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SBLs

Thanks both. With that in mind, I may opt to leave the baffles for now, and just tidy up with a sharpie any areas where the black finish has been damaged. If I do ever replace the tweeters then the whole thing can be tidied up.

The plan is to use with grilles in-situ anyway so not a huge concern.
 
I must have been lucky then. Done it many times without physical damage to the bezels, though in practice one tweeter was dead in most cases. I always kept the good one and actually still have a spare pair salvaged from a long gone pair of SBLs when I replaced them as a precautionary measure.

No great trick, just screw in a no 12 woodscrew a tiny bit and pull with a claw hammer. Same for Linn Kans.

It will come out. The trick is to get it going just a little and work at it slowly. Then comes the big squelch.
 
hmmm... I think i'll give it one more go using 2 hammers at the same time to spread the pressure out a little. When i tried earlier the screw was either in too far and impacted the baffle or not enough and started to gouge the hole in the tweeter flange.
 
I'm unsure if the small round magnets pictured here were part of the original design or one of the black magic 'improvements'... I can't remember where I found them on the speaker as they aren't on the other!

Those magnets look like my wooden floor spike protectors!

Really enjoying this thread.

Stephen
 
Great thread. Keep the updates.
I have just taken back a pair of my old SBL's mk1 which I sold to a friend over ten years ago.
They sound great but are now looking tatty I have been thinking about a complete restoration like you are with yours.
 
I just don't see how you are going to get back to pure wood without elements of black in grain, or blowing through the veneer. Perhaps smooth them out real good and get them sprayed professionally?
 
I actually don't mind the black in the grain to be honest! I will test a section with some oil to see what the final finish might look like, and if it's no use then could potentially try my hand at re-veneering them.
 
Paint stripper and a stiff brush next stage to get the black out of the grain?

I'd suggest nylon brush, but check the stripper doesn't dissolve it first.
 
Both good suggestions, thanks! Will test an area first and see how it goes. Any close ups of corners / edges on the wrapped ones Brian? From that distance they look great! My preferred wood finish is generally walnut so if the oiled ash doesn't look up to par that's the look I'll go for.
 
Both good suggestions, thanks! Will test an area first and see how it goes. Any close ups of corners / edges on the wrapped ones Brian? From that distance they look great! My preferred wood finish is generally walnut so if the oiled ash doesn't look up to par that's the look I'll go for.
You have some pictures in an email.
 
Slow progress currently as one of the kids transported an intense vomiting bug home last week and it finally got the better of me! I did manage to continue with some sanding, and as gary mentions above i can't really do much more sanding without burning through the veneer... and it's still fairly black in places. I've decided i'll roughly finish sanding the other speaker back to a flat finish, fill in some minor holes and then re-veneer using some lovely walnut.

In other news i've waded through all the old threads on SBL crossovers which were very useful, and bought some bits and bobs to replace most of the components with upgraded equivalents. I should mention again this is only possible due to the generosity of Brian for providing some crossovers out of the goodness of his heart - many thanks again.

https://ibb.co/mygrgzS][/url]

https://ibb.co/zGKsqyb][/url]
 
Which components of the crossover are you planning to change, Fraser?

Why hasn’t this thread been moved to the diy space?
 
I'm not sure how to move it... or if I can! @Tony L ?

I think this is all the caps and resistors... would like to play with the coils too if it's worth doing but it all got a bit complicated for me:




Fraser
 
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I'm not sure how to move it... or if I can!

I think this is all the caps and resistors... would like to play with the coils too if it's worth doing but it all got a bit complicated for me:




Fraser
I think the thread really would benefit from being in the diy space given it’s a restoration project now. Perhaps a PM to Tony? There will be lots of interest in this and much knowledge others will share.

I’m no expert but I’ve ‘dabbled’ with crossovers given I have diy speakers. For the SBLs, I would start with the crossovers as they are without any changes so you can get a feel for what the speakers are doing in your room.

After that, if I was going down this road I would get hold of 2 larger boxes, get rid of the pcb, hardwire the crossovers and settle into how that sounds. If changing components I would do it one at a time starting with the HF signal path.

I have to say, I’ve found improvements by doing this to speakers to be very small but great fun to do, though I never did try it with SBLs in the end despite that being the intention.

By the way, I’ve found Mills resistors to be as good as anything else.

Only my opinion, I’ll be following this with interest.
 
Agreed, i'll try pestering Tony re. moving to DIY

I've had mixed results with crossover meddling previously. Some great results with TDL transmission lines, and particularly with some Beovox S-80s which were surprisingly capable speakers in the right set-up. I tried similar with B&W 6 series standmounts and couldn't hear anything at all; and also with some linn saras which was a considerable expense down the drain.

Your advice re. settling in with crossovers in their natural state is definitely the sensible path, and it's exactly what I would be advising anyone else to do in my shoes.

On the other hand I've got all these shiny new toys to play with...
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The crossover box is an interesting one. Originally i had intended to 'off-board' them in some suitable casework and banana plug it all neatly, but i'm not sure it's worth the expense now... I quite like the naim solution of bolting them to the rear of the speaker with the built in terminals. Ideally I'd find a bigger version of the ABS housing and retain the principle but with capacity for the larger components. I'll keep an eye open for an old power amp casing which would provide the space needed to house them at source, but for now it's pretty low down the priority list. I want to hear them first :)
 


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