EPI A70s - New Project

[OldiesButGoodies]

Went to the Goodwill Store this morning and found a pair of EPI A70s in the discard pile,  under the rain.  So now I have a new project.  Good tweeters,  woofers need new suspension, and the boxes could use veneering (and I need to practice veneering). And while I am at it why not recap the things.   Will keep you posted.
 

[Kingman]

They appear to be worth the effort. Good snag!

[OCCD]

Nice score!!!

[gdv]

Which Goodwill?  I might start "snoopin' around!"

The garbage pickup days aren't what they used to be!!!   

[schwarcw]

Which Goodwill?  I might start "snoopin' around!"

The garbage pickup days aren't what they used to be!!!   

George, all the Goodwill stores on the East Side of Pittsburgh separate the good audio stuff out and either send it to Goodwill Auction central or the have an arrangement with a buyer that has the first right of refusal.  I have not seen a goo piece of vintage gear in any good will store in the Penn Hill, Monroeville or East Suburban area.  You'll see some boom boxes or '80's Fisher, or Cosby junk.  But, nothing worth buying.

[OldiesButGoodies]

I received all the stuff to get these speakers back to life,upgrade the x-over (Claricaps and Mundorf,  I moved upscale!!), and replace the grill cloth.  The veneering is going ok - not as easy as I hoped - need to learn to detect the direction of the grain (which can change mid-cut,  BTW, depending on how the veneer s laid out).   Will start today on the woofers and see how that goes.  Planing to use black 3M instead of white glue - have had better luck with that in the past.

Pepe

[OldiesButGoodies]

Progress continues albeit slowly.  Woofers are back to normal.  Veneering is moving along - I am not very good at it at this point,  need practice.  

Next is staining and updating the cap filtering the tweet.

As long as I get these babies away from the trash bin for another ten years my job is done.  So far I am out abou sixty bucks - well worth the fun.

 

[OCCD]

Looking great! 

[OldiesButGoodies]

Staining in progress.

Need to do the grills.  If anyone has special tricks for stretching new fabric on a speaker grill frame,  please share!

Pepe

[OldiesButGoodies]

Finished the EPIs today (sort of). Sound is very good - as described in the web, kind of laid back. Kept the x-over simple with just the cap, no resistor in line.  Unfortunately I suspect one of the woofs may not be up to spec.  It is blarping at higher volumes   ,  and the high-end response is not as the other  (these EPIs run the woofers unfiltered) so I have a dip in response on that speaker.  So I will take a break and start researching a fix.  I can either disassemble the woof again and see if I did anything funny in refoaming it - or just buy a replacement unit off the web.  Another option is to identify woofers that would have similar response curves as the originals and buy a pair of those.  Will see what makes sense after some research.  At lower volumes they sound great though.  My wife likes the way they look with the red oak veneer.  The grill fabric replacement was really much easier than I thought - the FabricTac glue from Joans makes it easy.  The Polk 5Jrs will take a break for a while.
 
Cheers,

Pepe

[OldiesButGoodies]

After examining the EPI woofer from every angle and not finding anything wrong I decided to remove the dustcap and test it without it on.  Noise gone.  Seems the weakened old paper dustcap surface was bending and rattling at higher volumes.  Hard to believe because the cap seemed solid,  but there you go - dustcaps can sing if you let them  .  Going to see Tom tomorrow to get a pair of caps to replace these. 

[OldiesButGoodies]

Tom:

Replaced the dustcaps with yours - the noise continued.  It turns out it was not the woofers at all - it was the baffle - the MDF was loose (embarrasing not to have noticed that before).  One push with my finger and the noise stops.  So I am regluing it right and adding wood 1/4 x 1/4s to the seam to reinforce.  Will let you know.

The big dustcaps look cool though.

:-)