A weekend project

[daveburt]

I bought a used Infinity Sterling center channel a couple years ago.  I got a good deal on it but it always sounded a little muddy compared to my Paradigm Monitor 9 mains.  Cranking the crossover up to 120hz helped with the muddyness but the highs still sounded a little dull...

The foam surround on one of the Infinity drivers was deteriorating and the other didn't seem far behind, and after hearing you folks talk about matching tweeters between center and mains I decided to just spend a little extra cash and upgrade the speakers.  I always liked that cabinet anyway, and Infinity builds nice Xovers (IMHO).

Anyway,  on with the project... 

Here's what the center looked like when I bought it:



Here are the parts I picked up:

2x Dayton Mid/bass drivers  (one is on backorder so I just replaced the one with the bad surround for now):
www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-nd140-4-5-1-4-aluminum-cone-midbass-driver-4-ohm--290-216

1x Beston round ribbon tweeter:
www.parts-express.com/beston-rt003c-round-ribbon-tweeter--277-114

At first I just sat the parts in place and listened a little.  The lows sounded good and the highs/voices where high, bright and clear!
Then I cranked the Xover back down to 80hz and it sounded even better!  

Here's a pic of what I've done so far, I'll install the other driver when it comes in:


(The rubber cement around the beauty ring should dry clear when it's fully cured)

Oh well, Just thought I'd share... I'm really pleased with the results and it only cost me a little more than what replacing the surrounds would have been.  Plus aesthetically the Daytons match the Paradigms better since they don't have the center dust cap.

Now I just have to go find something to watch @ Redbox... 

[jlamo]

Look like fun. I'm very curios how the tweeter sounds . I been kicking around the idea of building some bookshelf speakers with them.

[daveburt]

I'm very pleased with both speakers jlamo,  The tweeter has a really clean and bright sound to it!

The driver is pretty impressive too.  Considering their price I'm sure they'd make a decent combo for a bookshelf set.
It's kind of hard to judge how they'd sound for music but they sound excellent as a center...

After I get the other driver I'll hook it up to a separate system (while working on it) to get a better idea of how they sound musically...