Peavey SP1 speaker

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What compression driver and woofer would be used in a vintage Peavey SP1 speaker? I am asking on behalf of someone else allthough they don't know it yet (local skating rink). They also have a sub cab (not sure of model# all I know is it has Peavey speakers in it) which has two 15 inch subs in it. The cab appears to be horn loaded with the speakers at the top and the horn at the bottom. I do not have access to any of the speakers (8 SP1 and 4 sub cabs) to see what's inside of them. Only one horn in one SP1 works one speaker in one sub works and one SP1 is completely dead (not sure if it is hooked up or not). Any help would be appreciated.
 
In the vintage of the SP 1 Peavey made only one compression driver, the screw on 22A.

The woofer was originally a 1505 or 1508 Black Widow, either will be getting quite fragile by this point in time.

SP 1's are a strange combination, they suffer from a huge hole in the midrange with a XO point of 800 Hz. The 22A while it works at 800 Hz is far from good sounding that low, and gives up any kind of significant power handling.

The bottom half of the SP1 is the same folded horn enclosure as the FH1 bass bin. Those bins will indeed play loud, but as far as having any kind of flat response, it just ain't happening. As with most folded horns, they run into problems with frequencies above the 300-400hz point.

So by nature of the shortcomings of the design of the SP 1, a lotta guys try to EQ a bunch of midrange into them and they simply cannot handle the power.

You'll want to first check all of the passive crossovers as peavey used some cheap crap components, and some of the problems will no doubt be failed crossover components.

The "subs" you describe don't sound like anything from the Peavey line, pics would help identify. The only "sub" i'm aware of from peavey with two 15's would be the FH2, totally unlike what you describe. If the dual 15's are visible at the top front of the enclosure, they sound like double scoops (rear loaded horn)
 
This compression driver might work http://sixstardj.com/pe22codr.html Has a usable frequency down to 500hz and according to what I got from a website "THE PEAVEY 22XT IS A 1" EXTENDED HIGH FREQUENCY DRIVER THAT HANDLES 40 WATTS RMS & 80 WATTS PROGRAM
ULTRA-DURABLE AIRCRAFT-GRADE TITANIUM DIAPHRAGM
"PRODUCT UPGRADE" OF THE ORIGINAL 22A COMPRESSION DRIVER
THE NEW 22XTD DIAPHRAGM IS NOW MADE OF TITANIUM
REPLACEMENT UPGRADE FOR THE PEAVEY 22A & 22T DRIVERS" It should work. These should work for the 15 inch speaker in the SP1 http://www.zzounds.com/item--PEVBW1505 The subs could be dual 12 inch and judging by that last website I should use Peavey Low Rider speakers in the subs. I'm not too sure of size, but they have Peavey speakers in them and AFAIK they are a single rear loaded horn. Could the subs posibly be Yamaha? I may try and talk with the owners and see if they would like to have the speakers fixed. AFAIK they use the SP1 speakers only for the mids and highs and the subs for the lows. I remember going there when I was in elementary school in the middle-late 1980's (still can't skate :D )and they always had good sound. Albeit they did shorten the skate floor some to make room for video games :( If I do use that compression driver how should I alter the crossover to get the crossover point down to 500hz.
 
You don't need to buy a whole new horn driver... there are replacement elements available for the 22A. In fact, the 22XT element is a BOLT ON replacement element FOR any of the 22-series drivers, 22A included.

The BW1505 is certainly a good replacement for the original Black Widow 15... but again, Peavey has replacement basket/cone assemblies for these. Cheaper than buying a whole new woofer! The replacement for these, if they ARE Black Widows in the cabinets, would be the basket for the BW1501, IIRC.

HOWEVER- that said- I've seen LOTS of SP1s- earlier versions- that had square-magnet STAMPED STEEL FRAME CTS and/or Eminence built 15" woofers in them! In the early days of SP1 production, there WERE NO Black Widow woofers yet- Hartley Peavey didn't design the Black Widow until several years into the production of the SP1s!! If it's these woofers, they can be reconed pretty cheap... I think we charge like $55 each, to recone those. No problem.

BTW: I have a crossover diagram for these, if necessary. They're sort of strange topology, but fairly easy to fix, if you know what you're looking at. Most common crossover problems (which, BTW, can result in woofers not functioning) are a shorted big electrolytic cap (frequently 33uf) across the woofer, or a dead 50w, usually 10 ohm or so, resistor (great big cement block resistor, on the back of the crossover). You might want to check out the crossovers, while you're in there...

