Gale 401a restoration

[Terry]

Thanks for coming over Paul. Really appreciate you hauling all 50 kg of speakers and stands halfway across Dublin! And sorry you couldn't make it Claus... hope that twisted ankle heals up soon. Thanks a million for the assist with the amp. Worked a treat.

A fascinating evening. Two sets of 401a's in the same room. They certainly looked identical - so much so I took a pic of the serial numbers to avoid mixing up the pairs! But would they sound the same? Similar? Remotely even?

We played a variety of material but for the main part it was Lyle Lovett, Miles Davis, 'Cannonball' Alderley, Art Blakey, Calexico and Gary's Boyle and Moore on 'Electric Glide' who provided the entertainment. All on vinyl with an LP12 spinner and watts courtesy of Claus's Nu-Vista M3.

We kicked off with Lovett's 'Brown Eyed Handsome Man' on 'Release Me', a superb recording and pressing from Curb Records. My speakers (original crossovers), perched on the new Gale stands. Paul was as curious as I was... "original and best" or otherwise? All seemed good. Was good! Damned good! Just a couple of tracks to keep things focused and then swap in Paul's speakers.

Definitely cut from the same cloth... lots of 'slam', attack, sparkling midrange and layered detail. But where my Gales soared, these reworked xo versions soared higher. Everything seemed be in sharper focus. Same music. Just more of it. More nuanced. This was a 'Jazus' moment for Paul and an "ok, I get it" for me. The crossovers will be done!

Regarding the stands, they performed flawlessly. My room has a sprung wooden floor and none of the (very considerable) energy from 32" of combined woofer area, was felt underfoot. Those stands work.

Will need some guidance now on the caps and resistors. I'm keen to keep the integrity of the originals so whatever the modern equivalents happen to be.

T

[Dublinia123]

Terry,

Many thanks for hosting the evening and for being a very fine host at that.

As Terry has already alluded to - I was really "curious" (read that as sweating it big time considering the amount of work I put into the XOs) to hear what the difference would be between the two sets of speakers.

Half way into the first track, even though I wasn't familiar with the music, I was pretty confident my speakers would add to the party. The second track, which had a lot going on and a very good test or choice in terms of putting a speaker through it's paces I was even more convinced. What I was hearing was a little muddied compared to what I would expect. Yes you could hear that the drivers were doing everything that they should be doing - so it was very evident Terry had done a great job on the re-foams and re-build.

When we swapped in my speakers the two tracks were played over - and hey presto - more presence, greater separation, more nuance, greater detail and in my view absolutely justified the work I had done on the XOs.

We listened some more - put on the Gary Boyle Electric Glide tracks "Gaz" and "Morning Father Joys" with which I'm very familiar and then swapped Terry's speakers back in and listened to the same two tracks. The look on Terry's face said it all - he even asked the question "Is this the same track?"

So for me the results indicated pretty conclusively that 30 to 35 year old cross overs can benefit from a bit of well considered and judicious re-work. I would absolutely concur with Mr Tibbs from Pinkfish that the first thing to change would be the resistors. Mine were in a dreadful state and given the story from where the speakers were rescued by Terry I would be pretty much convinced that they will be in a similar state.

As to all the other possible changes - it's all down to personal taste, preference, budget and whether you want to stick with the Gale standard sound ( which for me is pretty mind-blowing) or move in a different direction.

My only other comments would be on the stands - they look really really well, compliment the Gales perfectly and amazingly no trace of "bass thump" through a suspended timber floor.

A pair of these is now most definitely on my wish list.

[Diapason]

Just want to say again what a great thread this is!

[tony]

Just want to say again what a great thread this is!

+1 Enjoyable reading. Never heard of Gales before but they look a stunning piece of kit.

[Dublinia123]

Just a couple of post comparison evening thoughts Terry.

It would be relatively simple to make up an extension wiring harness run through a blanking plate the exact same size as the existing XO board to allow you work on the board externally on a piecemeal basis without having to put everything back together again before auditioning.

You could also do just one speaker at a time to get a comparison between pre re-worked and newly re-worked.

I would also get some advice from Mr. Tibbs or some such knowledgeable person about those pots - I'm not convinced that they should be capable of shutting off the driver.

If you need any of the tools I used in my re-build, just shout.

P

[JAW]

Hi Dublinia, just wondering where you got the caps for your speakers? I renovated a pair of the non chrome end Gales a couple of years ago but only replaced one resistor as it was physically damaged. Looking at the cap values 7uF is an odd one.

[Dublinia123]

Hi Dublinia, just wondering where you got the caps for your speakers? I renovated a pair of the non chrome end Gales a couple of years ago but only replaced one resistor as it was physically damaged. Looking at the cap values 7uF is an odd one.

Hi,

I just had a quick look at some of the files I kept and I believe this is the parts list:

hificollective.co.uk Mundorf M Resist Supreme 1.8 Ohm 20W & 3.3 Ohm 20W
hificollective.co.uk Clarity Cap ESA 250V 3.9uF
hificollective.co.uk Clarity Cap ESA 250V 5.6uF
Clarity Cap ESA 250V 6.8UF
Clarity Cap ESA 250V 33.0UF
hificollective.co.uk Mundorf MKP 3.9uF
hificollective.co.uk Mundorf MKP 5.6uF
hificollective.co.uk Mundorf MKP 12uF
Mundorf MKP 22uF

So in answer to your question I believe I used a Clarity Cap ESA 250V rated at 6.8uF

If you read through the Pinkfish Gale Refurb thread, just to be sure, I believe all the details are there.

Pretty much all my cross-over bits came from HiFiCollective in the UK apart from the pots which if memory serves I sourced from Australia.

[Terry]

Sorry for being slow coming back fellas and many thanks for offering the tools Paul. Will definitely take you up on that. I wanted to check with David @ vintagegale re pots, caps and resistors. He has done this many times. He recommends Solen caps and Monacor resistors. I see Mr. Tibbs uses Solen/Mundorf. See pics of my original board and his revised.

The pots are fine. Did a bit of fettling yesterday and all seems good. Will have another look and calibrate them when back inside!

I'll order up the caps and resistors shortly and go from there.

[Dublinia123]

And just for completeness....

Here are some pics of my updated XO

[Claus]

Great read lads. Very sorry I had to miss it. Teach me trying to do jump shots in Olympic Handball lessons... I have a chance to hear Terry's tomorrow when I pick up my amp. Looking forward to it!