sparrowho

You are correct that green or red would have been a good choice for the holiday. In fact these units replace a piece of red felt that was just draped over the top. I decided to make something more permanent as the loose cloth would skid out of place too easily. I honestly like the look of red better but since I permanently attached the brown cloth by spraying both layers it is not a option any longer. The brown felt was also thicker than the other fabrics of the same type. There was a pretty wide choice at the fabric store and brown seemed to be one of the cheapest. It was cheap enough that I could always build some more in other colors but storage of them would be a problem for me. Despite the instructions on the glue I suspect I can rip off the brown felt should it become too badly worn or dirty and add new fabric. Not likely that I would do this since blank particle board panels were only about $5 of total cost. I am very pleased that I no longer need to get up and adjust loose cloth protectors that fell down across the high freq driver. Loose felt just slid too easily for it to stay in place for more than a short time. I am going to build a couple more of these for my rear surround speakers to prevent anyone from marring the tops with a cold drink can or car keys.

I purchased my La Scalas used and the tops had been damaged from water rings. Knowing that I did not want any further damage and my significant other would like to place items on top of the speaker cabinets I thought about how to solve the problem with the least effort and expense yet still have a good solution. My solution should work for most any sized cabinet and really was cheap (less than $20 for the pair). I purchased two 2x2 x 3/4 inch particle board slabs from the local Lowes store and also a can of spray adhesive that indicated it was good for fabrics. I then went down the street to the fabric store and despite feeling quite out of place, managed to buy a piece of brown, thick felt that would cover both sides of the particle board slabs. These slabs were slightly wider than the tops of my speakers so I measured each one to determine which side was shorter as they are often not exactly 2x2 foot square. My speaker is a bit deeper than 24 inches so wanted the longest side retained. I then cut the shortest side on a table saw such that it was 23 - 5/8 inches wide. I rounded all the sharp edges with a sanding block after this. Next I applied two full coats of sanding sealer to both sides and the edges. This was to seal the particle board in case it came in contact with any water and also to provide a good surface for my spray glue. Next I cut the felt such that the top piece would wrap around the edges and overlap the back by about 1/2 inch. Felt is pretty forgiving so I didn't have to take much care with these cuts. I read the can of glue and it indicated that I should spray both surfaces for a permanent bond. I did this outdoors to avoid the mess and fumes. First the panel and then the felt. I then attached the felt to the panel and wraped the edges. I wanted it to not have any overlaps so I cut the corners of the fabric to achieve this. Once that was done I pulled back the fabric from the back or bottom of the panel, which is easy as no glue yet on the bottom of the panel. One more trip outside to spray glue on the fabric and panel bottom and the felt was then pressed back onto the bottom of the panel. This overlap was about 1-2 inch to 1 inch around all the edges of the bottom of the panel. I then cut another piece of felt to be slightly smaller than my panel dimensions and sprayed it with glue. This felt was then pressed on to the bottom of the panel such that it covered the prior fabric and all of the bottom. I now had a 2x2 panel fully wraped in felt which I could place on top of my speaker cabinet without fear that it would be scratched or vibrate. In case my description is unclear here is a few photos that may help. Parts needed Getting ready to cut felt to fit Gluing felt to panel All done Installed and doing it's job These will probably last a long time with reasonable care but if they become dirty or damaged I can replace them and still have my speaker cabinet in the same condition as it was. It took less than a few hours total time to make these felt covered panels and I am pleased with the results.

speakerfritz You are quite correct about not allowing the store to cut it to finished size. My problem was I failed to allow enough waste in my calculations. I had them rough cut another piece of 4x8 material a month earlier and the blade must have been in much better shape as I only lost about 1/4 inch on each side. I have learned my lesson and will now allow at least 1 inch of waste on each edge when asking the store to cut it. Ideally I would do all the cuts myself but handling full sheets on my table saw is not something I do well without lots of helpers. This was my first attempt at using the 11 ply material from Lowes and not likely to try it again. I have very good luck with the 2x4 panels from there and much fewer voids, but it is also different number of plys and thickness as well. It would also have helped if I had thought to bring or buy masking tape and tape all the cuts prior to letting the saw blade chew through the wood. Again my bad as I didn't figure it worthwhile since I was going to recut it all again on my table saw.

I'm sorry, but any 42 buck a sheet plywood I've seen has voids in it. I don't care how many ply's it has. I would agree with blueboy on this after buying 11 ply from Lowes last week. It was not only full of voids but the finish ply was VERY thin. To make matters worse I let Lowes cut it so it was close to my final size and figured I would recut with table saw and good Freud blade. The blade at Lowes was so dull that they splittered the finish ply back so far that I would have needed to make each panel 1" oversized to avoid the splintered cuts. Basically I ended up with firewood but will use it anyway as already paid for it. I did manage to locate void free Baltic Birch 13 ply 3/4 inch plywood at $120 per sheet and 50 miles away. Too far and too expensive for the project I was working on.

