[EMI Speakers]

Oh well. Win some, lose some. I just turned my system on at a barely audible, early morning volume so as not to wake anyone in the house and noticed that the sound in one of these speakers has begun breaking up. Checked the connections and all is well. Guess I'm screwed unless I change that cap after all. If it fails, well, another 8 bucks down the drain. Only kidding about the money thing, isn't that the cost of a beer in a tavern nowadays? In truth these are superior speakers that deserve saving and it really bums me out that, after exactly one week, they may have become firewood on my watch. Too bad the manufacturer has made it so hard to repair them. Only good news is that I put my JBL 4312's in their place because they were the closest pair available that I could reach without much effort, and they HAVE been restored with new caps and pots. Have not heard them in months. I know these don't get as much love on this site as they do others, but they do sound great. 
Fall down, get back up. And on it goes.

[EMI Speakers]

I don't even know what an LC Crossover is! But yes, his info does seem to conflict with things you and I have both read on the topic. I'm still leaning toward those. Good news is these speakers have no sound issues, so those caps or crossovers or whatever they are will stay put.

[EMI Speakers]

Got this post last night from a guy that did some work on a pair of these:

Hey, great to see a fellow owner of these. I did a thread back in the winter about turning a "not-quite-a-pair" into a pair. I'm pretty sure, though, that the single crossover component is in fact a cap. In the course of my refurb, I wound up with a spare driver (er, set of drivers... whatever) that supposedly had a bad woofer. I desoldered the mystery piece and tested its capacitance; it came out at something in the 6uF range, if I remember correctly. I don't think a coil would read anything sensible like that. And to the other poster who asked, it's not wood, it's like a wax impregnated cloth. And it's not a cover or an outer shell or anything like that, it is the body of the cap. If you cut it open, you see bare wires. The caps were originally orange, although this one seems to have faded quite a bit. I would love to see something "official" listing the original cap value as I have no way of knowing if the one I pulled had drifted, so I can't use it as a guide for replacement. Enjoy! Keep us posted.

 

 

[EMI Speakers]

Well, the good news is there is no indication that the caps need replacing and after reaching out over on AK one tech guy said that if one does start to drift I could bypass the original with a new cap right alongside it, but the old cap must remain inside the inductor because there's some type of synergy that goes on between the two. I don't know the value, but I've seen a couple two way speakers with values of right around 4uf and the metal cans in these EMI's are considerably larger than the 4uf electrolytic caps I've seen, so I'm hoping the originals are perhaps an oil cap or some other sort that handles age much better than those old electrolytics. After about 20 hours of use these speakers do sound very very good. They remind me of a couple pair of KEF's I've had in the past. It's all about the mid range.

On another note, being on this site has prompted me to try and finish an AR 2A project I started last winter. Got one done only to find out the tweeter is shot, so I didn't crack open the other one. Was just gonna sell them as is, but now maybe it's time to wrestle that other grill off.

Jay

[EMI Speakers]

Yeah, I read that eBay stuff too. It's hard to read, plus I suspect that some of that stuff about modern solid states smacked of tube amp snobbery, but until I learn more I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt. Also, I'm no Techy, so I have no idea what the hell an inductor is, but I guess it at least means I can't just remove the whole thing and put in a new capacitor. I have no Tube amps yet, but do have a couple low watt solid states like a Marantz 2235B (35 watts)  and an old sony compact unit that delivers only 20 watts per channel. I wonder if 20 watts in solid state is the same as 20 watts in tubes. How many does that KLH put out? That eBay essay(?) made me wonder if the author was saying that these speakers are probably unable to handle the deep bass found in todays music. I'm certainly not playing any yet!

[EMI Speakers]

Good morning. I just became a member! Had to do it, for, as Kent notes, finding info on old EMI speakers is pretty darn hard. I'm the guy that found a pair of EMI 319's yesterday and put that post up on audiokarma, the one mentioned above in this thread. Mine are in amazing shape, save for a few nicks and scratches in the finish, but I just don't know enough about them to start experimenting with power input and amplifier type. That said, they do sound spectacular with an NAD 7400 power envelope receiver (100 watts per channel) but I have not pushed the volume. Instead I ran them for about 8 hours continuous at very low volume using easy listening music yesterday and plan on doing same at slightly higher volume today. They seem to be pretty sensitive, but again I'm not certain. No idea about ohm rating either. I'll keep searching for info, especially about that capacitor, it's type, value, and what that jacket around it does, and if I find anything I'll share it here.