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Sunday, October 21, 2012

I start to repair the DCM timeframe 350 speakers that I ruined by playing The Ledge

It would seem that "Standing in a trashcan thinking of you" and the accompanying rebel yell is the true test of a 30 year old speaker.
The foam surrounds have completely turned to foam powder.

The DCM timeframe speaker is not so hard to take apart. Kind of a pain it the arse. But, not that hard.
The top wood cover is held on by pins. You use a piece of wood and a mallet (as opposed to a mullet which only makes the neighbors laugh at you) to gently knock the cover straight up.

Then you roll the grill covering down the speaker.
There is another foam covered cloth under the grill cloth. You have to separate them at the top. I started to roll them both down at the same time but this spread rotten foam on the carpet. I don't think there is any reason to roll them both down.
I have ordered a refoaming kit off of ebay. We shall see how this all works.
I am somewhat skeptical about this whole HiFi religion and have become a bit more so as I progress.
The DCM TimeFrame was a well reviewed speaker in its' day. They are neat as they have a small footprint for a tall speaker.
The design is interesting as it appears to have one driver in a "tuned" box. I need to do a little more research and I don't claim to be a definitive expert on anything.
I have seen several similar designs on the Parts Express website and I can't find them now. I had collected plans for several designed which used a Dayton driver and a tuned box but I now can't find any of them. There was even a website where a physics teacher had kids design speakers as a final class project.
I soon found out that it was going to cost more to build a speaker than to buy an old speaker.
However, when buying used speakers it is best to do a little research.
Speakers such as the Dynaco A-25 do not use foam surrounds and so hold up better over the years. I think Early Advent speakers (from the Henry Kloss years) are good choices but the Jensen Advents all have foam surrounds and the price reflects this.
I suspect that the TimeFrame speakers were designed to somewhat appeal to the stereo snob who thought they looked innovative. I don't see the foam impregnated inner screen and foam surrounds as reflecting a design that was expected to last for 40 years.
But what do I know? Very little...
My goal is to repair them, find a working changer style center spindle for my Dual 1019, find a Dynaco SCA80 amp and set them up in my living room. You may very well ask why I have such a plan and why I want to stack records on the Dual 1019 as it is a very philistine thing for an audiophile to do.
Well, I am not an audiophile...
And, my father-in-law wants to listen to some old records which feature a quartet he was once a member and I don't want to keep changing records. Of course he may never visit our house again and it is pretty silly to go to this effort but then again, I am a bit silly...
Have a nice day.
I think I shall go fishing.

8 comments:

  1. Kinda makes ya wish for the days of live entertainment.

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  2. I think I am the philistine Budde. My efforts in quality sound go no further than plugging in the wires to whatever speakers I happen to have acquired. I'm pretty happy with the add on speakers for this laptop. They make everything from bluegrass music to dual piped V8 engines sound awesome!

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  3. I just redid surrounds on a set of TF350's

    and redid the headliner foam (smoker owned them) need to make new socks now . they sound great. TF600's are better, but I am impressed with the 350s worth the time and cost to fix correctly

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous, thanks for the comments. My new foam surrounds came but they are for an 8" woofer and mine are 6". I did think they sounded very nice at low volume when I first tried them out. However the surrounds fell apart right away.
      These are in pretty good cosmetic shape. I am looking forward to hearing them.

      Delete
  4. Not all DCM TF350's arte same as far as the top wood cover. I managed to break one cover in half using the method described here. Mine were held on by bolts that you need to loosen and remove from the inside. Look before you start hammering. If they don't come right off, they are more than likely bolted on.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the info. I was thinking of getting another pair to fix

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  5. How did you get inside to remove the bolts?

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  6. I removed the bottom first but if you take the back off you will be able to get the bolts off from the top using a 7/16 wrench and they'll have no problem coming out. The black stand also uses the same wrench but you will need a socket to.

    ReplyDelete

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