UPGRADING A 1980'S COMPONENT SYSTEM SPEAKER FOR IMPROVED SOUND TECHNICS SB-2845 

When you can hear significant sound improvement on RU-vid you know its even bigger in reality. Great job!

I got free pair of Sony ss u601av 3 way towers and decided to make some improvements as well. I braced the inside and changed the tweeter with an infinity tweeter pair I had laying around. And changed the mid range . I lined the wood inside with carpet cushion mat and also use poly-fil . I didn’t use to much ploy-fil because the speakers cabinet are ported . Now I have a good looking set of vintage speakers that don’t sound bad . I was dumbstruck when I realized they sounded better than my advents and infinity Rs 4000 . One little experiment I did with the poly-fil since all the drivers are installed 1 1/2 “ on top of each other I tried using different amounts of poly material behind each driver to the ports and it made the bass sound cleaner and not interfere with the mid and highs coming out the speakers. The sound stage improved significantly .

This was helpful to watch. Even using the original woofer and midrange, with just the tweeter replaced, the new crossover with the filter on the woofer, there was an amazing improvement in the sound.

I always found mylar, aluminum, or any kind of hard material for the tweeter to be harsh. I opted for old school paper tweeters over those and really enjoy the warmth from a soft dome myself. Some of those can get expensive and lack clarity in the upper ranges. Just my thought.

It's actually even bigger. Great job! Thanks for the video. I've been eyeing those crossovers for a while and think it's time to pick up a set or two. It earned you a new partner.

I replaced my old vintage Marantz speakers that came with my 2030 receiver with modern Emotiva units and the diff was astounding.

Great video, very interesting and incredibly informative. I really love these kinds of videos. I'm not a techie myself, I'm more of a contemplator. Thank you so much

fun to watch was thinking the same for some old pioneers i have

most of thows 80is speakers , will have only a capasitor on tweeter only expesive one had crossover , and no insulation, and most after all this time will have the rubber on the edge of cone damage and have very cheap drivers , so for a 6"' iven a 20euro driver and 5euro dome tweeter is much better than the original , add a crossover and some insulation , and you got a much better speaker ,

Thank you for the video. I have been looking at those crossovers for a while, guess it's time to grab a set or two. This one earned you a New Sub.

Excelent work!

Interesting video! Nice to see how much of a difference that made without breaking the bank! Currently restoring some old DCM speakers and everything I’ve done so far has definitely made a difference! ✅🍿

The biggest improvement in sound seems to come from the choke in series with the bass speaker. The speaker has a reflex port that appears to have been designed in the shape of a horn loudspeaker to impress laymen. The bass speaker has a very small magnet. This makes it unsuitable for a bass reflex speaker. You should close the reflex port. To get rid of the still extreme peak at 6000 Hz, try reversing the polarity of the tweeter in relation to the midrange driver and / or leave out one of the two 1 microfarad capacitors in the tweeter branch.

Very very interesting, great job !

Nice video. I got an old Sharp System 8800, which remains from my passed away stepfather. But now only the rack, amplifier, phonograph and speakers remain, since the cd player and everything else didn't work anymore. The whole system was abandoned and stored in the basement, one day I took care of it, to use it again. The receiver, cd and cassette player got replaced with modern Pioneer network player, Blu-ray player and amplifier. Next step was to take care of the speakers, as the mid range drivers were in very bad condition and the one on the right didn't even make a sound anymore. I bought two new Monacor mid range drivers and put them in, but the one on the right speaker still didn't make a sound. ☹ So I opened the speakers and found the crossovers, which were actually real 3-way crossovers. Since I wasn't sure what actually was wrong, I replaced both crossovers with Monacor DN-200, which aren't very cheap, but the Monacor drivers weren't cheap as well. There already was some poly-fill inside the speakers, which I reused, since it was fine. This modification took place in 2017, the original tweeters and double woofers still remain and are in very good shape and the speakers still sound amazing, my neighbors know that too. 😄

I have a few sets of those. I like the og tweeters even if they are quite directional

Listening from RU-vid, I don't notice an "improvement" compared to the original... The upgrade took away the bass. The treble improved logically due to the change of tweeter. The mid frequencies do sound clearer. It sounds different, but for me not necessarily better... But the important thing is that you like it!! That was the goal. Beyond tastes, very good video, very neat work and explanation!!

i did the same, with the same crossovers for some old 3 way speakers i have ps: my speakers are sony ss-a309. same crossovers you have... now you are making me wanting to try reverse the midrange too....

