hammytech

I haven't done anything new to them as far as appearance. Anything I do from now on will be purely cosmetic. I'm pretty much pleased with their overall sound right now. The only thing left stock in them is the cabinet (of course) and the 3 way factory crossover, which points are 350hz and 2Khz. The blending of the components I chose from Parts Express was a total act of fortune and educated guessing. Thanks for the interest.

Listening to "Flashing Lights" by Screaming Lord Sutch.

This is the rack in my "Not Quite a Man Cave". Out of frame positioned extreme left and right are the bass cabinets which are powered by the Crown XLS2500. The small speakers on the night stands are dedicated dome midranges crossed over at 400Hz and powered by the Carver M1.0t. Tucked away inside the night stands are a set of ESS Heil Air Motion Transformers, crossed over at 5Khz and powered by the Carver M400t. I'm using 2 Ashly XR1001's for the active crossing. My newly modded C-1 is above a dbx 120X-DS, for deep bass enhancement. Above the C-1 is an SAE parametric EQ which couples to the dbx 20/20 Eq. Music playback is accomplished via the Onkyo CD player or an mp3 player module atop the SAE. It's not a pretty setup, but oh man, does it play loud. I sit on a low-rise recliner so everything is at ear level. The Sonic Hologram effect is wide and deep and the bass power from the Crown amp is phenomenal. The new mod on the C-1 is icing on the cake.

I'm a huge proponent of the "Franken-Speaker". The CS-1 cabinets and crossover were obviously designed for specific drivers in mind, HOWEVER.... as long as you stay within the parameters of that design, say 8" woofer where an 8" woofer is needed and 2" tweeter etc., and don't buy crap speakers like Pyramid or Pyle, you should be able to muster out some form of excellent sound. Today's medium priced replacement drivers are great for projects. If you know the crossover point and ohm value of the original drivers (4 or 8 ohm, as this would heavily effect the crossover performance) then it's fairly easy shopping for replacements at Parts Express. Even some experimentation can yield amazing and surprising results, like replacing a dome tweeter with a ribbon or air motion type. Also factor in SPL @ watt rating. Try to match the tweeter with the woofer as close as possible. Dayton Audio products are a great value for the buck. I'm sorry I can't help with any info on the CS-1s, but there's bound to be a forum or some old audio review available that gives some kind of performance parameters. Thiel has always been considered "audio salon" grade speakers, so I'd definitely take a go at "Franken-ing" them.

The parts arrived from Parts Express to build my custom front grills. Here's some pics of the process and the finished mounting. This is the end of "phase 2". Next phase is probably a complete repainting or finishing of the black finish. Maybe even some cabinet texture like pro speakers have. The top plastic piece that I threw out (it held the tucked in pillow-case grill in place) I want to replace with a nice piece of real wood, say cherry or walnut.

Maxed out my attachments, so here's the rest of "Phase One". Enjoy.

A work colleague and friend bestowed upon me a set of AR-93Q's. I was totally unaware of these side firing woofer speakers until I went to pick the set up. Their pillow case grills were still intact, but I dismantled them to gain access to the speakers. I'm guessing all the drivers were original, but they were beat bad. The tweeters had their dust caps poked in and all the other drivers had seen better days. I'm not big on restoring things to original, so I ordered parts from Parts Express to replace everything. I kept the stock crossovers, which had points at 350hz and 2Khz. I needed a tweeter that could handle 2Khz up to 20Khz. I found that in a Visaton dome. The mid-bass was easy, because Parts Express had them on sale. Selenium 8"ers. The woofers, 4 of them, all had to match and have some excellent bass. Dayton Audio Classic 8" woofer was my choice. I'm not going to wrap the speakers back up in the pillow case, so I got metal grills for the side firing woofers. For the fronts, I'm making custom grills to be held on with magnets. I'll post pics of them when I get that done. Those parts are still in the mail. Here's work so far:

There is Bi-Amping, which is awesome, and recommended... and then there is Tri-Amping. Example.