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Improving old speakers

post #1 of 3
1/19/13 at 4:14pm
Thread Starter 
Basically, I have some speakers, Sansui model S-61U, from the late 70's I believe. Got 'em off CL cheap, and they work pretty well, but I think they can be better.
 
The two issues are:
 
1) Resonance in the midranges leading to muddy sound
2) Weak bass (despite 12" woofers; closed cabinet design)
 
Right now I'm planning on at least filling the backs of the cabinets with more serious sound dampening, but I was more curious about replacing the capacitors which seem to be working as crossovers, and possibly adding resistors to reduce the mids and highs relative to the bass to flatten out the frequency distribution.
 
I'm not an EE guy, so any guidance on these would be helpful! Is it worth it changing the capacitors? They look fine, but they're also very old at this point. And which resistors should I add? Or is this just a bad idea?
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post #2 of 3
1/21/13 at 5:38pm
Without more specifics on the drivers, it's hard to say if these are even worth wasting time on - there was a lot of garbage produced in the 1970s (even from big names), and the little bit I've found with a quick search indicates these probably aren't worth fully restoring.

Building a crossover for them isn't as simple as throwing some resistors in either. redface.gif (And adding a ton of foam to the box probably won't do the bass any favors; may not even fix the mids if the crossovers are shot or the drivers are bad to begin with).
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post #3 of 3
1/23/13 at 3:06pm

OK those capacitors acting as x-overs have some thought and engineering into them....at least they should.

 

Sansui is not a great brand....but I digress.

 

The only thing I would do is put an L-Pad between each speaker to adjust the overall output.....an L ad is basically a variable resistor that will adjust output and can be handy when tuning speaker system to find the values that work to give a balanced sound between the different passbands.

 

Just popping a resistor in line with one of the speakers would give unpredictable results at best.

 

Google crossover design and you'll find it's a VERY complicated subject.

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