OA-14 Questions

[12björn]

And the tweeters?!? I'm sure the newer substitutes that all of you are using sound great, but, I can hardly imagine them sounding better than the originals?

There's still another shock waiting for You!

Björn

[Mcraiga]

Bob,

Glad to hear that you got the woofers restored.  Having just done it a couple weeks ago myself I echo your statements about the sound.  Wow! I had forgotten just how great these speakers sounded.  I went for about 10 years with speakerlab woofers in them because I didn't know where to get the original woofers once the foam rotted.  Now that I have the peerless woofers I realize what I was missing.  I was planning on getting a subwoofer for my next purchase but have now decided I don't need one.

Regarding the tweeter mod, I say go for it.  At about 8$ each its a cheap upgrade that adds as much wow factor as the woofer replacement.  It was simple to do and only took me about 8 hours.  The clarity and space you get is dramatic. (I hooked up one of the modded speakers along with the unmodded one, switched to mono and compared the sound.  My 8 year old daughter noticed the difference)

Again, go for it as its real easy - just unsolder the tweeters, get a piece of 10mm basswood from the local hobby shop and cut it into blocks that you then epoxy in the right angle holes in the top soundboard.  Then solder the new tweeter connections and glue them to the wood blocks.

I can't get enough of listening to them (probably to the dismay of my neighbors)

Cheers and my thanks to the members of the site for the helpful posts and directions for the restore.

Mitch

[Bob B]

Bob,

Glad to hear that you got the woofers restored.  Having just done it a couple weeks ago myself I echo your statements about the sound.  Wow! I had forgotten just how great these speakers sounded.  I went for about 10 years with speakerlab woofers in them because I didn't know where to get the original woofers once the foam rotted.  Now that I have the peerless woofers I realize what I was missing.  I was planning on getting a subwoofer for my next purchase but have now decided I don't need one.

Regarding the tweeter mod, I say go for it.  At about 8$ each its a cheap upgrade that adds as much wow factor as the woofer replacement.  It was simple to do and only took me about 8 hours.  The clarity and space you get is dramatic. (I hooked up one of the modded speakers along with the unmodded one, switched to mono and compared the sound.  My 8 year old daughter noticed the difference)

Again, go for it as its real easy - just unsolder the tweeters, get a piece of 10mm basswood from the local hobby shop and cut it into blocks that you then epoxy in the right angle holes in the top soundboard.  Then solder the new tweeter connections and glue them to the wood blocks.

I can't get enough of listening to them (probably to the dismay of my neighbors)

Cheers and my thanks to the members of the site for the helpful posts and directions for the restore.

Mitch

Thanks Mitch! If I listen any more, my family will disown me.

I've had Rodgers, Maggies, AR's, Polks, Scotts, Sound Dynamics, and other speakers. I cant remember all the different sets I've had. The Sonabs, as made in the 70's are in the top three easily. Probably top two. I do love the Maggies too. There's something about the sound fields of the Maggies and Sonabs that just sounds right to me.  :!:

The tweeter mod is on my to do list...

Bob B.

[petebeardm]

I don't know whether thi is the right place to put these questions but I am currently starting to restore a pair of OA14's'
I have 3 questions further to the ones already asked?
1. Crossovers: My OA14's have different crossovers to the two pairs of OD11's I own
(I am running them in a 5.1 surround sytem, with an almost new Rotel Receiver). When I bought them they had a cheap Phillipines drivers in them and I have replaced them with 833599's (WR 165's in all my Sonab's). Importing the Carlsson driver would have become a bit expensive, and also the last time I tried they got lost.
The crossovers however are quite different in appearnace to the OD11 being squarer. I'm not sure when the OA14's where made but the OD11's were produced in 1976. The reason I mention this is that each of the two OA14's give a slightly different tone: the jumper setting are the same and the jumpers have now been bypassed. On my receivers tone test one sounds sharper than the other (even when switched around) .Can anybody advise me why. It does not seem to affect the overall sound.
2. Mounting the CT 62's . I have already replaced the tweeters on my OD11's but  I have been looking at photos on the Carlsson website and I am tryng to figure the best way to locate them on the OA 14's. I am thinking of using a wood backing and glueing them to the back of the tweeter. Also do I need to cut a groove in the ABS base so I clear the cover and if not can I tilt the tweeter back a bit to clear the cover?
3 I am using a Tara Labs Klara speaker wire (two layers of insulation) with the outer layer removed as new wiring. Plugs are not a problem as I am using Banana Plugs (male and female) that I picked up at a local electrical supply store. This is a reasonably good quality cable and is very easy to work with. Any alternatives once again I have to watch the price. This cable costs in Australia about $10US a meter.
Finally any other suggestions I am after the best sound possible within a reasonable budget.

Peter B

[Martin Dellstig]

Hello!

Regarding the filters they are the same electricly speaking, but the OA-14 have a bigger PCB because it needs more space for the tweeter connectors.

There are, at least for OD-11/OA-12, two generations of the filter. I don´t know when this change was put to production.

Best regards

Martin

[Tyko]

Hello!
1. The jumper settings was just because the quality of the old tweeters was not really equal wich means that they had to adjust it with the jumper to get a flat respons. Maybe one of your pair of oa14 need another position of the jumper to sound equal to the other. It have been seen loudspeakerscouples with different fabricsettings of the jumper. This problem should be eliminated with the new CT62.
2. Do not change the angle of the tweeters!!! To tilt them change the whole construction and is not recommended. When I changed my tweeters I took away some plastic just under the tweeters edge. I also took away a bit of the metal on the tweeters. Best is to file it down, you will easy see how much you can take away.
3. A cheap and highly recommended cable among some audio people in our country is the cable made for strongelectricity outdoors. The cable is called "EKK" and should be very transparent.
Tyko

[petebeardm]

Thanks Martin & Tyko

As I said I have bypassed the jumpers as suggested on the Carlssonplanet site. I think I know which pf my OA14's is out ( because I have an two unmodified OD11's as a reference) so I will change the connection and test them. I will be installing the CT 62's in the next couple of weeks.
One more question on that what (this may sound dumb) is the best way to cut the groove in the ABS?
Thanks both of you your answers were spot on (just what I wanted).
Martin Re the Filters: the Filters on my original OD11's (bought by me in 1976) actually have OA14 screenprinted on them beside a hole in the PCB where the tweeter wire can be mounted, but every photo I have seen of OA14's has the bigger filter.
Anyway my questions are basically answered and I cannot wait to get the CT62's on my OA14's. I will check the wire out you suggested because I want to rewire the whole speaker as I have already done on two of my my OD11's.

Peter

Peter B

[Tyko]

hmm, if you meant the internal cablage in the loudspeaker then you can forget about what I recommendee....I thought you meant the loudspeakercable (amplifier - loudspeaker). EKK is way to hard and fat to use for internal cablage.
About the quewtion in cutting groove in the ABS there is some different ways. On my OA14 I used my Dremel tool (a kind of driller) with a circular "cuttingthing" on it. With that thing I could easy and quiet controlled cut down the grooves. On my OD11 I tried with a solderiron to melt away plastic. I also afteradjusted with a knife. But I think here is one person on the forum that manage to fit in the CT62 with just filling down the edges on the tweeter both over and under, wich is ofcourse and very intresting solution. But anyway the sound will be very good, so it maybe doesn´t matter too much...
Good luck!
Tyko

[petebeardm]

Finished installing the CT-62's this afternoon. Except for some final details they are installed. Sound a significant improvement, I'm getting much more detail and with my Rotel "imaging" is very good. A real step up from the original tweeters  tweeters,
however I had left the cloth covering on the old tweeters and when I removed that this morning our time I found that half the tweeters were in poor condition.
I've still got a couple of test CD's and DVD's to try  out but the improvements were immediately obvious,. and Tyko the difference in the test tone between the two speakers has gone as you said.
Thanks to the guys who helped me with suggestions; Martin and Tyko and if it wasn't for this website and Carlssonplanet I would have still been in the dark as to how to improve my Sonab's. I reckon they are still one of the nicest sounding speakers at that price level around and I auditioned a few besides the OD 11's before I realised how good they still are. Thanks everybody.

Peter

[Tyko]

You´re welcome! Nice that you satisfied, it is a very good loudspeaker!
Welcome with more questions if they come up.
Tyko