Speaker Repair Complete!

So, over the course of two weeks, I managed to finish installing the new speaker surrounds onto the woofers of my thrift store purchased Dahlquist DQ-10s. Upon removal of the woofers, and handling them, it amazed me how _old_ they smelled. They reminded me of an old (army surplus?) canvas tent my father had. The smell stuck to my fingers for the rest of the day, no matter how much I washed them.

Anyhow, I re-soldered the speaker leads back on to the woofers, screwed them back into the cabinet, vacuumed off the 1/4 inch of dust that had accumulated inside the back of the speaker, and tried to carefully clean the dust off of the crossover components, re-attached an inductor and capacitor back to the cabinet...luckily I didn't have to solder that, just stick them back down.

I put the speaker grills and the expanded metal screens that protect the components back on. I carried my old Nakamichi TA-2A reciever downstairs to where the speakers were sitting (I didn't want to carry the speakers all the way up to the media room if they weren't going to work), hooked up an FM dipole antenna to the Nak, and fired it up.

The speakers sound great now!!

Later I did some research on the DQ-10 and learned that somwhere in thier life, the super-tweeter horns have been removed. Apparently this was/is a common mod for them, and smooths out the highs. I have not yet tried to eq the new rig in the media room, and will be interested to see how much tweaking will be needed to get a flat response, especially with the super-tweeter removal mod.

Thanks again to the folks at Simply Speakers, y'all make a good product. The new surrounds fit well, the provided glue worked well, and the instructions were clear and easy to follow.

Speaker Repair!!!

So, last year before we moved, I bought a pair of Dahlquist DQ-10 speakers from a thrift store for $40. Well, after we moved I tried them out and they sounded like there was something wrong with them. They sat in our media room, unused and unhooked up. When we got our TV for the media room, I had to do some re-arranging, and figured I'd just post them to craigslist or something. I got to thinking about it, wondering if they could be repaired, and for how much.
I found some places on the internet that sold new hinges (the foam or cloth rings that are around the edge of the speaker horn. The sound they described when the hinges are broken is similar to what I heard. Last night I decided to figure out how to remove the speaker grilles and inspect the individual drivers, so see maybe if it was just the hinges. When I got the grille of one off, the hinge around the woofer was completed rotted away. I decided to go ahead and order a do-it-yourself repair kit from Simply Speakers and try that out. Hopefully that will work.

p.s. I also saw that they have replacement passive radiators for the Infinity speakers that I sold in a garage sale years ago. Wish I'd known that then....never would have let them go.

New Adoption Agency

I've just been nominated to be the webmaster of a new adoption agency, Adopt for the Love of a Child, the design is somewhat '90s, but I'm planning on changing that. Go check it out, they do both domestic and international adoptions.

Fort Worth Airshow

The kids had fun watching the Thunderbirds at the Fort Worth Airshow. 

First Post!!!!!

First Post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!