Amazing video! Thanks for posting I actually retro fitted some 80s Pioneer 2-way speakers with Monitor Audio drivers and tweeters and added dampening, and they sound incredible. Didn't do any A/Bing unfortunately. I reckon the reason you couldn't get stereo recording through Audacity is because the mic is a mono source

Easier to upgrade whole system than aĺl that. If I kept my old technics it would be nostalgic but most are not into the techical side of components. I just hinted to the wife about upgrading & she had new B&W speakers & Marantz cd delivered within 2 days cause she loves me.

this was fascinating and a wonderful example of upgrading, i may yet try this with my ancient Pioneers. Less so was your choice of test music, especially that 80s crap at the end

Ha-ha, German Schlager Music, that’s a whole genre with many deep rabbit holes, and extremely hard to explain to anyone who does not live , or lived in Germany, which I do now…

Hey man great idea I remember these speakers in the 80s and all of those stores made like that had that boxy sound I prefer the true coronet systems from the 70s by far but believe it or not although bit hard I could tell a fairly considerate improvement on my rather cheap phone and that impressed me quite a bit I can't believe you were able to number one improve the sound coming from those woofers or number two find some or have some woofers that still had the rubber foam around them I know that in 1984 the only system I was able to find for around 1100.00 that wasn't completely boxy was JVC. And I listened to Sony witch by the way were the worse and tecniecs and pioneer all of the brands anything under that price was terrible and in Longview,TX there was nothing else the JVC was far better but still came no where near the sound of the 70s stuff in all brands so you paid way more and got way less in the 80s most of these 80s so called component systems were not even separate able in anyway and basically junk k not gonna say more please forgive spelling and the fact this cheap phone thinks it knows more than I

Another thing you can do is isolate the tweeter by boxing them in or just box in the main sub driver with a piece of scrap wood cut to size then use acoustic padding on the inside walls then pillow wool, makes a massive difference in bass

Youre yellow Vynil is German Schlager music. Have to say, that with the upgraded speakers, you can understand the Lyrics much better.

Even sitting here without headphones, I can hear a difference. The bass in much tighter and clear. I can hear less of a difference in the mid and upper range, but that's due to my setup and older ears :).

Testing frequency response in a room you're going to get boundary reinforcement at low frequencies (below 400hz). in the midrange you're hearing room nodes more than the speaker itself! Best to test these on a stand in the backyard on a wind-less day.

Pretty sure RU-vid won't get upset . I've never heard that music before. The bands are probably happy you are using. I might have been tempted to convert to a 2 way..

Thanks for the honest take on what many systems were like in the 80's. The looks were impressive; the sound not so much. Most everything sold as a complete system at a reasonable price was that way. I had a couple of friends who bought such systems. They were probably better than anything they had owned...I'd heard much better and wasn't impressed. The sound was, as you say, "lifeless." What was really funny is how they ragged on me for buying Harman Kardon components, saying "who ever heard of Harman Kardon." :-) They obviously didn't, because they knew nothing about hifi nor even decent sound, judging by their choice of systems AND how proud they were of such dead and unbalanced sound. Good times.

Good video for easy upgrades. I think a notch filter on the mid would've been a cheap but effective upgrade and possibly add some cross bracing in the cabinet along with what you did. I also would have upgraded the slope on the tweeter. Building a notch filter and cross bracing are cheap. I have been building my own speakers a long time now, comparing them. Building cabinets and making them look presentable is what requires the most effort. If it wasn't a budget build (I can't control my spending) I would have swapped all of the drivers too.

If the tweeters had a protection circuit and they were blown when you go them I guess it didn't work for one reason or other.

