup. It's got the hex shaped rear chambers, and when you take it apart it's got the 6 neo magnets around the voice coil assembly. The interesting thing is that the T25CF-001 has the same Hexadym magnet system, but has a different replacement coil/dome assembly than the T25CF-002.
I can't believe someone treated those like that. Good on you for saving them👍🏻
Tonight I put the drivers back in the cabs so I could start listening. They look nice next to my RBRs.
I still need to fool with positioning. Initial listening was with them not aimed properly, and the imaging was a bit washed out. So far they seem to be consistent with my original impressions: Forward, lean in the midrange. These 5" Revelators do have a lean lower midrange to begin with, but these seem even leaner than the RBRs. I think these were designed with minimal or no baffle step. I'll hook up a sub and see how they sound.
I got them positioned better and hooked up a sub, and now I'm really enjoying them. Mids are very similar to my RBRs (as they should be). The highs sound different than the RBRs, and I think I prefer them. The SB tweeters sound a little "soft" to me. Cymbals seem more metallic and realistic with the Seas tweeters.
Imaging isn't as razor sharp as the RBRs, but I have them next to each other, so they're not in the same positions, so I'll need to swap positions and see if that impacts soundstage. One thing that really surprised me was that the soundstage on the Triads seems much higher compared to the RBRs. I'm wondering if the MTM arrangement is giving a better vertical off axis response, allowing ceiling reflections to pull the image up.