DeanG I looked through all the threads I could find on the subject of the DCR of the Hersey inductor. Per www.solen.ca I found both the #14 and #12 AIR CORED IDUCTORS PERFECT LAY HEXAGONAL WINDING inductors. I cut and pasted the specs for each here (S142.4 2.4 mH .36 22x45x89 S122.4 2.4 H .26 25x51x102 ). If I refer to other threads on this forum, such as the thread titled "Inductor upgrade for Heresy - 12 ga. vs 14 ga. wire", it indicates that the stock inductor measured about 0.4 ohms and advised using the #14 guage wire due to best cost. The S122.4 is priced at $42.68 and the S142.4 is $25.86, which is quite a difference in cost, but more importantly it seems that the #14 wire size is a closer match to the stock DCR as it is 0.36 ohms. Looking to www.partsexpress.com I find part number 266-380 for a 2.5mH 14 GA. Erse PERFECT LAYER INDUCTOR and Specifications: Wire Gauge: 14 Core Type: Air DCR: .36 ohms Power Handling: 800 watts Overall Diameter: 3-11/16". This part has a cost of $35.19 so if the 2.4 mH value from Solen is close enough it is also a better value than the Erse inductor. What I have observed in the last week was that merely doing the research for parts suppliers and prices results in me finding someone on this forum to come forth and help me with better selections and prices as well. Great support system. I do see that others have replaced the Heresy's inductor and have mixed comments about it being worthwhile. I will probably just keep to my plan to replace the caps and let it go at that.

Dean I didn't price the Auricaps from Parts Express this morning. One reason was they don't seem to offer a 2 uF in any voltage. I did check www.percyaudio.com but they no longer have the 13 uF cap listed so I would have to combine caps to get the correct value. The Parts Express caps that I considered were Dayton Precision 1% Metallized Polypropylene Capacitors and the part numbers were 027-214, 027-236, and 027-238. Since these seemed to be very good caps and a very good price they seemed appropriate. I have never tried them however and since I ordered Sonicaps from Bob it is likely my Klipsch speaker will never get a chance to try them either. Unless I hear otherwise on this forum I may consider this brand for some DIY speakers for the garage someday. With Solen I did not find a huge price increase in going from 250v to 400v devices and listed both in my research. I would agree that there is no need for the higher working voltage in a crossover network. Might only come into play if the 250v units are backordered. I probably could have saved a few bucks with the Part Express choice but decided that Bob's price was close enough and I don't have to hope that the Dayton branded caps will be good enough. Peace of mind is worth something to me. The other factor that made it a good choice for me to order from Bob is that he already had my order for caps to rebuild a Hersey networks, so it was easier to just edit that order instead of starting a new one with Parts Express.

