Mitch Lee

Honestly, I would not be too fast to spend any money on this. Swap the tweeters and see if the problem moves with tweeter. If not, swap the caps. Does it move with the cap? This might seem like a lot of trouble. But the alternative is that you really don't know what had gone marginal. I have the exact same problem. And will be doing this when I have time. Oh, by the way, sometimes simply by playing the speakers (as long as the tweeters do not sound distorted like they are being damaged by excessive low frequency) the caps will fix themselves and stay fixed unless you leave then idle a long time. Did you go on vacation just before the problem started? None-the-less even though just a few hours of play fixed mine I am still going to replace the caps when I have time. I think it highly unlikely that the tweeters are bad. But if you think so, then swap them and find out. Much like batteries, some capacitors will go bad from lack of use. No, you will not find this is any book on electronics. But most electronics really do not like to be run at their limits or nor run at all. I have fixed several dozen receivers by simply cleaning the pots, contacts, fuses, and then simply putting Black Dog on repeat for a week! Good luck! Mitch

Yes, I have spit signals this way with no audible effect. I think the problem may come in if one reverses the process and Ys two outputs together to get a mono mixed center channel or subwoofer output. In this case my experience is that bad things happen like all the signals going to mono or the circuits becoming unstable, noisey, or cancelling each other. So in that case one would need some resistors to keep the R and L preamp outputs from seeing each other. But I have also done this with resistors in place and its seems to work fine.the details for this are all over the web.

I just replaced the more modest EV 12TRXB "triaxial" (actually woofer, tweeter, and wizzer cone) with the more robust 24 lb "coffee can" AV 12TRX driver in one of my Aristocrats. Used the original AV crossover and volume control on the tweeter. I'll do the second speaker tomorrow, but took advantage of having a mismatched set today to compare them. Well, surprise! The biggest difference is not that the B version is less efficient and does no go as deep. The tweeter is the most striking difference. The 12TRX has a much better tweeter that gives it really sweet vocals and more solid bite to trombones on Sinatra's Summer Wind. Vocals on Morning Has Broken are to die for sweet and convincing. We will see tomorrow when I replace the other 12TRXB, but my sense is (from a few minutes of listening to some Buxtehude Trios, lounge jazz, older folk-pop, and a little Cream White Room Ginger Baker magic) that these Electro-Voice Aristocrat cabinets with the better tweeter in the 12TRX speakers are one of those amazing combinations that actually reproduce the human voice in an utterly convincing manner. And that is no small feat! SO even if they have some obvious deficits (being from over 50 years ago) of dynamics, sheer volume, and transient snap; it is likely that for the sheer joy of listening to singers such as Nat King Cole and Maria Callas they will find a permanent place in my home. They are stunning vocal speakers!

I really can't explain this. And do not believe in breaking in loudspeakers. But when I first got a pair of Herecys that had only been played very softly for 30 years or more they did not go much below 75 Hz. And I initially used them with a sub, so they got nothing below 120 or so with me for another 5 years. BUT, and I know this sounds odd, after they started playing a lot of bass heavy pop music for my teenage sons as standalone full range speakers, I retested them. Much to my shock that seemed solid down to 50. And even 40 or below was pretty good. Perhaps the Herecys benefit from being played hard with lots of bass and can stiffen up in some way otherwise. Or perhap this is unique to my pair which I bought used with some water damage to the cabinets. Not much. And none visible inside or out on the drivers which always played mids and highs with spectacular clarity. But after a few months of abuse from teenage boys, they actually sound much more balanced and even beefy!