Mon Apr 04, 2011 11:46 am
AL III Plus questions
I originally posted this at HomeTheaterShack.com, they recommended that I post it here.
I took a chance and bought a pair of Carver AL III yesterday. One of the ribbons wasn't working, but the woofers sounded ok. I was tentative as I know the ribbons cost ~$425 to repair, and ~$600 to buy. But I bought them anyway for ~$200.
Another enthusiast with more skill at electronics came over today to buy an old 70's Tandberg reel ro reel I was selling, and I asked him to bring his soldering iron. To make a long story short we found that one of the places where the ribbon connects to a small "circuit board" was rubbed through or melted, so we took a little light gauge aluminum foil and bridged the gap. The tweeter seemed to work fine after that.
The previous owner also mentioned that he thought there was a bad cap in the xover which he had replaced, but had just "twisted in," not soldered. He also gave me the original cap. My buddy measured the old cap, and it was in fact bad. When we tried to un twist the old cap to place it properly and to solder it, one of the leads broke off. It was a 150uf 100 volt NP cap, and it was after 5 on a Sunday, so we certainly weren't going to fix it today.
Well luck was surely shining on me today however. I was giving my buddy a dead plate amplifier, to use for parts, and what did I see on the circuit board? A 150uf 100V NP capacitor. He unsoldered it, put it in the xover, and we fired those puppies up. They sound pretty good.
Not one to leave well enough alone I thought I would post here to see if anyone knows of a redesigned xover for this beast?
In looking at the xover, it appears that there are a lot of components, and the gauge of all the wire is very small, including the wire on the inductors. One of the big complaints of this speaker is that it is fairly inefficient. I would think that if a simplified xover could be designed with less resistive components (mainly the inductors) that it might improve the efficiency a bit.
I have been unable to find any links to xover tweaks for these speakers. If anyone knows of any I'd appreciate hearing from you.
One last thing, in the pictures of the natural wood finished versions that I have seen on the net there appears to be a black piece that goes across the top, above the ribbon. I have the black version, and mine do not have that. Anybody know whether mine sould have it, and if so where I might get info on it in case I want to fabricate it.
Thanks for your help.
Paul
I took a chance and bought a pair of Carver AL III yesterday. One of the ribbons wasn't working, but the woofers sounded ok. I was tentative as I know the ribbons cost ~$425 to repair, and ~$600 to buy. But I bought them anyway for ~$200.
Another enthusiast with more skill at electronics came over today to buy an old 70's Tandberg reel ro reel I was selling, and I asked him to bring his soldering iron. To make a long story short we found that one of the places where the ribbon connects to a small "circuit board" was rubbed through or melted, so we took a little light gauge aluminum foil and bridged the gap. The tweeter seemed to work fine after that.
The previous owner also mentioned that he thought there was a bad cap in the xover which he had replaced, but had just "twisted in," not soldered. He also gave me the original cap. My buddy measured the old cap, and it was in fact bad. When we tried to un twist the old cap to place it properly and to solder it, one of the leads broke off. It was a 150uf 100 volt NP cap, and it was after 5 on a Sunday, so we certainly weren't going to fix it today.
Well luck was surely shining on me today however. I was giving my buddy a dead plate amplifier, to use for parts, and what did I see on the circuit board? A 150uf 100V NP capacitor. He unsoldered it, put it in the xover, and we fired those puppies up. They sound pretty good.
Not one to leave well enough alone I thought I would post here to see if anyone knows of a redesigned xover for this beast?
In looking at the xover, it appears that there are a lot of components, and the gauge of all the wire is very small, including the wire on the inductors. One of the big complaints of this speaker is that it is fairly inefficient. I would think that if a simplified xover could be designed with less resistive components (mainly the inductors) that it might improve the efficiency a bit.
I have been unable to find any links to xover tweaks for these speakers. If anyone knows of any I'd appreciate hearing from you.
One last thing, in the pictures of the natural wood finished versions that I have seen on the net there appears to be a black piece that goes across the top, above the ribbon. I have the black version, and mine do not have that. Anybody know whether mine sould have it, and if so where I might get info on it in case I want to fabricate it.
Thanks for your help.
Paul
WELCOME!!! 
