Brought home a pair of QLS 1's today.

Excellent idea to pass the crossovers through like that!

My mid domes are 2" Philips AD02110/SQ8 that were installed in the cabinets when I bought them. I didn't know enough at the time to realize they were replacements! I found the specs online and they are flat from 500~5kHz but never found specs for the original Peerless made mid domes so I can't compare. Anyway, they sound excellent and it's cost prohibitive to replace them all. It is odd that the Philips drivers were produced at roughly the same time as the Quantums.
 
Excellent idea to pass the crossovers through like that!

My mid domes are 2" Philips AD02110/SQ8 that were installed in the cabinets when I bought them. I didn't know enough at the time to realize they were replacements! I found the specs online and they are flat from 500~5kHz but never found specs for the original Peerless made mid domes so I can't compare. Anyway, they sound excellent and it's cost prohibitive to replace them all. It is odd that the Philips drivers were produced at roughly the same time as the Quantums.

Is there a chance that they could have come stock that way? Maybe they were a prototype and they determined the cost of those drivers was too high and decided on the ones we see typically. ;)

Seems like one of AK's speaker experts could test one of each for complete specs and compare the 2, but shipping the Infinity domes is an exercise in caution, engineering, and the power of prayer to assure the tinsel wires don't get damaged. Bottom line...if they sound good to you, why worry.:)

Now as I sit here thinking, I will need to remove the tweeter array again and my external crossover will now get in the way. The only plugs on the woofer wires are at the driver. They are still hard wired to the crossover board like the originals. The ones that plug into the junction at the board are the mid woof thru tweets. So I may have to pull the woofs after all to disconnect so I have enough slack to remove the tweet array. It's so much easier laying down. The other alternative is to cut the woofer wires and add plugs at the crossover board.

I already knew the woofers worked so I wasn't worried about having to disconnect them, especially since I could disable them by pulling the biamp jumpers and going directly through the upper pair of binding posts. Did not anticipate needing to lay them down again. I had previously thought about adding plugs at the crossover board. We'll necessity is the mother...as they say.
 
As long as the dustcap is open mesh fabric it shouldn't matter what size it is. AK sponsor Simply Speakers has a wide variety of dustcaps cheap.

If your 2 emits are dead they show up regularly on ebay. I bought 4 spares @ 40 each though you may find them cheaper. I may keep collecting them for another line source project that may or may not materialize. It's good to have this extra stuff around so when I pass my kids will wonder WTF was he thinking? :D

As I look at other pictures of Watkins woofs, it appears the poly ones have cloth dustcaps, but the paper cone ones have paper? But the woofer design is the same or at least enough to make them interchangeable. It is mainly to aid in cooling, right?

On another note, the foam surrounds are very different. Of all the foam surrounds I've had or used in the past were more like my paper woofer. So soft that you wonder what keeps them from tearing when the woofs are pounding. My poly one surround (and it IS foam) seems thicker and much, much firmer. How would the stiffness of yours compare with other ones in your experience.
 
Cloth dustcaps for cooling, yes. The new Watkins woofers have plastic dustcaps but also have venting through the magnet.

My poly surrounds were very flimsy when I bought the speakers but failed soon after. I bought my foams from Rick Cobb who came highly recommended here, but I imagine the best would come from Watkins himself. These foams seem medium firm I guess.
 
Magnets are the same on both. On the poly woofer, compared to the paper, it feels like it has the stiffness of 3 or 4 surrounds stacked atop each other. Bass output is less on the poly. But it could be fine. Once the mids are back in the other cab, I can give a better comparison.

I have accumulated enough amp power and a Behringer active crossover to go full active. My plan of attack will be using a single SS amp and using the passive crossovers as designed, but with the new components as step 1. Step 2 is bi amp with a pair of SS amps still passively. Step 3 is passive on Watkins and mid bass. Then active on mids and tweets with tubes. If I can make some successful headway, then step 4 would be to also go active on the midbass. I really don't see going active on the Watkins. The DVC's would be difficult to implement plus I just spent a few $$$ on all those caps. The whole active thing seems daunting but should be educational. I am also trying to determine a decent area to place the speakers, but don't seem to have any that are optimum acoustically anywhere in my home. :( Building a new wing for listening purposes is not in the budget. Slow process, but hopefully will be rewarded in the end.
 
