DLK 2's ...Restore or Econowave?

I picked these up a while back and hadn't done much with them yet but clean the cabs. All I have in them is the $10 I spent in gas to go get them. One tweeter is blown and the other has been replaced but it looks like a decent replacement with the larger voicecoil and magnet. I know I can get replacements at PartsExpress pretty reasonable that folks seem to be happy with. These appear to be an early version with the doped accordion surround on the 12" woofers. The woofers and cabinets are in great shape. The foam grills are rotted enough to replace. With fresh tweeters, crossover caps and grills, these could be restored very easily.

But.....These cabinets are heavy and VERY nice. The boxes at least would seem to make nice Ewave boxes. I am not sure if the woofers would be a good choice though. I was wanting to get some thoughts from others....especially other DLK owners. Should I restore them or Ewave them? I got laid off again so Ewaving would be put on hold. I think I could afford to restore them though and I am curious as to how they would sound in their original form.

and thoughts? thanks....
Mark

As a DLK collector and owner, I would restore these. In proper working condition DLK speakers are very good sounding speakers IMO. The tweeters were the weak point in all models. The replacement from PE you speak of is a good one. Phenolic ring tweeters sound good but can't handle abuse well so if you plan on pushing these hard with rock music for example, you might want to look for an alternative.

Thanks for the feedback. I don't plan on pushing them hard. I turned 51 this year and my music tastes have changed somewhat since my youth . I've been reading other threads and the folks who have restored these have been quite happy with them it seems. I'll likely go that route.

+1 restore and keep alive another set of vintage speakers .........

Can someone post a link to the recommended replacement tweeter at PE please?

I have a pair of DLK 1 1/2's with a bad tweeter and have been debating on weather to restore or not.

Sent using a mobile device.

Economically thinking it would be best to do a tweeter upgrade with these. You can find a nice HiVi, Peerless, Tang Band or Morel dome tweeter to make these sound much improved. If you are sold on the Phenolic tweeter feel free to PM me as I have 4 nice original CTS Phenolic tweeter I cam help you with if you would cover the postage.

Good luck on either route and keep the vintage speakers alive!
DC

JoeDotCom, I believe the 1 1/2's use the 4 ohm tweeter which PartsExpress has marked way down. Here ya go...

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=270-250

DC, I'll send a pm...thanks

Restore imo. These are much less common than the newer (ugly) version model 2's. They should be very good sounding with the replacement tweeters.

DENNYDOG said:

Restore imo. These are much less common than the newer (ugly) version model 2's. They should be very good sounding with the replacement tweeters.

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Thanks for the input. This is the direction that I have decided to take. I had wondered if these were less common from the other threads I had read.

Finally!

Restoration is complete...finally! I want to thank those who encouraged me to restore these DLK2's. A special thank you goes out to DC270 who graciously donated a pair of used CTS tweeters that allowed me to keep the drivers original. The restore turned out great and I am very impressed with these speakers. The cabinets are quite heavy and the veneer is the nicest that I have had on any speakers that I have owned. The sound is full, smooth and detailed. After a recap, these phenolic ring tweeters have pleasantly surprised me. I may upgrade to a soft dome some day but I am quite happy for now. The bottom end is solid on these too. I was afraid it may be a bit muddy but it isn't.

The original black foam grills were breaking down and the masonite backing was warped so I decided to make my own grills which was a first for me. I ripped the frames from some redwood that had been shelving in the storeroom at the diner my grandparents and dad had when I was a kid growing up. There is a little sentimental value there and the redwood worked great. It made for sturdy yet lightweight frames that were very easy to sand and round over. I checked the sanded frames for fit before painting them black.




I wanted something besides black grills and my living room is kind of a sage green so I thought burgundy would work well. I checked with JoAnn's locally but ended up ordering speaker cloth from Speakerworks and I am glad that I did. The cloth is open but sturdy with a nice weight to it. The grills turned out great. I used a combination of staples and silicone to attach the cloth and moved the grill badges to the center which I like better than the original corner location. I need to practice attaching grill cloth to make the back look a little more professional. Corners and trimming can be a little tricky. They look great from the front though. :thmbsp: I ended up adding a pull tab under the badge to remove the frames which are attached with velcro in the corners like the original grills.



I should have taken a pic of the crossovers before I put them back in but I was anxious to hear them. I had a couple of delays here. I ordered the wrong value (10uf rather than 8uf) for the mids based on a post in another thread. DLKs have a LOT of hot melt glue to dig the parts out of and I could not see the value initially so I just went with what had been posted in another thread. My mistake. I also had a pot making some noise when I put the crossovers back in so I had to pull one back out. I was able to get the cover removed and give it a shot of DeOxit which took care of it. :yes:

After I got the crossovers back in, I decided to protect the finish with a few coats of shellac and it really brought out the grain in the veneer. It was hard to get a pic of because of reflections but DLK sure made some VERY nice cabinets! I like this style with the solid wood trim piece around the front better than the other DLK2 style that I have seen. These are really nice looking speakers. I had these outside giving them a final light coat of shellac today and thought I'd take a few pics in the natural light.






This pic finally got the grill color right.



Karma must have wanted me to have these. I had posted the link to the CL listing when they came up for sale. They had one blown tweeter but the guy only wanted something like $60 for them. I passed them up at the time but I had written the guy asking a couple of questions and a few weeks later he wrote back and said if I'd give him $25 to come and get them. When I got there, we had a nice talk about audio and vintage equipment. He had put these in the garage when he got his surround system and asked if I wanted the 80's BPC Kenwood he had used with them in the garage. I said sure and ended up selling it to my neighbor for $25 so I only had my $10 in gas money in them at that point. . I may have $50 total in them now (but LOTS of time) and it was well worth it! It was very rewarding to bring the DLK2's back to life. I'm listening to Dire Straits - On Every Street at the moment which is well recorded and DLK2's are a much more capable and pleasing speaker than I thought they may be at first. I really like them.


Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction. I Love AK!

Wow, those came out beautifully:yes:

It was a nice surprise to see this post come up again. I'm glad to hear you are enjoying the DLK's. They turned out really nice!

Great job on those grills. It's good to see someone else that doesn't mind tackling that project. I've got to build a set soon for my AR11's since the foam grills were long gone plus fix a pair on my Celestion Ditton 44's.

They look awesome!

Those came out great!! Congrates. Guess I have the "Ugly" versions of the 2's but I still think they sound great

Thanks for the feedback, guys.

Avguytx, those grill frames were giving me fits until I went to Lowe's and bought a cheap little $10 corner clamp that allowed me to keep things at 90 deg while drilling and screwing them together. It made all the difference in putting those frames together.

Kermit, I wouldn't call the other version ugly really. I'm sure I'd be very happy with those as well if they were the ones I brought home. I do like this earlier style a bit better though. But even with these, the numbers weren't sequential and there were two different mid driver versions. One had a slightly different surround and a square magnet as opposed to the other with the round magnet. I am sure they were both original though. One appeared to be CTS, the other was Heppner. I certainly can't hear the difference and I'm not worried about it. I think DLK just sourced drivers from a few places judging from the different versions that I have seen. In the end, they are very nice speakers and I'm a happy DLK owner.

STUNING!!! They look extremely good and I am humbled to have had a small part in making it happen! You do excellent work- you should be very proud of the looks and I am sure of their sound.
ENJOY!
DC

Hey DC! Thanks for help. It gave me the motivation to jump in and get these done. It's been both educational and very rewarding. I still have a lot to learn but I am proud of how these turned out. I'm glad you got to see them

look good! although I prefer a more satin finish than a gloss, personally.

the mid looks identical to the Becker sourced mids on my acoustalinear 660B's, that mid is very smooth sounding....

michiganpat said:

look good! although I prefer a more satin finish than a gloss, personally.

the mid looks identical to the Becker sourced mids on my acoustalinear 660B's, that mid is very smooth sounding....

Click to expand...

I may knock the gloss off and give them a more satin look eventually. Shellac is a pretty easy finish to work with. They still need buffed and waxed. I've been reading about a couple of different ways to do that which will leave me with a nice satin finish if i choose to go that route.

The one mid had a part number that indicated it was from Heppner but the one in the pic had no number and I assumed it was from CTS since the woofers were but it could be Becker. They are smooth though as you said. I'm enjoying the sound of these.

Congrats on joining the DLK club!! Very, very nice work on your restoration. The grille cloth was a perfect choice!

I have 2 pairs of 1 1/2s that I'm going through...one pair for a good friend and the other will be mine. Both early versions with cloth surrounds...I did a pair of later version 1 1/2s w/rubber surrounds for my friend's son and talk about bass! I'm going to re-dope the surrounds on both pair that I'm working on and hopefully the bass will be there. Nearly all the DLK line are great under-the-radar speakers.