Ohm Walsh F Hope of Resurrection

Doug, I did the surround because I really didn't have much choice. Either fix it or get it fixed so I can use the speakers. Again, it won't be like the original F, because the surround characteristics is different than what Ohm had. It will play, however, as a interim solution until I got new Ohms.

I didn't use tape of any kind, because I was afraid the tape could tear the surround attachment part. The new and old surrounds could have different attachment ring diameters. I just thought of an idea that you could use the painters tape to mark the original edge of the surround attachment to the metal rim say in four perpendicular locations, but not on the surround itself. When you try to attach the new surround, it will either be smaller diameter which makes it easier to center relative to the tape, or larger diameter which you'd have to mark the new diameter with more tape and compare the original and new marked positions for centering. You could also measure the new surround diameter and mark that with additional tape relative to the original surround diameter tape marks.

I don't recall what glue was used for the surrounds. I ordered the surrounds from Stepp Audio Technologies in North Carolina. I supplied them the relevant dimensions and cone angle. I cannot find that company anymore on the web. It was 25 years ago!

The spider sagging is from years of weight on it. It could be permanently deformed. I would doubt that turning the driver over will do much in correcting the position, but it's worth a try to see what you get over a given time. 

If you're talking the internal cabinet wiring and the binding posts on the bottom of the cabinet, that's conceptually easier to do. I would caution on working on the binding posts on the metal struts holding the magnet assembly, as these attach the fragile wires that go to the cone internal wiring.

If you do fix the surrounds on the F, your could then try an experiment that I did in the mid-'80s, with a musician friend.

Remove the grilles. Have a friend listen to the same musical selection. Without him knowing or seeing what you do, remove the fuses and replace it with a short wire. Play the music. Go back to the fuse, and play the music. Then go back and forth. Without telling him what you were changing, ask what he heard for the two configurations. Get a good description. For my friend, it was clearly and consistently audibly different, and repeatable in his descriptions.

As for the internal cabinet wiring of the F, I bypassed it by directly attaching the speaker wire to the binding posts on the driver struts, and left the internal wiring unused.

pch300, that is a terrific idea (if one wishes to bypass), to go direct to the inputs on the driver struts! Superb! That will be my game plan, should the speaker's renovation come out ok. Excellent, and beneficial advice! Personally, this has been among the most practically� beneficial threads I have benefitted from on Agon.  :) 

In preparation for the reconditioning of the spiders and surrounds of the Ohm Walsh F, I removed the assembly to discover VERY stuffed cabinets! Wow, talk about jammed to the gills with what appears to be a mesh sack full of foam chunks! My first thought is, "Well, that would deaden a speaker pretty quickly!" 

I'm planning on removing this sack of debris and conducting tests with other materials. I presume that if the cabinet is left sparse, the sound signature will change radically, and likely for the worse. I wonder, however, if the mid to high frequency response will improve if a mountain of foam is not literally semi-blocking the drivers. 

As I'm thinking this through, I suspect the reason the bass bin was jammed so full was to force the sound to emanate from the driver versus emptying into the cabinet, and I also suspect the delayed propagation of the wave into the cabinet might be pretty ugly sounding. But, who knows until tried? 

I would think that a different foam might confer a nice improvement to the speaker's sound. I think I'm going to start with an empty cabinet beneath to assess the range of effects. 

Has anyone else experimented with that aspect of the speaker?