Bill Watkins had some interesting insights as to the size of the magnets and how it effects the woofer "motor". More magnet isn't necessarily a good thing. It's obvious that the dual-drive woofers don't look like much compared to the current crop of subs, but they're hard to beat even today.

I think you're on the right track to try your Q's passive then active. A baseline will help decide what works best for you.

You may be surprised how well these will work in non-optimal rooms. I've been living with that situation for years now and stopped thinking about it. There's something about a line source design that can overcome a lot of room issues IMHO. But I feel your pain about the new wing! :D
 
I was able to find another poly woofer in need of refoam. I refoamed it and the poly one I had which had a stiffer suspension than the paper one. The foam on it was much thicker and it was suggested by R Cobb that someone had likely used an incorrect foam that was designed for a modern sub. The suspension on both poly woofers is noticeably stiffer than the paper woofer but comparable to each other. Therefore I am assuming they are correct and the paper one is either too soft or was designed differently. Maybe a weakened magnet?

So, I am still in wait mode for the mids to be repaired and returned. Once I get those back, I'm ready to roll. I'm getting antsy!
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You can see the one on the left has a slight ding in the frame, but was working ok. It's the one that came installed, not the one I just picked up.
 

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who is redoing your mid domes...?

AKER GordonW. He's done jobs for me previously. Hopefully he can knock them out soon. He's hasn't done this exact repair before, but if he can handle them, which I expect, it would be nice to have a go to guy in the speaker biz and also an AK to repair those pesky tinsel wires.
 
Thanks to fellow AKER tubed, 2 of the mids were repaired. I was able to open the other bad one and repair it as well. So everything is in operating condition. Tomorrow I will be moving these from my father's basement (where they have been residing during repair phase) to my LR. I haven't played them very loud at all. I will probably start tomorrow using a pair of Crown K2's in biamp mode. Needless to say, I am stoked!!! I doubt I will do any active crossover stuff for awhile. But...with the crossovers external, it will be easy to try it when I feel froggy. I need to do a little more research on it. Also assume I need to get a mic. I may experiment by ear, but know that's not the best way.

Gonna be a good day tomorrow!
 
nice work...

the paper watkins are easier to push in, mine are...i think part of it may be the weight of the coating on the paper, seems pretty heavy...who knows...

we need pics...!
 
Thanks to fellow AKER tubed, 2 of the mids were repaired. I was able to open the other bad one and repair it as well. So everything is in operating condition. Tomorrow I will be moving these from my father's basement (where they have been residing during repair phase) to my LR. I haven't played them very loud at all. I will probably start tomorrow using a pair of Crown K2's in biamp mode. Needless to say, I am stoked!!! I doubt I will do any active crossover stuff for awhile. But...with the crossovers external, it will be easy to try it when I feel froggy. I need to do a little more research on it. Also assume I need to get a mic. I may experiment by ear, but know that's not the best way.

Gonna be a good day tomorrow!

Don't afraid of "playing them loud".
I am curious as to how you repaired the bad one.
I was sure when I had it
wired for success.
Thinking back with all the negativity regarding this particular mid I'm thinking I forgot to remove the coating on the vc wire before soldering:)
 
I removed all of the old exposed wiring. It took a long time to scrape off the old glue on the back of the dome. I then pulled one wrap from the top and bottom of the vc. Fed them each through a tiny hole below the windings back through the dome and over to the terminals. It seemed like very dicey work trying to sand enough finish off the wire to make good contact.

Took me couple tries but finally got enough finish off to make good contact. I was unable to solder the broken wires back together above the dome. So if any more break, I would repair them this way.

Thanks tubed for your gracious and very prompt help. If any of your repairs fail (which I doubt) I now have a way to repair them that I can perform on my own, and won't need to bother you again. :)

Now I need to move some speakers around...:)
 
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