TSW-510 Restoration

[Guest]

Hi all,

Just started ripping apart a pair of TSW-510s (15.00/pr at a garage sale) this evening.

- All woofers and mids need new surrounds (all cleaned up and ready for new surrounds) and one tweeter needs to be replaced (will probably do both, here I come Layne Audio).

- Solid tops and bottoms need to be refinished, got them off after a lot of grunting, groaning, and stretching with an extra-long screwdriver...whew. They are held on only by four screws so removal is doable for refinishing. These are the walnut variety, it will be interesting to see what they look like just oiled.

- Grille fabric is acceptable but most of the plastic pins on the frames are broken (but present in the inserts in the cabinets, will proably try to replace them with aluminum pins).

Just a couple of thoughts I'd like opinions on:

- I thought while I had the bottoms off I could sink some blind nuts in them for some carpet spikes. Any comments?

- The cabinet front-to-back is braced by the cardboard tube that forms the mid's subenclosure...think any more bracing is prudent?

- Side-to-side there's one brace...more?

- Any value in upgrading the internal wiring? Maybe direct solder to the driver terminals?

Just curious if anyone has any thoughts since I'll have these about as apart as they can get, except for removing the crossover board.

Thanks,

Keith

[Guest]

Well, just got done with them last night...

- Refoamed woofers and mids.

- Applied damping material to woofer and mid baskets.

- Removed and refinished hardwood tops and bottoms (stripped and finished with tung oil).

- Replaced tweeters (old ones had "poked" domes).

- Cleaned black vinyl on cabinets.

- Stripped and recovered grilles.

- Reglued all corners on the grille frames (most had come loose)

- Finished breaking off the pegs on the grilles and replaced everything with HD velcro.

They look like new now (they are just about) and sound just awesome...somewhat better than the 48s that I did a while back, mostly due to the tweeters I guess.

So, the cost breakdown:

Speakers: $15/pr (yeah, I know)

Tweeters: $87/pr

Surround Kits: $44

Grille Cloth: $20

Finishing Materials: ~$5

Velcro: $2

So, for a total of $173 and about 25 hours solid of my time, I would propose that you couldn't touch these sonically for less than $1000/pr. Comments?

Also, had the previous "owner" not let his kids poke the tweeter domes, the cost would have been $86 total. *That* would have been obscene ;-).

If anyone wants a pic or two just to see what they look like, e-mail me privately, I'd be glad to pass some on.

Oh, and about the damping material, I priced some Dynamat from BB and it was like $20 for two 10"x10" pieces...quite costly. I was wandering around Home Depot and found something called "shower pan liner". It's 40 mil PVC sheet, gray in color. Very thick. I got a 4'x1' piece for $5. I doubled the thickness for 80 mil and glued it to the basket frames with contact cement. Boy, did that deaden those baskets a whole lot. The rung like bells with and without the surrounds...now they're just a dull thud. You could probably use the same material inside enclosures as well. It's worth checking out.

Now, I just need to find a TSW-910 pair, THAT would keep me busy for a while :-).

Later,

Keith

keithh@objectfx.com