With regards to the crossover point- I would NOT go to modifying the crossover. The horn NATURALLY doesn't want to go above 400 Hz, but the way the Peavey crossover is wired, it FORCES a bit more output between 400 and 800 Hz. It's really not bad of a response curve, if you measure it in front of the speaker. The effort required to re-engineer the crossover, is MUCH MORE than it'd probably be worth, in terms of any significant sonic improvement...

Regards,
Gordon.
 
WRT the subs- can you take pictures of the cabinets? Identification will probably be shortly forth-coming, if we had pics to work with...

Regards,
Gordon.
 
One quick way to know which Black Widow 15 you have, if you have one: Aluminum dustcap BW 15s are BW1501s. Paper dustcaps are either BW1505 or BW1508. IME, Peavey used BOTH designs in various SP-series cabinets at different times.

Regards,
Gordon.
 
HOWEVER- that said- I've seen LOTS of SP1s- earlier versions- that had square-magnet STAMPED STEEL FRAME CTS and/or Eminence built 15" woofers in them! In the early days of SP1 production, there WERE NO Black Widow woofers yet- Hartley Peavey didn't design the Black Widow until several years into the production of the SP1s!! If it's these woofers, they can be reconed pretty cheap... I think we charge like $55 each, to recone those. No problem.
This is very interesting, i've encountered on rare occasion early 22A's with a square magnet. The 22A diaphram assembly does roughly resemble the eminence PSD assembly............ coincidence or connection?

Gordon W. makes a very good point about the peavey replacement parts,they are comparatively inexpensive and redily available as well as easily replaced.

There'll always be a soft spot in my heart for some of the classic peavey stuff, i've had 5 or 6 pairs of SP-2's over the years, just a great sounding speaker for the money with unlimited versatility. I've used them for all kinds of fill duty, drum monitors, PA mains, car stereo in a chevy suburban, and even for living room hifi for a brief time.
 
I don't have a camara right now so pictures would be a problem. A diagram of the crossover would be appreciated. It seems like they don't have an Email address so I will have to contact them directly.
 
The 22xt is the CORRECT diaphragm replacement for a 22A. Many Peavey drivers were low impedence... the 22XT will definitely work.

The RX22 diaphragm will also bolt onto the 22A frame, if you want to try that. All of the Peavey 1" throat drivers have the same physical geometry, as far as elements are concerned...

Regards,
Gordon.
 
Thanks for all the help so far. What should I replace the jacks on the speakers with as they use the 1/4 inch phone jacks. I've thought about binding posts or banana jacks unless you all know of something better.
 
Replacing those input jacks will be a bit of a challenge as they're soldered directly to the crossover PC board. There isn't much room between the mounting cup and the PCB, they stood it off the depth of the 1/4 inch female jacks.

Since i am down to just 1 or 2 "portable" situations per year, i use binding posts on everything, well tightened i should mention. Avoid banana plugs, they break, they vibrate out, most stay tight fitting for all of one use, and they're easily inverted causing phase problems that can sometimes be a mystery to isolate.

If the SP1's are going to remain in a fixed install, i'd recommend the binding post method as it's a far more reliable and consistant connection than 1/4 inch phone plugs, and less costly that NL2's or NL4's, xlr's, or alcatel connectors.

IMO, if fast set up and tear down is not a factor, binding posts are the way to fly.
 
Binding posts are also probably the most in expensive alternative, and you should be able to use the existing openings from the "full range" 1/4 inch inputs leaving the 1/4 inch "bi-amp" inputs intact (if equipped).

You'll have to run a pair of short jumper wires from the binding posts to the crossover PC board where one of the 1/4 inch inputs was previously attached.

Use care when removing the 1/4 inch jacks, later models were glued as well as soldered to the PCB, it's not a terribly difficult task, just use care not to crack or break the board.

If you run into any problems, pics and a post on this forum will likely get them solved.
 
I'm thinking that the woofers in the SP-1s will be fine as they only feed the mids and highs through them. I did find out that the crossover goes down to 500Hz which is good.
 
Time to revive this thread. I think the sub cabs might be ampeg V4B 2-15 as from the description they are horn loaded. I couldn't find any pictures of them though.
 
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