Ive been noticing the more and more i pull out a driver from a speaker the wiring inside is VERY THIN. Can you pull all that out and solder in some new thicker stuff and get bet performance out of the speaker. Or is the wire custom length, gauge etc.. so the resistance is right or something?

doesnt make much sense to me running 12 gauge to the speakers then inside is that crappy red and black like 20 gauge wire.

If so what kinda wire do you use for this?

You may or may not hear any real gain replacing the wire inside speakers, since it's usually a pretty short run in there anyway. It's mainly in longer runs that wire gauge starts to make any difference, like in, say, 12 foot speaker cables. It's pretty much a matter of resistance from the wire, and over a span of less than a foot it shouldn't make that much difference. That said, I'd say it's worth trying it on one set of speakers, and if you think it makes 'em sound better, then you know of a cheap upgrade for other speakers, and if you don't hear a difference, then you aren't really out anything except maybe 15 minutes of work and you know that it's not a necessary thing to spend time on in the future. :thmbsp:

thanks for the reply

Im not completely sure yet but im thinking i might do it just for the heck of it. Even if theres no difference i know its the best it can be and will never wonder WHAT IF. I like knowing its quality.

Now the question is what kinda wire do i use? speaker wire like 16 guage, 14 guage 12 guage ??? or is there a different type i should go for.

Thanks for any help.

When I replaced the XOs in my Epicures, I had a spool of 16 ga copper hanging around, so that is what I used to re-wire the internals. That is about as large as I would want to try for that job, and it replaced what looked to be 24-26 ga.

can you notice a difference at all? or were you just doing it just for knowing its there as well?

were talking like 16 guage regular speaker wire right?

thanks.

yeah, it was a spool of 16 ga copper speaker wire. I had to replace a couple of XO components and posts in my 30 year-old speakers, and used the 16 ga because that was what I had. Did it sound better? I replaced spring clips with 5-way posts, did surrounds on the woofers, replaced the old caps with Solens, replaced the resistors, and replaced the old internal wire with the 16 ga. It did sound better, but my guess is that the wire had the least contribution in the improvement. Sorry, I can't be more help. I do know that they sounded pretty good for a lot of years, with that skinny wire in there. If that was what I had, I probably would have used the same gauge. FWIW

These have the capabilities of alot of wattage runnin through them. Im going to get pics once there done. "about 2 weeks" hooked up to the akai which can put out 200 + a side. and these are 100 + efficient. :D Im swapping out the spring clip bindings with 5 way as well. radio shack has some nice lookinds plated gold ones. 5.99 each

The woofers are going into a pro refoam place around here to get re done 100% properly. they say about 2 - 3 weeks so thats when i ll get some pics and let you know what i got. Im happy anyways :naughty:

How about using 18 awg, super flexible, silicone, test lead/probe wire. Hey, the wire is used to transfer "Vital" information. If 18 is too slim, fat wire can be had in the R/C Realm of battery building (Assy.).

I've heard of people doing this in the past. However, it's usually a wire upgrade, not just gage. People use everything from nice Cardas wire to cat 5e to many others. I have read that when folks use the 47 Labs OTA, (though a light gage) there is much improvement. In using better wire, you could lose some bass impact, as it tends to tighten things up a bit and add detail.

So you know, these thoughts are based primarily on things I've read, as I've researched wire quite a bit, more than on actual experience. Good luck and enjoy! :thmbsp:

I would use the larger wire for the woofers but it really is a judgement call based on BPs and Xover parts. If it looks like it isn't worth the trouble it probably isn't. Besides refoam probably the best thing you can do for your speakers is to replace the caps and BPs with higher quality, and just because something has a thin coat of gold doesn't mean it is an improvement. If everything else is equal and you get a better connection from wire to BPs without banana plugs it should help.

Hey...go ahead and just do it...that little thin stuff sucks to begin with...and it aint gonna hurt anything to replace it with the good stuff.......

You will also sleep a whole lot better just 'NOT' thinking about it!!!! :banana:

thats exactly the way i feel about it.

thanks alot guys

Ok i am sending them in sometime this week for a refoam and thought i might as well ask them how much it would cost to re wire them and they said $50 a speaker. THAT INSANE, i thought they would say like 10 - 20 bucks for both. Is this as easy as it looks and sounds. solder iron heat it up take off the old stuff "paying attention to what wire goes where" then soldering in new thicker wire instead of the old.

I havent had a good look at the crossover yet, but is it pretty simple to un-solder and solder the wire on there? as long as im carefull i wont damage anything right?

Im thinking of going with 16 guage. MAYBE 14 but we'll see.

Well, in my case, there was only one cap and one resistor in the XO, and I was replacing everything between the drivers and the binding posts, so I just assembled the XO components, attached a lead to the interior end of the posts, installed them, attached the XO to the wiring, attached the wiring to the driver. You haven't mentioned what speakers you are rehabbing, nor how complex the XO. Some have press-on spade terminals.

If you are replacing the posts anyway, you can clip the wires at the post, and disconnect from the drivers. Then you will have a model on the bench, from which to work. When the new one looks like the old one, you can disconnect the XO. If you are careful with the iron, you will see where to apply heat to remove the leads. Install the XO in the new harness. Are you re-capping the XO? If the speakers are older, they will benefit more from the caps than from the wiring.

Ok,

I got a pair of cerwin vega d9's in great condition. I have been looking for a pair and asking questions about them on here for quite sometime but finally found some for a reasonable price.

1 of them is hooked up right now, the foam is perfectly intacked and holding but it does look a little fadded so im going to do it with the other as well.

The other one has no woofer in it right now, but i got 2 spare woofers along with it, 1 of which is perfect shape, the other has a slight wrinkle. So i will use the mint one "needing foam" and the one in the working cab right now and get it refoamed as well.

Becuase the other one has no woofer in it, i can get a good look aroung inside (15" hole looking into the 18" , 38" cabinet) and i am surprised at how thin the wiring is.


Ok now back to the topic, replacing the caps? could they be worn out? easy to do? and where do i get them?

I am going to go have a good look inside these things and see what i can see.

I am just thinking that these things are BIG and the wiring inside must be limiting them in some way. It doesnt look like these have been used to much and the tweeter and mids look great! the one hooked up right now sounds great even in MONO. I know some of you have had reviews on here saying that there cheap speakers etc.... but I like rock and nothing beats these speakers for that PERIOD. I personally dont understand some of the bashes these things get on here, they sound freeking awsome, maybe some of you had beat up pairs? or lemons. But going by just this 1 playing in my basement 2 is going to be insane.

pretty solid reviews by these people, and i would fit right into them.

http://audioreview.com/Main%20Speaker/Cerwin%20Vega/PRD_119318_1594crx.aspx

well speaker city told me they would replace the caps for 5 bucks a pop so im going to go ahead and do that. while they are re-building the woofers and foaming them, we will be working on the cabinets around here getting them all beefed up with new wire and terminals.

Another suggestion the guy mentioned was to make a stand for them to jack them up around 4 inches, he said they sound much better when they are elevated just that little bit more. I might try to do that as well.

He also mentioned about the front plate where the mid and tweet adjustment knobs are, he said they can get dirty and effect the quality and recommends finding the spot where we like them to sound, and then soldering the wires in that position on the inside to bypass that whole adjustment board. I'm not sure about this yet but will see if it makes sense once its all pulled apart.