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Boston A100's with replacement drivers...

RuSsMaN

RuSsMaN

Pudknocker
I picked up a pair of A100's at a local pawn-o-matic for $10, probably about 2 months ago.

Needless to say, the foam was shot on both woofs. I finally got around to removing the woofs, ready to take them in for a re-foam. I notice one of the woofs cones seemed to move a little TOO much (side to side). Well, didn't take long to figure out the vc was rubbing.

Long story short, I had one woof I could re-foam, and the other, well - it'll make a nice small boat anchor.

I took the good driver into my local shop, and had them spec it out. Turns out, it specs nearly IDENTICAL to the Dayton 295-315 10" woof from Partsexpress.

What the hell, worth a try, right? I ordered 2 of the PE 10's, and got them installed today. WOW. They still have that Boston sound, but the bass is un-real compared to the stock version. I didn't expect what I'm hearing - and from a sealed enclosure at that. I can honestly say they hold their own now, musically, with deep(er), articulate bass.

So for $22 each, give the Dayton 10 a shot. Not only is it a great drop-in replacement, but I'd consider it a substantial upgrade over the stock woof.

On another note, when I removed the Boston 10's, they appeared almost identical to the drivers in my Advent Legacy's. I may have to pull one of the Legacy drivers and see where it specs out.

Cheers,
Russ
 
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Very nice speakers! And, a great find.... kinda like mine :D

I got a pair of Boston A-70 Series II's from a local TV repair shop for $20 CDN. Both woofs were open VC so a very nice AK'er sold me a fine re-foamed pair of originals and - they sound great!

I love these speakers especially since I find I'm more partial to accoustic suspension designs.

Paul
 
Funny you should mention the Advent Legacy woofer. I had the same impression- really, the only obvious difference between the Legacy woofer and most of the A100 woofers, is that the Legacy has a round magnet, where many of the A100 woofers had a square magnet. If, however, you compare the Legacy woofer to a REPLACEMENT Boston A100 woofer, well, then they really DO look almost the same... the OEM replacement now has round magnets as well...

I'd certainly be interested in seeing if the Advent woofer measured the same. Heck, I might just measure the one I have laying around here- I could easily compare, since I know the specs for the Dayton 295-315 intimately (BTW, talking about bass- I'm building a speaker design that uses TWO of the 295-315s PER CABINET, in about 4.1 cubic feet total, ported to about 22 Hz. Should be bass to make your eyes cross! :D )

Regards,
Gordon.
 
Gordon,

I would be interested to hear your findings regarding the Advent Legacy woofers. Based on Orion the Legacy (v1) are from 1986 and the pair I have still has the original surrounds. After reading this post I am curious as to how the Dayton's would sound. The foam on my Legacy woofers is still in tact and still flexible but there is one very small tear on one of them and I don't think they sound as good as they could overall. I would consider getting them refoamed but the Dayton option sounds intriguing.

Jay
 
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I picked up a pair of the A150's last night for 20 bucks.
The one difference I notice right away is the 150's are 3-way and the 100's are 2-way.
Since you had luck replacing those woofs, I think I will give it a shot as well. It's not much more money than buying the surrounds. If you take the amount of time it takes to re-foam vs. just popping in the new ones, I think the new woofs is a better deal.
 
Hey, as always, your mileage may vary, but I'm pretty pleased so far - and with the new treated cones / rubber surrounds - if it works for you, they should last almost indefinately.

*update* on the sound....

They still sound great, I had been running them in on my home theater receiver for a couple days, and I could NOT believe the amount of bass from a sealed box. Come to find out, I had accidentially enabled '3d bass' (loudness). Go figure.

Yeah, I'm an idiot, I know - the bass is still there, but obviously not as up front without that 6db push at 50Hz. Then again, I know we quite a few fans of the loudness switch here, so there ya go.

Cheers,
Russ
 
I did the same thing!

and they sound GREAT. :yes: I am blown away. I found a pair of original A100's (Series I?) at a local recycling center. Took them home for $20. With the new Dayton woofers, I can find nothing to criticise. Thanks very much for posting this. Now I need to do the same thing for a pair of NHT 1.1's I have whose foam is going the way of all things.
 
Russ,
Thanks for the good word on the Daytons. I've been thinking about some projects of my own, and considering Daytons because PE has such an attractive price on them. But I was little hesitant to take the plunge for fear of not being satisfied with the sound. But if your experience was satisfactory, it makes feel like a little experimentation may be in order. :thmbsp:
 
Just for kicks, I also purchased a set of the Daytons and did pop them into my Advent Legacies. They seem to have taken a while to break in so the bass was a little weak at first but powered by my Marantz 1120 they sound very nice now.

Jay
 
FYI: Boston Acoustics was born out of the ashes of the old Advent company, so the similarity in quality, design, and sound is natural. :thmbsp:

Boston Acoustics is one of my favorite speaker company's. (The product, not the company per se.)

Artie
 
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Michael Powers said:
and they sound GREAT. :yes: I am blown away. I found a pair of original A100's (Series I?) at a local recycling center. Took them home for $20. With the new Dayton woofers, I can find nothing to criticise. Thanks very much for posting this. Now I need to do the same thing for a pair of NHT 1.1's I have whose foam is going the way of all things.
Click to expand...


Where do you find these places???
I've been to Amvet and nothing; to a local pawn shop and nothing. :sigh:
Guess I should call around and see what these people have on hand.
 
I have one record store here with the A100 but they want $200.00Cad. so you guys are doing well. The pawn shops have boom boxes or Sony speaker garbage.

I'm intrigued by the A100 because it is reminiscent in looks to Snell E/Audio Note E which si a bigger loudspeaker and ported. But the same kind of wide baffle approach.

Boston Acoustics was just purchased by the group that ownse Denon and Marantz.

Interesting driver replacement -- it's a shame you could not get it with the foam surround -- some believe that foam tranfers sound better than rubber. Suppose it depends on the rest of the design though.
 
I discovered Goldwood Sound woofers in the A100s I picked up, part number GW-1038. Can anyone comment on their suitability in the A100? They sound good to me, but maybe they would sound much better with the Boston woofer?
 

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