gigantic

more progress: finish is done and will cure for a few days before assembly. While it's not nearly as good as the finish work I've done on guitars, considering where it started, I'll take it. for reference, how we started: and how it's going now: because the edges were so brittle and would chip if you looked at them wrong, I put an 1/8" round-over on them. It's cleaned them up quite a bit, but I'll acknowledge that they're now modded and have little remaining resale value beyond parting out. I'm okay with that because in their previous condition, my partner was none too keen about me bringing them in the house and I don't disagree with her. They looked like I'd pulled them out of the trash, which in fact, I did. Further, this beats throwing them back in the trash, which I'd also considered because I had been moving them around in my carriage house for the past decade and had given serious consideration to putting them back on the curb. I'm glad that I didn't, this has been a fun little project so far.

I'm swapping 8 Ohm K-22-K that have torn cones for the same. since the speakers that were in there when I opened them up have an "R" stamp on them, I assume that means they've been replaced at some point in the past 51 years. At any rate, the "new" woofers should arrive on Tuesday.

Saturday morning listening:

so this keeps getting misdirected: My late build H700s are indistinguishable from H1 speakers, which have 8 ohm Alnico K-22-K woofers, except for the Type C network, which was configured around 16 ohm K-22 & K-22-E woofers. While I will most certainly test them with the OEM network, I'm going to assume that the original OIP capacitors have decayed and are no longer in original spec. Given that replacing the caps with modern construction resistors of equal value wouldn't be the same as the original network and that this specific configuration of tweeter, squawker and woofer were ultimately updated by PWK to the Type E with the flipped polarity for the mid and tweeter, would it be best for the performance of the speaker, used in a 2 channel system, as well as the primary drivers in a 7.1 surround system, to use the type E network and upgrade the capacitors and inductors to that spec? *I have no interest in selling/flipping them and I would posit that the "improvements" that I've made to the cabinets, while aesthetically better than they were before I began and arguably better than new, have nullified any resale value these might have had, which given their condition, was negligible, except for parts.

primer brought out a few finish flaws, so it got sanded and filled: I've applied a couple coats of Alkyd enamel:

I started making my own bodies, this one was mashup of Fender's Starcaster & Jazzmaster, call it a Starmaster, if you will: it was stained hot pink and given a rose gold glitter top and a tortoise top binding here, I tried my hand at relic-ing this turquoise sparkle Epiphone Wildkat that I've modded with filtertrons: this one's a Gretsch Falcon inspired hollow body: This one is a DiPinto Galaxie that I did in collaboration with Chris Dipinto, it has a built in amp and speaker: (I currently work very part time at Dipinto Guitars) This strat is finished in chartreuse sparkle and is fitted with Fralin P90's: finally, this is one of the guitars currently on my bench:

my pandemic hobby is building & painting guitars, here are a few: this was my first, a baritone Jazzmaster in burgundy mist sparkle: Next, I made this offset 12-string in sapphire blue sparkle: which was followed by this ruby red sparkle Jagmaster. (you may have noticed the I have a thing for offsets and glitter...) next, I took this completely shagged 60's Eko-inspired Dipinto Belvedere and gave is a freshening up: it received the designer's stamp of approval!

Iirc, the H700 started around 67-68 and were a response to people using the earlier H series, which were a center speaker meant to be used with KipschHorns, as primary speakers.

yep. The H700 Heresies are Heresy 1, with a 700Hz type C crossover. Typically, they had 16Ω K-22 or K-22E woofers, although this seems to have changed later in the run, to 8Ω K-22-K & K-22-R woofers, along with a change to the type E network at some point with the H1.

H 21-3/8" D 13-1/8" W 15-1/2"

back to the crossovers: it's my understanding that the Type C crossovers were matched to the K-22 & K-22-E speakers, which were 16 Ohm. My recollection of these speakers is that they sounded clear, but they also sounded quite dull, with very little bass. I realize that low-end thump isn't the strong point of these speakers, but given the 8ohm woofers, would it make sense to change the capacitor values to Type E?

finally, for today, I did an preliminary pass of filler for the staple holes, gouges, scratches dings and chips, then applied sanding sealer and grain filler. Tomorrow, they'll get a coat of primer and another pass of spot putty to fill any dings still visible after priming.

Here they are after the first pass of sanding:

the cabs have seen better days:

The tweeters had a fair amount of cadmium oxide buildup on them: They cleaned up nicely with some denatured alcohol: The crossover network looks relatively clean: it's a type C, as expected: those caps seem sketchy...

I took them to my workshop today and opened them up: K77 tweeters, K-55 Squawkers: & K-22K woofers, although these will be replaced with the same spec woofers that I'm getting from @dtr20

I’m thinking that I’ll make a second back board to play around with porting and other speakers with more low end response so I can do a not quite super heresy mod without damaging the original cabinets. separate question: I’ve found that the cabs have zero insulation material in them; what’s the best foam to use and where can I find it?

I've got a pair of AlNiCo K-22's on the way from forum member @dtr20 and have ordered a set of Dayton caps in matching values from parts express. While I understand the impulse to go all out with factory spec components that @JEM Performance sells, my conundrum was literally whether to repair these or toss them in the trash, which is where I found them in the first place. while I could conceivably resell the components for more money than the speakers are worth, it makes more sense to me to put only the effort into seeing if they're viable in the first place, before dropping a significant amount of money on them. with that in mind, replacing the crossovers alone will cost as much, if not more than what I've seen comparable units sell for; Dayton Audio caps will do just fine for now. While Heresy I will sell for $1500 or more in mint shape, I only seen H700 sell in the $500-$800 ballpark & that was for speaker cabinets in much better condition than these. While I'm not opposed to throwing good money after bad, I want to at least pretend to be sensible about it.

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These speakers owe me nothing and vice versa; I do recall they sounded ok, even with patched woofer baffles. I’m torn between a straight up restoration with tarted up cabinets or a restomod to a super heresy spec, with a woofer with better low frequency response and improved crossovers. I just picked up a pair of K-22 woofers and may get some contemporary woofers this evening to try, too. i guess I’ll take everything apart this weekend, sand and refinish the cabinets and go from there. While it’s apart, I’ll recap the crossovers- that’s cheap enough, put it back together and see what I think. I’ll also cut a 2nd back and play with porting, without altering the stock cans. I have some nice cherry plywood laying around, so I’ll either make a pair of cabinet surrounds to clad the original boxes, or if I feel ambitious, perhaps I’ll just make new boxes and improve on what’s there cosmetically, if not structurally. thoughts?

I’m interested, but I can’t PM you since I’m new; can you send me a PM?