I know there has been a thread about using this new version of the Scanspeak tweeter for Naim speakers a few months ago. But I don’t think anyone has reported yet on installing them in vintage DBL’s. In particular, I would like to know if the change of position in their connectors turns out to be problem in mounting them to the DBL cabinet?
Thanks in advance for your insights.
Falcon Acoustics (near Oxford) sell new Scanspeak tweeters, if you need a supplier.
Yes, thank you.
But I would really like to find out first whether or not any reworking of my DBL cabinets will be needed as a result of the change in the position of the terminals on the new tweeter.
Hi, Ive been thinking about this myself as I would imagine, the new version of the tweeter may have improved performance.
There is a thread with somebody successfully installing them into SL2’s but some material had to be removed from the ring part of the tweeter arm so that the wires can now be located in the new position. It looked to be done very well indeed.
Now with DBL’s and NBL’s, they have the sprung tweeter plate so there may not be a need for any material removal as the wires SHOULD leave the back of the tweeter unobstructed and to the terminals. The thing to watch is the dressing of the cables because it looks like the lead out wires on DBL’s and NBL’s tweeters are shaped into a coil so that some springiness happens at the tweeter plate which is only lightly attached to the front baffle. This is only what I have observed and not documented, but it sort of makes the whole tweeter decoupled and looks to be a deliberate detail in the design.
Fitted a pair of new D2010/852100 to a customer’s NBLs recently. No need for any reworking of the cabinets or faceplates.
Drive units were sourced from Falcon Acoustics.
Sorry, but I can’t offer any advice on whether DBLs will require any reworking though, but rather doubt that they will.
Good luck.
@Basically Sound Thanks to you as well. I will be ordering my new tweeters very soon.
Hello,
I did test the new 852100 on my DBLs. Have replace one of them just to compare old and new. There is an aluminum shim behind the flange of the tweeter , that cannot be used with the new tweeters as the terminals are placed on the sideways. Apart from that everything else is bolt-on. No modifications needed. Unfortunately the result was not good, actually much worse. The tweeter is mounted on a suspension plate (with given stiffness) and the tweeter itself has a mass , so altogether they form a spring-mass-system. The weight of the new tweeter is 170g less then the predecessor, so that for sure has an impact and if you want a fair comparison you need to take that into account and compensate for the difference by adding a brass shim (or other non-magnetic material) at the back of the tweeter flange, which i have not done.
BBK, were they run-in when you tested?
see my post here;
Personally from my observation, I think the new 852100 driver mechanism, if anything, needs more running in than did the older driver mechanism.
hi Richard, no I didn’t give them a chance as difference was huge. My DBLs are from 2006 and already replaced the tweeters once (like perhaps every other owner, haha) and the new were improvement straight out of the box and getting better every day afterwards. Though many think they were the same , they weren’t, even having same numbers on the label. Original tweeters had resonance at 1070Hz, and when measured the replacement they came at 775 Hz. I still keep the working OEM tweeter if someone has any doubts.
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.