Rebuild old speakers

[Darklude]

Hi everyone,

Currently I've 2 old JVC speakers that do nothing in my basement. If possible, I would like to give them a second life by replacing the drivers, crossover, etc... (without breaking the bank) with something better.

I can't find any spec regarding these speakers online but here's the cabinet approximative dimension: 10.5"x11"x36" (port tube 3"x5"). Material is 3/4" particle board.

Basically they will be used to listen music while working out and some movies. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thx!

 

[lovinthehd]

What's wrong with them? They look to be in good shape....

Easier to simply buy new speakers or build new speakers from scratch IMO. If you do want to get into speaker building head over to the diy subforum...or maybe pickup this book.

 

[TLS Guy]

Hi everyone,

Currently I've 2 old JVC speakers that do nothing in my basement. If possible, I would like to give them a second life by replacing the drivers, crossover, etc... (without breaking the bank) with something better.

I can't find any spec regarding these speakers online but here's the cabinet approximative dimension: 10.5"x11"x36" (port tube 3"x5"). Material is 3/4" particle board.

Basically they will be used to listen music while working out and some movies. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thx!

You don't design a speaker that way. You start by selecting compatible drivers that can work with each other and not the box.

Reverse engineering a box to drivers is just an uphill impossible task.

 

[Brian King]

Hi everyone,

Currently I've 2 old JVC speakers that do nothing in my basement. If possible, I would like to give them a second life by replacing the drivers, crossover, etc... (without breaking the bank) with something better.

I can't find any spec regarding these speakers online but here's the cabinet approximative dimension: 10.5"x11"x36" (port tube 3"x5"). Material is 3/4" particle board.

Basically they will be used to listen music while working out and some movies. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thx!

Are the drivers in good condition? If so you should check the crossover and if it has electrolytic capacitors in the tweeter circuit, they should be replaced by film types like Audyn or Solen. If the cabinet has no bracing, add a couple of 1" dia. dowels side to side at unequal intervals from the top and bottom of the cabinet. Some sheets of sound damping on the cabinet sides, top, bottom, and back can help as well. Heavier gauge internal wiring and binding posts are also options.

As for replacing the drivers and crossover, unless you have the means to design a new crossover for the replacement drivers, you're better off to leave your speakers alone and investigate one of the many kits available from Madisound, Meniscus, or Parts Express.

 

[Darklude]

Hi everyone, thank you for your quick replies, yes the drivers are working correctly, but they are a "no name brand" and seem to be build very cheap . It's why I was looking to replace them with better one. But like TLS Guy mentioned, it's not the way to go. I'll probably go in the direction of a diy kit.

Thanks,

 

[lovinthehd]

I wouldn't call JVC a no-name brand exactly, although I don't consider them particularly as a speaker company but I wouldn't invest anything modding/changing those speakers. You might want to check out some of the speaker kits at diysoundgroup.com. Good luck!

 

[Swerd]

@Bryan King

If you're the same Bryan King, different moniker, I remember from years ago on AudioReviews, welcome to Audioholics. That guy was a rather good DIY speaker builder, who was among the first people to clue me into speaker designs by Dennis Murphy. If you're him, thanks for that tip .

 

[Brian King]

Swerd, it's me all right. I confess to being a Dennis Murphy groupie. He's done a couple of crossover designs for me and I've built some cabinets for him over the years. He's a real gentleman and a friggin' genius when it comes to crossover and speaker design.

 

[Swerd]

Swerd, it's me all right. I confess to being a Dennis Murphy groupie. He's done a couple of crossover designs for me and I've built some cabinets for him over the years. He's a real gentleman and a friggin' genius when it comes to crossover and speaker design.

You'll get no argument around here about that. I've made an effort over the years to be the resident AH Dennis Murphy fan boy. He occasionally posts here, as you may have noticed.

Sorry for spelling Brian wrong.

Richard

 

[Darklude]

Hey guys, just to show you what I mean when saying the speakers seem to be cheap, I've include some pictures of the crossover and drivers. So I should ditch these speakers boxes and start over with a new pair (I was hoping to reuse these as my main speakers tower for my future HT).

Again, thanks for your advise!

 

[lovinthehd]

What did these speakers cost new, though? Why did you have such high expectations for them? I found pretty much nothing searching for the model number SP-59B (it's a little blurry when I expand it, but that appears to be correct, yes?). Have you listened to them, do they sound particularly bad?

 

[Darklude]

They cost me nothing... Someone gave it to me a while ago. I was just curious to see if it was possible to do something better with them since the speaker box are in good shape. Honestly, the sound is "ok", I've heard better. Like I said, I've search on the web and there's no information regarding these speaker (SP-59B). Again, thx for your help, I'll let these speakers die alone and I will look for a better set

Thx!

 

[Johnny2Bad]

It is much better and probably in the end less work to just build speakers from scratch rather than trying to shoehorn new components into an existing cabinet, especially one with the port dimensions already fixed as is the case with your JVC units.

Get rid of them while you can. Every day you wait they become less valuable because people today don't want big speaker boxes anywhere near their house. They would be good candidates for use in a garage.

 

[Darklude]

That's what I will do... try to give them or they will be recycle. My garage is well served with a pair of Energy speaker and my old Denon PMA-880R.

Thx!