CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

I scored a nice little unexpected deal on Saturday: I went to the local surplus electronics shop and there on the dock were
two pairs of speakers that someone had dropped off just to get rid of them. The rule here is, if it's on the dock, it's free
if you drop something off to replace it, otherwise, it's a dollar.

I had stuff to get rid of anyway. So I had trade credit.

I looked at the larger pair of speakers. Junk. Your cheap 3-ways with 12" woofers and ordinary paper cone
midranges and tweeters. No thanks.

Then I looked at the other pair of speakers, a set of largish bookshelf-sized speakers, in oak, and nearly jumped out of my skin.

A pair of Phase Tech PC80s! SCORE! Laughing

Ok, they need a little refurbishment. The surrounds are gone, rotted out. So's the foam that Phase Tech applies to the
surface of the flat faced woofers on most if not all of their speakers. No problem, I can handle that. I refoamed
speakers professionally for a couple of years. It was easy and good money. I could make 300 bucks in one afternoon,
IF the work was coming in fast enough.

The other things they need, I can get from Phase Tech.

The really cool thing here is that my center channel is a Phase Tech PC-3. Which happens to be a very good tonal match
for my Aerial Acoustics 10Ts. Very Happy

And the PC80s are a good tonal match for the PC-3. Thumbs Up

I look forward to hearing the whole system running with tonally well-matched speakers all around. Very Happy

CJ

jask · Joined: 17 Mar 2006 Posts: 10165 Location: kamloops BC

Very nice!! pics?

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

Pics AFTER I refurbish them. Besides, they're in oak veneer which I don't particularly care for, so they'll be given the full black
treatment. When I'm done with them they'll be in a perfect, dead smooth mirror finished gloss black automotive urethane.

While I'm at it, I'll be doing some touchups on the CC3 as well. May as well go ahead and refinish it at the same time.

Cj

erikjohn · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 636 Location: Florida

PIC's NOW! Very Happy

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 12:35 am Post subject:

Yeah post a before pic

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

Hey, guess what happened yesterday?

More speaker luck!

I picked up a pair of Alesis Monitor Ones for almost nothing yesterday, knowing that one tweeter might be out, at least.

I tested them and found that both tweeters were open.

Today I took them to my shop and sat down and disassembled them, found the broken voice coil lead-in wires, and made
repairs. Fortunately, these tweeters are just screwed together. Very serviceable.

After verifying conductivity, I took them back home, put them back in the cabinets, and fired them up.

I've been listening to them for most of the day now. The repairs are 100 percent successful and these are some genuinely
aweome sounding little speakers. They're sweet, detailed as can be, image like a mother, and their bass performance is really
amazing for such small bookshelf sized speakers. On classical recordings, double basses have weight and you can feel them
generating a very respectable amount of quality bass given the size of the drivers. The mdirange is smooth and detailed.

They're going to make the most awesome set of computer speakers. Now I just need to find a very compact, decent amp of
adequate power to put with them at the PC.

I've got all but one of the parts I need to refurbish the PC80s, too. I've decided to do the full gloss automotive black finish treatment
on them, just because their current oak finish is a bit beat up.

CJ

Fujifrontier · Joined: 20 Oct 2007 Posts: 354 Location: San Antonio, Texas

*sigh*

jask · Joined: 17 Mar 2006 Posts: 10165 Location: kamloops BC

Wow! I was going to recommend you look at one of the DIY chip amps like the "gainclone" but given your luck... why not stop by the thrift store and see if there are any amps??
With the luck you have been having- you might just find a nice one!

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

I've got a very decent Yamaha integrated amp I could use, but it's the size of a full sized receiver. I'd use it, and probably will, but
desk space is going to be a bit crowded. An amp that's a lot smaller would be just the ticket.

The DIY route is a distinct possibility. A friend of mine has an incredible collection of assorted heatsink assemblies and another
friend of mine is a machinist and sheet metal specialist, and he's also an authentic tube amp guru. He builds fully custom made
guitar amps. Between our various skills, we can probably make a rather nice compact amp.

I'm not saying I'll do it...but we probably could.

CJ