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YAY! It's DCM repair day..oh wait, I got problems.

dewdude

dewdude

High on resolution.
Hey all.

Today is the day I started tearing apart my precious DCM's to do the tweeter replacement. I've encountered a problem or two.

first of all, the headliner material under the sock, aside from being stuck to the sock and came loose while removing it at the top...the foam is entirely shot..looks similar to an old car headliner. I know people have said to replace this...but just HOW vital is it? If they sounded good before can I possibly get away with replacing that down the road?

Also, the tweeters I purchased are a little bit bigger than the old ones, not by much, the holes line up, but there's a bit more flange to the sides than the originals. I don't know if you can see it in my pictures, but there's a recess in the metal for the tweeter to sit in. Should I just attach it how it is even if it isn't a perfect fit or should I attempt to cut the plastic off with a dremel?

I've gotta go fix someone's PC in about an hour...I was just trying to crack the seal and see how much I was getting myself in to, and if I just replace the tweeters and carefully glue the sock in place, I might just have a mighty fine working speaker...but i don't know what vital role that foam plays.

Sorry bout picture quality, SOME DAY I'll manage to have both my digital camera and charger in my posession so I can use it (I've used it twice since I bought it)

Any advice? I know there's a lot of DCM guys out here.
 

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The teeter I wouls just tape off the excess and file down what you don't need- easy enough to do right!

As for the sock problem- if it were me, and was at one time!, I would go to the local fabtic store and buy a few yards of black headliner fabric and sit down for a while and clean up what you have then staple, cut and paste on new material. That is probably what you don't want to hear but again to do it right is mny rule. you can get 3M spray contact adhesivei to speed things along.

Wished I could be there for ya- I have done this and spent several hours gwtting it done too! The new owner loved them but I lost my a$$ in labor time bringing them up to speed.
DC
 
Ya I know about wanting it all but sometimes it just cam'y be.......
Good luck!
DC
 
Well, against your advice I went ahead, trimmed the tweeter and put everything back together best I could. Second speaker went smoother as I knew now that the headliner-line stuff was going to be melted to the sock. I avoided a lot of the problems I did with the first one.

I'm not going to just let 'em slide though. I plan on buying the stuff I need to replace at least the foam underneath. I've gotta have some oral surgery soon and I know I'll be able to do stuff, just not go out in public; so I'll take the time to properly fix them then.

For the time being, I've got them hooked up to a Kenwood HT receiver and my Bob Marly sounds just as good as I expected these things to sound.
 
replacing the foam sleeve is understandable , but i wonder if
it was more for looks .

many of us have successfully sprayed
black paint , or other approaches to fixing up these otherwise
great speakers. i have a pair with 3 coats of black asphalt
fencepost paint (took 2 months to dry)

regular old $2 flat black from k-mart works fine ,too.( 20
minutes to dry )

good luck
 
oh dude, i'm not entirely worried about cosmetics as long as they SOUND good...who came up with this speakers need to look good...i'm more of a function over form person.

the new tweeters sound GREAT. they're close enough to the originals I can't really tell much of a difference, just as good as the day I bough them home.....

and the can of super 77 cost more than the pair of tweeters. :) i've been up allllll night listening too.
 
karlo said:
......i have a pair with 3 coats of black asphalt
fencepost paint (took 2 months to dry).......
Click to expand...

Any reason why you used fence post paint? I know the kind of stuff you're referring to, as I have a gallon. I'd never use it on a cabinet. It takes forever (basically never) to dry on metal, but I didn't have any trouble with it drying on wood.
 
Dewdude, I wonder if you could carefully switch the old plastic part of the tweeter onto the new tweeter? I don't know how they are constructed, exactly, but I'm thinking it's just to protect the diaphragm, and might pry off easily if you work at the glue with an xacto knife.
 
dewdude said:
Hey all.

Today is the day I started tearing apart my precious DCM's to do the tweeter replacement. I've encountered a problem or two.

first of all, the headliner material under the sock, aside from being stuck to the sock and came loose while removing it at the top...the foam is entirely shot..looks similar to an old car headliner. I know people have said to replace this...but just HOW vital is it? If they sounded good before can I possibly get away with replacing that down the road?

Also, the tweeters I purchased are a little bit bigger than the old ones, not by much, the holes line up, but there's a bit more flange to the sides than the originals. I don't know if you can see it in my pictures, but there's a recess in the metal for the tweeter to sit in. Should I just attach it how it is even if it isn't a perfect fit or should I attempt to cut the plastic off with a dremel?

I've gotta go fix someone's PC in about an hour...I was just trying to crack the seal and see how much I was getting myself in to, and if I just replace the tweeters and carefully glue the sock in place, I might just have a mighty fine working speaker...but i don't know what vital role that foam plays.

Sorry bout picture quality, SOME DAY I'll manage to have both my digital camera and charger in my posession so I can use it (I've used it twice since I bought it)

Any advice? I know there's a lot of DCM guys out here.
Click to expand...

Looking at your pictures as best as I can tell, the original looks like a 10mm voice coil poly dome type whereas the HiVi is a 14mm VC cloth dome. Any part number markings on the original? It looks like an Audax but I don't recognize that face plate. The Audax is here in 8 ohm, round faceplate:
http://www.madisound.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=96

These with very small face plates for $1 I'm told are also Audax:
http://www.apexjr.com/speakerstuff.html

Good to hear that the HiVi's are working well.
 
The original does have markings on the back.

"DCM Corporation

011D0202

8 (ohm)"


The tangs I bought from PE and threw in however work GREAT. I could not tell any difference in the top end from the originals...maybe a LITTLE more bright but I can turn my treble down :)
 
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