Boston Acoustics A series...specifics and proposing mods...

[morkys]

I notice that the A150 series III had poly 10" woofer and a poly midrange (looks similar to the T830 midrange). When was the last A200 made? Could a person take an A200 and use poly woofers and midrange from an A150 and get good sound? Any mods required? (can't remember ohms of A200 vs A150).

When was the last year the A400 made? Did any A400's come with poly woofers or midranges? Could the 8 inch woofer and/or 6" midrange of the A400 be substituted with similarly sized poly woofers from that era or later..such as the A70 II, T830, T1000, T1030 speakers? without changing the impedance in any way that would negatively affect the sound?

[Gerry S]

My response is a bit late bu here it goes. I worked for about 6 months at BA when the A series were produced. I also worked there full time from 1988 to 2000. I'd advise against any "mods" as far as swapping drivers is concerned. The driveres may look similar but have different electrical and acoustical properties.

For any given loudspeaker model, the crossover is "model specific" to that system. If you change either the speaker (woofer, tweeter, etc) or perform any "mods" to the crossover for ANY given speaker, then you will have changed the original "acoustic intent" for that speaker ! The loudspeaker/crossover inter-action is mutually inter-dependant for a desired acoustical response; change one and you have effectively changed the entire system's "performance goal " of the designer.

Boils down to this: do you want to do a "restoration" or a "modification"? From my perspective, a "restoration" means repairing or replacing any component whose properties has changed significantly or failed with time BACK TO WHAT IT WASwhen the original unit was new. Thus the term "classic" !

If you want to make "improvements", then it's a deviation from the original intent of the designer. You may like the "improvement" and think it "better" than a comparable/ fully functional/restored unit bearing that model #. But it is no longer "classic" .