Vintage Products

Re: A project well worth the effort

Eugene — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 10:49:06 GMT

Not done yet ... on more set of speakers to go.

I was a bit concerned if it would fit back into the box but it did - very tightly. I used Jantzen polyfoil caps and a combination of munsford and eagle resistors. The end result is a very nice smooth sounding S-80.2 . Me ears are liking it. The drivers were refoamed by prevoius owner back in 2008.

Still not finnished !!!! To go along with these bueaties I felt compelled to take on this addditional project.

This one had the common fault of switching itself from one function to another at random intervals. Not anymore !

Cant forget to replace the old lamps

So after a good internal cleaning, new caps and new bridge and a complete set of lamps and a little resoldering of exisiting components here and there it was ready for its first set of sounds tests. Starting with the tuner and the volume level at say 20% for several hours then slowly increasing the volume in intervals and testing the tape functions using an iPod. I guess about 15hrs or so into the "break-in" it was like a blanket was pulled off the speakers and everything smoothed out and started sounding real nice.

Somehow I lucked into getting a nice Beogram 1700 with pretty clean cosmetics and a decent MC20EN for $50. Other than a good cleaning I couldnt find anything wrong with it so I bother to "fix" it.

It was a good week indeed !!!

Re: A project well worth the effort

elephant — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 08:23:01 GMT

Claus:

Eugene:

being the closet exhibitionist and part time porno peddler that I am I thought I would flash you all my big toe !

- and interesting "litterature" on pic 3 in the original post (right hand side under the multi-meter)...

Sprung again

Re: A project well worth the effort

Claus — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 04:15:23 GMT

Eugene,

Well done - yes they are truely great little speakers!

I did more or less the same upgrade with mine - and in terms of listening pleasure it is well worth the effort(http://forum.beoworld.org/forums/t/32520.aspx).

Btw: I think "the 45-2 way" of building a cross over (components directly connectet) is better than the "the S50 way".

Eugene:

being the closet exhibitionist and part time porno peddler that I am I thought I would flash you all my big toe !

- and interesting "litterature" on pic 3 in the original post (right hand side under the multi-meter)...

Re: A project well worth the effort

yachadm — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 14:41:00 GMT

Great restoration!

Your pleasure is just beginning!

Now, let those S45's play, and "see if you can hear" the difference after about another 200 hours, after the caps break in.

Menahem

Re: A project well worth the effort

vikinger — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:58:57 GMT

Great pictures Eugene!

I have a caps kit from Martin for the S45s (with repair delayed by house move.)

I'll be sure to check your pictures again when I get around to sorting out my speakers.

Graham

EDIT My S45s are the other type! ......... probably more like the S50s!

Re: A project well worth the effort

Eugene — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:26:18 GMT

Found some better detasil pictures of the S45 rebuild and thought I would add them as well.

being the closet exhibitionist and part time porno peddler that I am I thought I would flash you all my big toe !

Now for the crossover close up. the original prior to augmentation

and the final product.

A project well worth the effort

Eugene — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 20:07:06 GMT

I completed this speaker project over the 4th of july weekend. What we have is apair of S50 and a pair of S45-2 crossover rebuild using Dayton Audio poly foil caps at B&O spec MFD value at 200VDC and Dayton Audio non-inductive audio grade resistors at spec ohm 8 W

I had refoamed the woofers on the S50 set back in January with rubber replacement surrounds from our friends at Good Hi-Fi with excellent results.

and the front view showing the repaired surround on the S50

Now unto the process of rebuilding the old crossovers

A little tight to fit it all on the old board and some rearrangements were necessary. Basically I had to spread things out

Much easiers were the S50 cross. Very simple by comparison to the S45.

and finally the result

The S50 while not popular or revered as the S45 is really not a bad speaker. I originally bought the set for about 65 USD inlding the shipping with the stands included. After testing the bass drivers and finding no problems other than rotted surrounds I went ahead and made the fix.

With the newly rebuilt cross the enhancemnt to the music detail were evident from the very start. Not a bad sounding speaker.

Now on to the the more popular S45 . When they arrived several months ago I was actually not all that impressed. They did sound good but I couldnt understand why so many Beoworlders (whose opinions I respect) hold this speaker to such high regard. I was absolutely floored by the sound quality once the project was complete, wonderful balance , outstanding music detail. Now I get it.

As a matter of fact I am listening to the S45's right now

The effort was worth every penny spent and I would do it again if the opportunity arises. The S45 is a great speaker and the S50 aint bad either.