Nice work! Thanks for sharing! I'm about to restore a pair of Acoustic Research AR-4x. I would like to get rid of the fiberglass and use poly fill but, as it is a sealed box (acoustic suspension), I don't know how much poly fill to use. Same mass? Same surface area? Would it change the sound?

Apparently instead of matching the size of the box to the *drivers* , they matched it to the size of the *stack of components* (2:07)!

Mine are from 1976 Kenwood kl888 and they are working Excellent maybe 🤔 Because the Pledge furniture polish 😂

My Dad had a pair of SB-2844's and they didn't really survive. The wiring inside is starting to fail and the tweeters cut out sometimes. the midrange drivers are totally destroyed. The cones desintigrated and the spider cracked. The woofers are super loose and have a fs of like 30hz. One of them has a cracked spider and sometimes makes a very slight clicking sound but otherwise the woofers are good. I did repair a small rip in the foam surround years ago with some silicone. Maybe I should swap out the drivers and fix them up. They did sound pretty good back in the day but now they are in bad shape.

Find a way to get rid of the two massive peaks at the top and bottom and it would be okay. Would a resistor of the right value help in each case?

But you actually picked up some of the better "Cheap" quality speakers here compared to the majority!!!

Ive put together separarate componets system from Old & new H.K. componets (except speakers).That ive slowly modified an have upgraded over the years aside .Aside from a H.K. tape deck that I have yet to track down actually working Properly..I have a complete system from H.K..The speakers im using are bookshelf speakers from Boston Acoustics c11! & Klipsch..I have found removing foam from the Inside of the Boston Acoustic improved the midrange & imageing Dramaticly ...I currenly own 6 pairs of speakers......Have you tried any of the Upgrades From G.R. research.?.Thanks!

Excellent video - thanks! None of the Amazon or Ali links in the description are working for me (going to dead/404 pages). Do you have any additional crossover and tweeter recommendations?

I see that you have some experience with speaker modifications and it really shows but I have an issue with your ready made crossover. The inductor on the woofer circuit is only 0.38 millihenry, the same as the bandpass circuit for the midrange driver. It should be between 0.8mH and 1.6 mH depending on the impedence and frequency cutting point you want to achieve. Also, the tweeter should use a higher value for the resistor because the response peaked a bit much in the 6 to 10 kHz region. Enough damping effectively kill most of the unwanted box resonances. This is a great video!

Now I know why these speakers sounded so muddy. Big woofers don't reproduce the mids and highs very well and the woofers are run wide open.

I thought crossover elements values must be calculated according to each speaker impedance. You can't just buy first ready-to-use crossover you found, it would simply work incorrect. There are a lot of online crossover calculators which are precise enough to give more than good result. Or you can calculate values by formulas, it's not that difficult. P.S.: I prefer test speakers' overall sound quality with death-metal bands like Morbid Angel, Rivers of nihil etc. because of dense complicated mix. If your speakers can play heavy music good, they would play everything good.

Not trying to throw shade here, but those were some of the worst quality speakers even when they were new. Even the more budget-minded Yamaha speakers from that era were heads and tails above anything coming from Technics. You also have to consider not just frequency response for replacement drivers, but efficiency, resistance, how they interact with the crossover and how they interact with the other drivers and the volume of the enclosure. I think that you'd be better served to build your own from scratch.

I really want to try these upgrades but the links aren’t working for me. Can you send a new link for the crossover

whats the source of that 6khz honk?

You know it

You might put a resistor in series with the tweeter to tame that ferocious peak.

What is the first song playing?

Some advice ... use music that people know for testing .

Hopefully the age of bad foam and rubber stuff has passed. I worked in a lighting retailer in the 1990s and the acoustic foam was used for packing everything BUT as time went on it disintegrated in to gray dust. Like the old foam rings n woofers. Another caveat.

The links are broken and I could not locate the parts.

Another option is carpet pad

Good Video! But i think you should have spent a couple bucks more on the tweeters. These chinese mylars sound bad. I have a pair myself that meassure awful. Is there a reason why you didn't made a crossover yourself? I think the improvement would have been bigger with a selfmade one with better fitting values.