I too am in need of a capacitor update on my 1990 La Scalas. I found that obtaining the 13 uF caps was difficult but struggled on using the suggestions in this thread. I haven't pulled the trigger yet on ordering them as wasnted to bounce my plan off those with better experience first. I researched the cap values I needed this morning and then guess-ti-mated the pobable best use of my funds. Below is my research notes and possible conclusions: RESEARCH NOTES: To rebuild La Scala AL-3 networks Dayton Precision 1% Metallized Polypropylene Capacitors DAYTON from www.partsexpress.com PMPC-2.0 2.0uF-250V PRECISION AUDIO CAPACITOR 027-214 $2.23 ea need (6) SOLEN from www.partsexpress.com 68.0uF-400VDC POLYPROPYLENE CAPACITOR $18.43 ea need (4) UNK from www.partsexpress.com 100V Non-Polarized Crossover Capacitors 68uF-100V NON-POLARIZED CAPACITOR 027-356 $1.30 ea need (4) DAYTON from www.partsexpress.com PMPC-6.2 6.2uF-250V PRECISION AUDIO CAPACITOR $4.24 need (4) DAYTON from www.partsexpress.com PMPC-6.8 6.8uF-250V PRECISION AUDIO CAPACITOR $4.45 need (4) using guesstimate on practical price/performance DAYTON from www.partsexpress.com PMPC-2.0 2.0uF-250V PRECISION AUDIO CAPACITOR 027-214 $2.23 ea need (6) = $13.38 Create 13 uF with combination below DAYTON from www.partsexpress.com PMPC-6.2 6.2uF-250V PRECISION AUDIO CAPACITOR $4.24 need (4) = $16.96 DAYTON from www.partsexpress.com PMPC-6.8 6.8uF-250V PRECISION AUDIO CAPACITOR $4.45 need (4) = $17.80 subtoal cost of the 13uF creation $34.76 UNK from www.partsexpress.com 100V Non-Polarized Crossover Capacitors 68uF-100V NON-POLARIZED CAPACITOR 027-356 $1.30 ea need (4) = $5.20 subtotal before shipping cost $53.34 Auricap from www.auricap.com2.000 µF 10% 200V .78 X .90 15.00 (1-9) 11.31 (10-24) 7.98 (25-49) Auricap from www.auricap.com 13.000 µF 10% 200V 1.42 X 1.65 38.60 (1-9) 28.96 (10-24) 20.24 (25-49) subtotal of Auricap components with two orders as 68 uF not there would yield $67.86 + $77.20 + $5.20 = $150.26 and require two orders and shipping charges Hovland Musicap from www.madisound.com 2 mfd 100V $20.75 need (6) Hovland Musicap 6 mfd 100V $31.20 need (4) Hovland Musicap 7 mfd 100V $34.30 need (4) Solen from www.solen.ca FAST CAPACITORS METALLIZED POLYPROPYLENE 250v PA200 2.0 mfd .0001 13 x 25 0.8 x 25 $1.82 need (4) Solen from www.solen.ca FAST CAPACITORS METALLIZED POLYPROPYLENE 400v PB200 2.0 mfd .0001 16 x 25 0.8 x 25 $1.94 need (4) Solen from www.solen.ca FAST CAPACITORS METALLIZED POLYPROPYLENE 250v PA1300 13 mfd .0004 24 x 38 1.0 x 40 $4.40 need (2) Solen from www.solen.ca FAST CAPACITORS METALLIZED POLYPROPYLENE 400v PB1300 13 mfd .0004 27 x 45 1.0 x 40 $4.91 need (2) Solen from www.solen.ca FAST CAPACITORS METALLIZED POLYPROPYLENE 250v PA6800 68 mfd .001 43 x 60 1.6 x 50 $16.63 need (4) Solen from www.solen.ca FAST CAPACITORS METALLIZED POLYPROPYLENE 400v PB6800 68 mfd .001 49 x 65 1.6 x 50 $16.86 need (4) Solen from www.solen.ca FAST CAPACITORS METALLIZED POLYPROPYLENE 250v PA620 6.2 mfd .0002 20 x 30 0.8 x 35 $2.69 need (4) Solen from www.solen.ca FAST CAPACITORS METALLIZED POLYPROPYLENE 250v PA680 6.8 mfd .0003 21 x 30 0.8 x 35 $2.89 need (4) subtotal for all Solen caps using 250v devices is $7.28 + $8.80 + $66.52 = $82.60 using the lowcost and more practical UNK 68 uF devices from PartExpress reduces cost to $21.28 but also requires two orders and shipping charges. CONCLUSION NOTES: Auricap solution seems way too expensive so eliminated it early on. Madisound selection was to limited for this project. Solen/Parts Express solution would likely result in higher project cost and less performance than the solution of ordering everything from Parts Express. Additionaly I have been advised that I should add or replace the tweeter polyswitch with a 0.5A device and PartExpress want $1.50 for these with part number 071-254. So even if I choose the "all" Parts Express solution component with shipping it will likely exceed $60. Bob Crites is sending me parts for my Heresy rebuilds and quoted me a resaonable price on everything I would need to rebuild the AL-3 networks and is using Sonicaps for all but the 68 uF devices. Bob must get very good discount on Sonicaps as I can't buy them as cheap elsewhere for what he will sell them to me. This makes my decision for me and I will order from Bob today. I don't know if the Sonicaps are any better than the Dayton branded units but I trust Bob on this choice even if they are marginally more expensive than the Dayton units. I was already doing the research for this and had begun to post my message when I got Bob's quote so just added it to the end. I fugure I might as well continue my post as it may help others who want to do the research for themselves as well.

I have read through this thread and it appears that I am also in need of a upgrade to my 1976 Hereseys. I have already contacted Bob Crites and he can sell me the Sonicaps at less cost than I can buy them elsewhere so I will go that route. While reading this thread, however there was a reference about changing the 2.5 mH inductor to a inductor built by Solen. I checked the list of available inductors at www.solen.ca and they do not sell a 2.5 mH inductor only a 2.4 mH and a 2.7 mH inductor. Both values are available in a wide range of wire sizes and also in both solid wire and Litz wire. Litz wire is a bit more but not dramatically in smaller wire sizes. Normally Litz wire is only used for tweeter network and it appears that the 2.5 mH inducor in the type E crossover is in the woofer leg so the Litz wire would likely not be any better than the solid wire. I do not know what the DCR of the original inductor is nor am I smart enough to determine if using the 2.4 mH Solens will change the parameters too much. Normally bigger wire is better but I suppose this can be taken to extremes as well. Thus I am uncertain if I should bother changing the inductors and if I do so which one to select. Anyone care to educate me a bit better on this before I order parts and start the rebuild of my networks?