I've had these speakers since the 80's. At the time I thought I was
"hot sh-t" having the biggest speakers in the dorm. Now I'm balding and
middle-aged but I'd love to resurrect some of that glory-day feeling by
replacing the rotten drivers in these things. As a side note: even at
the time, these were not nearly high-end so I'm fully aware of the fact
that I may be wasting my time (and yours - sorry).

Does anyone remember these beasts?
They stand about 4 feet tall. They originally had some kind of planar
mid/tweeter, a 12" woofer and 12" passive radiator. I've since replaced
all of the above elements with parts from RadioShack so I have no idea
what the original specs were.

As a minimum, I should replace the drivers and passive radiators since
the foam is completely disintegrated but I'm not sure how to go about
finding parts that are "tuned" to the cabinet and work well with the
existing cross-over.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated...

- Dan C.

wrote:
I've had these speakers since the 80's. At the time I thought I was
"hot sh-t" having the biggest speakers in the dorm. Now I'm balding and
middle-aged but I'd love to resurrect some of that glory-day feeling by
replacing the rotten drivers in these things.

Do you mean "Celestion 3000"? Criterion was the house-brand
of Lafayette Radio, and they died a well-deserved death quite
some time ago.

LOL!! ... Yup - Lafayette brand, more specifically, Criterion 3003's.

Actually, these were the best they made (which I know isn't saying
much) - they utilized a "Corona Field Heil Air-motion Transformer" -
woah (sarcasm) ... which blew during the spring '84 keg-fest.
Nevertheless, I DO want to make use of the cabinets.

The box is not quite as massive as I remembered them - they're only
about 3 cu. ft. With that in mind, is "Vas" the main consideration in
choosing a woofer? Must I find a "mated" passive radiator? - these are
flat and not weighted.

- Dan C.

wrote:
LOL!! ... Yup - Lafayette brand, more specifically, Criterion 3003's.

Actually, these were the best they made (which I know isn't saying
much) - they utilized a "Corona Field Heil Air-motion Transformer" -
woah (sarcasm) ... which blew during the spring '84 keg-fest.
Nevertheless, I DO want to make use of the cabinets.

Hmmm...

The box is not quite as massive as I remembered them - they're only
about 3 cu. ft. With that in mind, is "Vas" the main consideration in
choosing a woofer?

No, it's one of a number of parameters that must be suitable.

Must I find a "mated" passive radiator?

Absolutely. Trying to come up with a suitable woofer and
passive radiator to work in a specific cabinet volume, assuming
you want a reasonably correct system response, is going to be
a REAL tough job. Passive radiator alignments are tougher than
vented box, because the passive radiator suspension compliance
further complicates the system alignment. In fact, I'd be
willing to bet good money that the original alignment probably
wasn't very good to begin with. That means you're probably not
going to do much worse yourself, if that's any inspiration.

If you insist on using the cabinets, I would try to find a
suitable woofer, and cut a solid plug to fit in the passive
radiator hole. Pop a port of suitable size through it to make
a reflex system. You'll have a much greater chance of making
a respectable system that way than trying to come up with off-
the-shelf drivers for a passive radiator system.

But, if their past attempts are any indication, the cabinets
themselves are probably a little on the skimpy wide, construction
and bracing-wise. It may not be worth the effort compared to
buying some more modern cabinets.

wrote in message
oups.com
I've had these speakers since the 80's. At the time I
thought I was "hot sh-t" having the biggest speakers in
the dorm. Now I'm balding and middle-aged but I'd love to
resurrect some of that glory-day feeling by replacing the
rotten drivers in these things. As a side note: even at
the time, these were not nearly high-end so I'm fully
aware of the fact that I may be wasting my time (and
yours - sorry).

Does anyone remember these beasts?

When I was a boy...

I worked for a Layfayette Radio Associate store. But that
was in the 60s and 70s. I vaguely remember the Criterion
3000s.


