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Re: Gale 401

Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2010 10:04 pm
by cybot
Great stuff John....at least you are enjoying yourself :-)

Re: Gale 401

Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2010 4:58 pm
by Dowser
Looking good! