Ron's 2016 Cabinet Work Part I: Bozak E-300
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Now comes the preparation of the crossover networks for rewiring and reinstallation in the cabinets.
I unsoldered the clipped wires from all of the terminals on both crossovers tonight.
My next move is to fit one in each cabinet, one at a time, and measure for new wires. Then I will cut and solder new wires to the crossovers, then install the crossovers in the cabinets.
Then the cabinets get moved upstairs, the speakers reinstalled and wired up, the new wires attached to the screw terminals on the backs... 
Why don't I reinstall everything in the basement? Those cabinets are heavy with the speakers installed! 
--
Ron Ramirez
Ferdinand IN
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(08-29-2016, 08:22 PM)Ron Ramirez Wrote: ...Why don't I reinstall everything in the basement? Those cabinets are heavy with the speakers installed!
Yes, they are...
...but nevertheless, I changed my mind.
It was just so much easier to solder everything together at the workbench.
So...I installed the midrange and a woofer/tweeter combo in one cabinet last night along with one crossover. I tested it to make sure it sounded OK, then finished it off by installing the back and soldering the new wires to the screw terminal board.
Tonight, I repeated the process with the other midrange, woofer/tweeter combo and crossover in the other cabinet.
They are ready for me to haul upstairs.
Looking back, I can't help but think about some of the things I could have done differently. I wonder if I should have used 3M Super 77 on the plastic "cloth", the open weave notwithstanding. Of course since this isn't really cloth but plastic fibers, I don't know how well Super 77 would have held it.
And the bottom trim...I'm not happy with the obvious spots where the nail heads are.
But I have done the best that I could do.
I'll post an "after" shot or two once they are upstairs. They are working, and they sound very good. 
One more thing. I noticed that the midrange speakers have date codes although I did not see any on the woofers. If I'm reading them correctly, one is dated August 1958 (588 ); the other, May 1960 (605). So now I have an idea of how old these speakers are.
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Ron Ramirez
Ferdinand IN
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To recap, before:
[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/bozak_001.jpg]
At long last, here they are (the "after" shot)!
[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/bozak_049.jpg]
It only took two months and a day...but they are finally done and finally in my home office.
Sometime over the coming weekend, I will put them in place on either side of my home office desk.
Then, I have a Mid Century record cabinet to haul up here. My receiver and Technics turntable will go on top of the record cabinet; all of my records will go inside the cabinet.
That is it for this 2+ month thread. My sincere thanks to GarySP for everything he has done in helping to make this project possible; to eBay seller joerent123 for providing all of the needed measurements for Gary to make the new risers for these; to AudioKarma member Sandstrom for selling the speakers to me; and a word of thanks to those of you who participated in this thread for your encouragement.
(edited to add the eBay seller's name who made it possible to reproduce the risers in the proper size, and the AudioKarma member who sold these speakers to me)
--
Ron Ramirez
Ferdinand IN
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Very nice!! 
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OK,,RON,,they look GGreat,,,now send them to me,,loloololol
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Ken
Send money. Lots of it. And maybe I will. 
...actually, after having spent almost all of my spare time over most of the summer on this one project...no. 
--
Ron Ramirez
Ferdinand IN
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Hello Ron. The finished product looks great! It was my pleasure to play a small part in their restoration. Never hesitate to ask me in the future if there is anything I can help out with. It felt great to finally be a contributor to the phorum and the cause. Take care, my friend. Gary
P.S. Not to be critical, but do I see the tweeters in the left cabinet a little less than horizontal compared to the right cabinet??
"Don't pity the dead, pity the living, above all, those living without love."
Professor Albus Dumbledore
Gary - Westland Michigan
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Gary
Thanks again for everything. 
In order to make the tweeters line up properly, I would have had to drill new mounting holes for the woofer (the tweeters are mounted to a ring which the woofer is also mounted to). Guess this woofer was always that way from the factory. Factory error, I guess. I'm not inclined to correct it, after all of the work it has taken to get them to this point.
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Ron Ramirez
Ferdinand IN
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Well, I set everything up in my home office, with the Bozaks on either side of my desk.
They sounded great.
Too great.
The tweeters were too loud!
Thinking it over, I made an executive decision to make a minor mod to both speakers.
[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/bozak_050.jpg]
This shows you how things looked in one of the speakers after they had been reinstalled and rewired.
[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/bozak_051.jpg]
I installed an L-pad in line with the tweeters in both cabinets...
[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/bozak_052.jpg]
...and you can see the addition of a knob on the back. This also shows you how the backs looked after application of Bondo and sanding to fill the other holes.
Yes, I put another hole in each back and installed L-pads in each back.
Heresy?
No, they aren't Klipsches...they are Bozaks 
Okay, you didn't get it. Anyway...
The L-pads, when turned down to about 3/4 volume on the tweeters, resulted in perfect sound to my ears. And that's what counts.
I robbed the L-pads from another pair of unused speakers, so it was a fix I could do quickly without having to purchase anything additional.
I would not have done this if the backs had been previously untouched, uncut, undrilled, and would have pursued another solution such as a crossover mod. But since they had already had multiple holes cut and drilled in them previously, I figured, "Hey, what's another hole in the backs..."
--
Ron Ramirez
Ferdinand IN
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For those of you who wanted to see the end result...
[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/bozak_053.jpg]
[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/bozak_054.jpg]
You can see a Mid Century record cabinet on the left with a 1959/60 Fisher TA-600 as a static display. In the next year or so, I plan to give it a thorough going-over and restoration and I may begin using it instead of the Pioneer SX-1500TD in here at that time. To the right, along the wall, is my shelving unit full of Philco Tropic radios.
I turned on my Fisher 700-T in the living room and listened to the speakers in there, Wharfedale W70s, for a while. Then I came into my home office and listened to the same program material on the Bozaks. The difference was like night and day. While the Wharefedales sound very good, the Bozaks sound very lifelike. It is like being at a live performance instead of recorded sound. Amazing!
Well, as I have already said, that's it for this project. Time to move on to the next one...
--
Ron Ramirez
Ferdinand IN
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Very nice setup Ron. The speakers look good in their new location.
I just replaced my pioneer sx-1500td with a fisher 101R tuner and a kenwood amplifier.
The pioneer started making a very loud pop sound out of the speakers when first turned on, though it played fine, I got nervous that something bad was going to happen. 
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Mike
Fisher 101-R, eh...neat! So, do you have a multiplex decoder connected to it or are you listening to FM in mono?
Regarding the SX-1500TD...did you rebuild the entire audio amp and power supply? I did on mine...knocking on wood, it is still a great daily driver, no issues so far (and I use it literally every day). The main audio amp board has all new transistors as well as all new electrolytics. Ditto the power supply and microphone amp boards. And the audio preamp board was totally rebuilt with all new components, including resistors, because of the noise problem I was having after rebuilding the audio amp and power supply boards.
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Ron Ramirez
Ferdinand IN
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Listening to the Fisher in mono right now. Sounds pretty good. I hooked a Lafayette mpx to it and the sound was , well weird. You could hear the music but it sounded like two different stations playing at once and the words to the songs sounded like they were in a echo chamber.
Been looking for a fisher tube amp and MPX. Wow, they are sure proud of them on ebay.
As to the pioneer. Yea I did a complete rebuild of amp, pre amp, and power board.
Its the one Mike/morzh helped me with and has been a great player till recently.
I will look into it later this fall or winter when I need something to do.
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Well, darn...sorry to hear about your SX-1500TD. I was hoping that perhaps you forgot to rebuild the preamp board or something...not a difficult fix at all, eliminated the noise issues in my set. And I've used it as a daily driver ever since with nary a problem (knocking wood...again).
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Ron Ramirez
Ferdinand IN
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