Rebuilding old speakers « Thread Started on Nov 7, 2009, 5:24am »
I have some old Mirage speakers that have damaged cases and a couple bad drivers. I am thinking of rebuilding them for fun.
I am going to see if I can find the original drivers, but if I cannot - does anyone have some places they reco to find drivers of good quality for high end stuff at a fair price?
Denon AVR-3806; USP-1; Denon 2930 CI; EMO XPA-2 & XPA-5; Speakers: Paradigm Studio 100's fronts, UltraCube 10 Sub, CC-470v3 Center, and Paradigm "God-knows what" Surrounds; Thorens TD166 MkII w/Low Output MC & using Head Amp in USP-1; Optima HD72 projector; 106" wall-mounted Da-Lite screen; Wii; HD Direct TV DVR...and a UMC-1 soon - can't wait to get it!
Denon AVR-3806; USP-1; Denon 2930 CI; EMO XPA-2 & XPA-5; Speakers: Paradigm Studio 100's fronts, UltraCube 10 Sub, CC-470v3 Center, and Paradigm "God-knows what" Surrounds; Thorens TD166 MkII w/Low Output MC & using Head Amp in USP-1; Optima HD72 projector; 106" wall-mounted Da-Lite screen; Wii; HD Direct TV DVR...and a UMC-1 soon - can't wait to get it!
Re: Rebuilding old speakers « Reply #4 on Nov 7, 2009, 9:00am »
I have a lot of experience with drivers from Parts Express. Especially the Dayton Reference and Tang Band drivers. For the money the Reference series drivers are excellent. As Rather asked , What model are you rebuilding? It may be nearly impossible to reuse the existing crossovers with new drivers that are not exact replacements for the OEM drivers.
I have some old Mirage speakers that have damaged cases and a couple bad drivers. I am thinking of rebuilding them for fun.
I am going to see if I can find the original drivers, but if I cannot - does anyone have some places they reco to find drivers of good quality for high end stuff at a fair price?
Thanks for any reco's!
Mark
It is often impossible to find exact replacement drivers for any commercial loudspeaker, especially for older ones, as they often use custom designed units. And simply finding a woofer or tweeter of similar size and sticking it into an existing system will result in unpredictable results, since the crossover will be optimized for the exact characteristics of the OEM drivers. You'd be much better off having the OEM speakers reconed if that's the problem, or simply ripping everything out of the enclosures if you want to reuse the "boxes," or starting from scratch.
Denon AVR-3806; USP-1; Denon 2930 CI; EMO XPA-2 & XPA-5; Speakers: Paradigm Studio 100's fronts, UltraCube 10 Sub, CC-470v3 Center, and Paradigm "God-knows what" Surrounds; Thorens TD166 MkII w/Low Output MC & using Head Amp in USP-1; Optima HD72 projector; 106" wall-mounted Da-Lite screen; Wii; HD Direct TV DVR...and a UMC-1 soon - can't wait to get it!
If you go to a mirage dealer you might be able to order the drivers. This has worked for me in the past with my Polks.
Agree that you will have to do a new crossover if you change the drivers; the magnetic characteristics and spl differ greatly from one to another....
I'm not sure if the Mirage dealers nor Mirage itself has replacement drivers for these vintage speakers but its worth a try, I guess. Repairing Mirage speakers older than what 's been made since Klipsch bought them as proven to be challenging.
Good luck, regardless, and please keep up aprised of the developments.
Re: Rebuilding old speakers « Reply #11 on Nov 10, 2009, 7:33pm »
I got my confirmation back from Mirage..."no can do...we don't carry those anymore".
So, I'll try to hook them up, see what's not firing, then check the sources listed to see if maybe, just maybe I can find them out there on the web. No big deal if I can't, but it's worth a shot.
Denon AVR-3806; USP-1; Denon 2930 CI; EMO XPA-2 & XPA-5; Speakers: Paradigm Studio 100's fronts, UltraCube 10 Sub, CC-470v3 Center, and Paradigm "God-knows what" Surrounds; Thorens TD166 MkII w/Low Output MC & using Head Amp in USP-1; Optima HD72 projector; 106" wall-mounted Da-Lite screen; Wii; HD Direct TV DVR...and a UMC-1 soon - can't wait to get it!
Joined: Aug 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 4,550 Location: San Antonio TX
Re: Rebuilding old speakers « Reply #12 on Nov 12, 2009, 7:31am »
someone is selling a pair on Ebay . . that may be a less costly route. My Mirage obsession is in its full fury and your Mirage are much older than my era so I'm curious how they sound. They were very well reviewed, I recall
Joined: Apr 2009 Gender: Male Posts: 935 Location: Waukesha, Wisconsin
Re: Rebuilding old speakers « Reply #13 on Nov 13, 2009, 9:18pm »
I just had a pair of 1987 vintage Design Acoustic PS-103 three way tower speakers rebuilt with all new much better quality drivers plus a new custom crossover. It wasn't cheap, but the nice solidly built oak cabinets were still in like new shape, and I liked the basic design. The foam on the woofers and mids was rotting though.
