When I had to replace the tweeters in my SL2s @Cymbiosis made them up as an assembly of tweeter, new cables and new sockets, all presoldered. The holes for the sockets are keyhole shaped so the sockets can be inserted with the wires already soldered, dropped down into the narrow bit of the keyhole and the retaining nut tightened.
Can’t swear to it but I do think I had to apply a thin film of hylomar blue when installing the tweeters.
Tweeters in my DBLs are only a couple of years old. Two replacement pairs stashed away in the attic.
The sbl tweeters have a small block of brass stick to the back of them, could the hot glue be there for vibration purposes? Or possibly to stop oxidisation? A heat sink? Take you pick .
With a lack of response from Scanspeak direct and EU suppliers, I’ve bitten the bullet and gone for the replacement Scanspeak 852100 from Falcon which should be here today with some slightly longer wire just in case the original wont reach
If the tweeter is mounted so the solder lugs are at 12 and 6 o’ clock the mod required should hopefully be only to the mounting ring. I wont know though until I get chance to see it in the flesh whether this re-orientation will cause the side lugs to foul on the upper and lower cabinet. The dilemma will then be whether to attack the cabinet or the tweeter mount arm - I suspect the former to give max integrity to the tweeter mount
Someone suggested using a fabrications company for the mod. rather than doing a DIY job, which I may do being only 8 miles out of Sheffield (although my impetuosity may overrule my common sense!)
Looking at mount ring and the U/S tweeters Ive removed, there is some sticky gunk on them so as mentioned above some has been applied from new, but will take Richards advice and not use Hylomar
I recall there was a specific torque setting for the bass/mid units, is there a specific torque setting for the tweeter?
Just speaking from naim allae, the cable is quite stiff and long, it was pushing the cable against the joint so it can cause some premature stress on it. Enough force it will start to tear the connection. The cable is not wrapped around the terminal, it is on the terminal.
I’ve replaced the ScanSpeak’s on my DBL’s along with two refurbished bass units. And a mate of mine blew his mids, which we’ve now replaced with the ScanSpeak alternatives. In both cases the speakers sound fine. My only tips are take photos, pay attention to how Naim tend to dress/coil the internal cables and take your time. On DBL’s Hylomar is required on the tweeters and mids but the bass units are dry mounted and sealed around the circumference with a bead of silicone.
Spent ages last night prepping an update on how fitting of the 852100 SL2 tweeters went in MS word but lost it over night (not in the recovery box!) so here goes again…
Once I’d got first one done which required a journey into Audio Images (big thanks to Andy) for some wire, the 2nd one took around an hour from start to finish
To re-iterate, you do need to replace the wire and if you spin the tweeters 1/4 turn so the solder lugs are at 6 and 12 o’clock you only need to cut out a 10 x 5 mm notch from the tweeter mount ring - I used a jewellers saw (and went through around 5-6 blades in the process) and smoothed the notches off with a 5mm diameter round because I’m like that. The whole job is invisible once re-built so neatness is not essential
Initial listening impressions were positive bearing with the new version sounding at least as good as the old (851100) version. Bear in mind though that (i) the system (NDS555/552/active 500) was cold and will IME take 1-2 weeks to fully warm up again, (ii) the tweeters and new cable needs burning in and (iii) I had also rebuilt the Fraims and done a thorough system rebuild last week following room re-decoration
So all-in-all a very worthwhile process as I now have a relatively future proof solution for some years to come which is comfort (not sure about the bass/mids though)
Wow, thats a nice job done on the SL2s. May even be a performance improvement coming up as the whole system beds in. So good that naims wonderful speakers are still servicing our love of music. Is there any spec on the new bits of wire needed so that consistancy is maintained, guage? copper quality?
I am anticipating it will be an improvement from early findings. The wire Naim used originally was multi-core 4mm2 copper (I think it was stamped 12awg)
As my only “Audiophile” option for a quick collection was my local Naim dealer I was anticipating coming away with NACA5 but they suggested the more malleable Chord Epic X which I used
There was some darkish green/black gunge on both the old tweeter and the O mount ring, but bear in mind the tweeters have been replaced at least twice and and I’ve not used any Hylomar or the like and did previous replacements
I did contact Naim late last Friday regarding the required cable spec and asked about Hylomar, but the Tech guy I spoke to said speakers were before his time and to Email the enquiry in and Class A said they dont do speaker repairs
Perhaps Richard could get the definitive answer on both of these
Massive thanks to Clive for his out of hours assistance:
“Yes there should be Hylomar. About a 2mm bead round the metal ring in line with the fixings. Torque I think was 0.8nM on the 4ba bolts.”
As for the wires, I can’t find a definitive spec, but they are 4mm CSA, 56/0.3 strand copper, manufactured by BICC to the best of my knowledge. Look closely at the wires - I think they are printed with some data?
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