"200 watts". Hahahahahah! Sorry, I couldn't help it. If those cheap 80's speakers were fed 200W they would go up in smoke. I'm not saying all 80's speakers were junk, but the speakers that came with component systems were very low quality.

no on that crossover dont do it. your better off just replacing the capacitors and bypassing the circuit breaker in the original circuit.

That 6 khz peak is very bad bro, any peak or dip more than 1.5 db makes sound colored

Premade crossovers are just a waste of money.

Dude, you did it all wrong. You didn’t show or say how you did the REW measurement. It should be done at 1 meter on tweeter axis with a 1 Watt input. ( I put a voltmeter across the speaker plugs while playing pink noise from the REW generator and adjust the amp volume till the voltmeter shows around 2.83 V. It jumps around a bit because of the Pink noise so maybe a constant 1 kHz tone would be better) . (This gives you 1W at 1m - Industry standard. And then apply a gated time window to exclude room reflections. Use the impulse tab and then apply the cutoffs with the IR Windows button. Depending on how far away you are from nearest walls and ceiling you should be able to apply a time of around 4ms. But if you can get far enough away from walls and have a high ceiling, and put the speaker up on a stand, you might manage more and this determines how low the Frequency response can be measured. For designing crossovers in XSim you need the individual frequency responses and Impedance responses of all 3 drivers individually in the cabinet - probably each measured on axis (not sure). There’s videos on this by 123Toids and by Audio Judgement where I learnt it. Next you cannot just buy a stock crossover off the internet and expect it to work. The crossover needs to be design for the drivers in the cabinet. See the videos by Danny Richie on GR-Research. Next. You miss an opportunity to improve the crossover and sound by not using better quality parts: Air cored inductors, decent Polypropylene caps ( even if u only used Dayton Audio caps from Parts Express), and wire wound resistors. Finally that cabinet would be a buzz box and would need extra bracing gluing in and panel damping applied, such as Automotive anti drumming panels, or Floor tiles and then the open cell foam and finally the Poly Fil - again see Danny Richies videos on this. He sells a combi product called No-Rez that combines the panel damper and open cell foam into one easy to apply product. Even just adding bracing damping and replicating the original crossover design with better quality parts in a point to point wiring config would have been a big improvement. As the measured frequency responses were still really poor - but that could just be an in room response if you didn’t didnt measure at 1W at 1m. A decent response should be flat and with none of those peaks. Also to check for proper driver summation at the crossover points, you reverse the polarity and measure again and you should see a deep hole in the response./. But you can only do this if measuring at 1W at 1m and use the gated time window.

U shud have just rolled the tweeters off with a single cap each and no crossover for the midrange and bass. And possibly rewired the speakers.. U shud removed the wadding inside the speakers.. They may have sounded better.... People automatically assume wadding is better.. It may b... The speaker may not worth the effort

I knew a guy that went broke to buy one of these crap systems, he thought he had a really high end audiophile system, I had a hard time not nitpicking the crap system to death. Peeps think that if it looks cool it is hi-end... he is a music listener , audiophiles don't buy package deal pricepoint crap...just saying...

Just to let you know it's pronounced tech-niks not tech-neeks like you said in the video.

Still hate em

These are cheap rack system speakers. I've owned these particular speakers, as well as a host of other various Technics rack speakers (i.e SB-10, SB-28) and they all suck. I hate everything about them,. From the cheap laminate particle board to the anemic driver magnets. They are simply turds no matter how hard you try to polish them. Not worth the time from my experience, and that's just my opinion, With reference to the sound ciips, the upgraded sound clips definitely sounded shrill and ear fatiguing through my hifi system compared to the stock samples (not that they are anything to rave about). I hold the same opinion in regards to other cheap rack speakers from the '80's and '90's the likes of Sony, Pioneer, JVC, and Kenwoods. Btw, Polyfil also comes in a blanket type option, much easy to work with and holds up better than that loose pillow stuffing mess.

Yikes! That's a 2-note speaker: 40Hz and 6kHz. Garbage it.