I am totally thrilled with the result. They sound 200% better than they did when they were new. Deeper bass, and FAR better handling of the vocals.
This is them..all rebuilt and in a temporary spot in my living room to hear how they sound with a Threshold S500e power amp. It has the same power ratings as the XPA-2 which I am considering buying during the sale for use with the rebuilt speakers in my bedroom.
If your Mirage cabinets are still in good shape, you could replace all the drivers and the crossover with ones better than what was in them from the factory.
Re: Rebuilding old speakers « Reply #15 on Nov 14, 2009, 6:43am »
On my Mirage SM-2.5's, the cabinets are really shot, so I was planning on putting the existing drivers which work + 2 replacement drivers + crossovers into some new cabinets I would build to replace the old ones.
So, given the news from Mirage, I'm going to see if I can find some of the original drivers elsewhere. I did notice that one of the links someone provided has a driver that "looked" just like the original tweeters. A little research and I might be able to figure out if it truly is the same...
I'm on vacation in a week, so that will give me time to fiddle around with the Mirage and see what's possible...
Denon AVR-3806; USP-1; Denon 2930 CI; EMO XPA-2 & XPA-5; Speakers: Paradigm Studio 100's fronts, UltraCube 10 Sub, CC-470v3 Center, and Paradigm "God-knows what" Surrounds; Thorens TD166 MkII w/Low Output MC & using Head Amp in USP-1; Optima HD72 projector; 106" wall-mounted Da-Lite screen; Wii; HD Direct TV DVR...and a UMC-1 soon - can't wait to get it!
Joined: Aug 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 4,550 Location: San Antonio TX
Re: Rebuilding old speakers « Reply #16 on Nov 14, 2009, 7:40am »
Being a sick vintage Mirage addict (I even bought a Mirage stocking cap from Ebay . . lol) I am following your progress intently. . .
So, get me on the right track: you're looking for replacement drivers for the SM 2.5s? And, the cabinets are shot but restorable or your looking into making cabinets of your own? thanks
Re: Rebuilding old speakers « Reply #17 on Nov 14, 2009, 11:43am »
You are correct that I am looking for drivers and the cabinets are shot. But, they are not what I would call restorable. Given I picked up some decent woodworking skills from dear ol' Dad (who used to build cabinets/furniture/etc for a living...), I am looking into getting all drivers working, then building some nice new cabinets to put them into.
And I didn't know they made Mirage stocking caps! Cool!
Denon AVR-3806; USP-1; Denon 2930 CI; EMO XPA-2 & XPA-5; Speakers: Paradigm Studio 100's fronts, UltraCube 10 Sub, CC-470v3 Center, and Paradigm "God-knows what" Surrounds; Thorens TD166 MkII w/Low Output MC & using Head Amp in USP-1; Optima HD72 projector; 106" wall-mounted Da-Lite screen; Wii; HD Direct TV DVR...and a UMC-1 soon - can't wait to get it!
You are correct that I am looking for drivers and the cabinets are shot. But, they are not what I would call restorable. Given I picked up some decent woodworking skills from dear ol' Dad (who used to build cabinets/furniture/etc for a living...), I am looking into getting all drivers working, then building some nice new cabinets to put them into.
And I didn't know they made Mirage stocking caps! Cool!
Mark
So... basically what you want to do is throw away the old Mirage speaker systems and then design and build a new DIY solution that has similar performance? That is very do-able.
As I am completely unfamiliar with the Mirage speakers you are talking about, can you give me some idea that they are and what about them you want to replicate?
Re: Rebuilding old speakers « Reply #19 on Nov 14, 2009, 12:52pm »
I wouldn't call what I want to do throwing away the old Mirage...instead, I'd call is using what good is left of them and replacing what's bad. The main thing I want to "replicate" is just the memories...they have sentimental value, so to get them going again would be cool (even if in new cabinets) just for cool's sake.
The SM-2.5's were a nice, inexpensive 3-way produced in the early 80's.
At this point, they would not be my main speakers...just I'm looking to get them going again for the hell of it and to see if my memory of their nice sound is correct. And, I can't bear to just throw away what's left (scentiment and all that...).
Denon AVR-3806; USP-1; Denon 2930 CI; EMO XPA-2 & XPA-5; Speakers: Paradigm Studio 100's fronts, UltraCube 10 Sub, CC-470v3 Center, and Paradigm "God-knows what" Surrounds; Thorens TD166 MkII w/Low Output MC & using Head Amp in USP-1; Optima HD72 projector; 106" wall-mounted Da-Lite screen; Wii; HD Direct TV DVR...and a UMC-1 soon - can't wait to get it!
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