Hi Jim - no I don’t although as they were near the end of the original Naim parts stock I’m guessing they probably arrived there about 10 years ago around when the SL2s were discontinued. They’ve been wrapped up in stock since that time though and look as if they were manufactured yesterday.
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JimDog,
One of my tweeters died.
No idea how old the original tweeters were as I bought them second hand.
No idea on how long the replacements had been in stock at Naim.
Yes! Hard not to when returning from mono to stereo. There was a significant uplift in musicality. Surprised me at the time how much the bass was improved.
When I bought my DBLs they were in a sorry state. The mids had been replaced, they looked as new though it looked like installation of the hylomar blue sealant had been performed using a bricklayer’s trowel, by someone wearing boxing gloves, following an afternoon session in the pub.
The bass units were totally shot and have been rebuilt by ATC.
There was a hint of a suggestion of a maybe that the tweeters were replaced however the foam faces are perished and I suspect that they’re past their best. This feeling has increased as I’ve made further improvements upstream, most recently Radikal and then Karousel. I find that on complex passages, and/or at volume, they start to lose the plot.
Regards,
Willy.
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So Charlie, which size foam did you end up using for the bass L corpus pillars? naims measurements or the onea taken from measuring your speakers?
Mario.
Mario,
Honestly I haven’t decided.
The „short“ ones seem rather too short, but are the size like the ones I removed. The longer ones on the other hand reach over these damping squares and cover them which are also inside the pillars. So I thought they should not be hidden under the foam until I realized that in the mid range cabinet it’s exactly that way ie two of these damping metal blocks are hidden behind a double foaming.
So I thought I’ll give it a try first with the long ones ie according to the original paperwork.
At least it’s fun playing around …
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What kind of effect would seriously degraded interior foam have on the sound of a pair of DBL’s?
Two years ago I had the Naim distributor get woofer reconed (by ATC). As I did not remove the woofers myself, I did not see in what state the foams were then. The distributor did not mention anything about possible issues there. Can anyone tell me in what way(s) degraded foam would affect the sound?
Many thanks,
Pierre
an interesting question that I have been pondering about myself. I guess that if there is material there and if it is not touched, the airflow would be the same. The foam seems to just crumble when touched, but stays the same if left alone. I’m leaving mine alone but accept that one day it will need to be addressed.
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The biggest impact I think it has on the bass drivers. I am in the process of finding out. My drivers will be back soon from reconing and all foam pads are replaced with new ones. I am very courious myself what the effect will be.
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Hey Charlie, an obvious question, are the black plates on the upright pilliars simply there to insert the foam upwards and downwards into the cabinet? Is the foam curled around to form a sort of tube before inserting or do you just insert individual strips to cover each side of the vertical internal cabinet walls? Hope that question makes sense but I know if I started looking and pulling foam out I would get to the point of no return and have to replace everthing! You will soon be enjoying the fruits of your labour Im sure.
Hi Mario
Ill try to give you my findings. I did open the four plates. They are actually wooden inserts about 1cm thick and attached with some glue and 10 screws each to airtightening the openings. It’s not entirely trivial to get them out without damaging them. (I’ll post another picture to show you the way I did it, once I do the final assembly) Anyway, it’s not absolutely necessary to remove them when you exchange the foam pads inside the four columns. Yet when you do it is definitely helpful to have access from above when sliding the foam in from underneath. (the openings are too small to insert the foamings from above). You need to roll the foam pads up with overlapping edges, so they slide in without damage or resistance and then unfold them in the way that their side ends don’t overlap any more but are touching each other in one plane. So they form a nice cylinder inside. Hope you get the idea what I mean here. Now when you have access from above it is a little easier to fine adjust the foam rollings inside.
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now that makes perfect sense, well explained with pictures - thank you! I had no idea the plates were wood, I just assumed they were aluminium. I must admit I feel alot better knowing your findings and eventually will have a go at this. Its amazing no body has ever brought any of this up before, always lots of talk about gaskets silicone and sbls, you have done well for fellow dbl users.
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An unforeseen and annoying delay. When the drivers finally came back from reconing i realized One driver got damaged very badly during transport. So back to the start. 
Bugger!
So, did I misunderstand or is there supposed to be foam in the lower main cabinet (below the LF cabinet), where the wool resides?
I’ve opened mine up for packaging but it doesn’t have any.
Hi Stefano
There is no foam down in the basement just wool, BUT when you reach from there inside up towards the two collumns of the back part you will find they are aligned inside with faompads which reach up towards the openings closed with the black -actually wooden- closures.
Hope my verbal description is of any help …;-))
Perfectly clear, thanks Charlie!
Hi Charlie
I contacted Custom Foams today and was hoping that they could just repeat your Order to me, but no they say they are not able to do that and need a complete breakdown of what I require. So if I give them the measurements that you posted will that be sufficient and with the Bass Corpus Pillars do I order both sizes 4 of each or 8 of 1 size. Are you able to advise of cost involved, I will understand if you would sooner not say. They say that they have a £300 minimum order value.
I posted the measurements and quantities I ordered from custom foams somewhere up in this thread. I did order two sets (2x4) for the corpus pillars as I was not sure which one to use. actually I still have not decided but for the moment have the smaller ones (ie as the ones which were inside my dbls)
Did you remove the foamings of your dbls already ?
would be interesting to see what size of foaming is inside the corpus pillars of your dbls
Hope it helps …
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Hi Charlie,
I have not removed the foams yet. I may have a look today.
You were asking in an earlier post how old mine are. If it is the Serial number on the Crossover attached to the back they are 2003.
Do you know if the metal stand at the bottom which is attached by 4 screws has a fixing inside.
So one year older rhan mine. Will be interesting to see what size the foam pads in your pillars turn out.
No, I don’t know much about the metal frame underneath i am afraid, so not much help here
Many greetings