They stand about 4 feet tall. They originally had some
kind of planar mid/tweeter, a 12" woofer and 12" passive
radiator. I've since replaced all of the above elements
with parts from RadioShack so I have no idea what the
original specs were.

Well, then what you have are not Criterion 3000s. You have
some kind of what is known in the professional audio trade
as "A Mess".

As a minimum, I should replace the drivers and passive
radiators since the foam is completely disintegrated but
I'm not sure how to go about finding parts that are
"tuned" to the cabinet and work well with the existing
cross-over.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated...

First off, what's the goal here? Are you trying to preserve
the boxes because you like their looks?

Do you want good sound for a reasonble price?

Is your life not filling available time, so you want an
interesting, time-consuming hobby?

wrote:

Any advice would be greatly appreciated...

Find a suitable sized kit with matched units and cross-over and build
the recommended box for it.

The existing stuff could have been worth the effort of converting to a 3
way design if the heil elements reported by other participants in this
thread were in place and working, sans those: don't bother.

Even with those, it still might have been about new boxes anyway since
the original boxes are reportedly of poor materials.

Do not just trash the cross-overs, copper does not belong in a landfill
and they may have some value to someone in some context, including
possibly to you if you intend to waste lots of time and money on the
most interesting hobby of DIY'in loudspeakers.

In the quality league the original construction appears to have belonged
to, based on hearsay, it is not really probable that the capacitors in
the cross-overs are something that I would want in a parts drawer,
bipolar 10 percent electrolytics is probably a good guess of what is
there.

- Dan C.


Kind regards

Peter Larsen

--
*******************************************
* My site is at: http://www.muyiovatki.dk *
*******************************************

In article , Peter Larsen wrote:
wrote:

Any advice would be greatly appreciated...

Find a suitable sized kit with matched units and cross-over and build
the recommended box for it.

The existing stuff could have been worth the effort of converting to a 3
way design if the heil elements reported by other participants in this
thread were in place and working, sans those: don't bother.

Even with those, it still might have been about new boxes anyway since
the original boxes are reportedly of poor materials.

Ask Madisound. This conversion reminds me of a set of Bic's I
did over. Used a paticular Eminence woofer which I don't remember the
model. My cabinet was very strong. Bracing can always be added, and is not
a real big deal to greatly improve the walls.

greg

wrote:

I've had these speakers since the 80's. At the time I thought I was
"hot sh-t" having the biggest speakers in the dorm. Now I'm balding and
middle-aged but I'd love to resurrect some of that glory-day feeling by
replacing the rotten drivers in these things. As a side note: even at
the time, these were not nearly high-end so I'm fully aware of the fact
that I may be wasting my time (and yours - sorry).

Does anyone remember these beasts?
They stand about 4 feet tall. They originally had some kind of planar
mid/tweeter, a 12" woofer and 12" passive radiator. I've since replaced
all of the above elements with parts from RadioShack so I have no idea
what the original specs were.

As a minimum, I should replace the drivers and passive radiators since
the foam is completely disintegrated but I'm not sure how to go about
finding parts that are "tuned" to the cabinet and work well with the
existing cross-over.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated...

- Dan C.

http://www.speakerworks.net/kits.html

I paid them about $40 for two kits with four foam surrounds to fix the
woofers in four speakers.

The first challenge was to scrape away the old foam without wrecking
cones.

I discovered that my cones required surrounds slightly smaller than
standard, so I had to slice each new surround and shorten it a few mm,
cutting it so the ends would match and could be glued airtight and
without adding much stiffness at that point.

The third challenge was to align the cones by feel as I glued in the new
surrounds. I had to redo one when it failed the listening test. I
managed to reuse the new surround.

It was worth the trouble to me because these were the original drivers
and the speakers played a variety of music very well.

I remember a pair of Radio Shack speakers (with 12" woofers) whose bass
resonance was so loud that they sounded better with socks stuffed into
the tuning ports. If I'd owned them I would not have gone to the trouble
of replacing the surrounds.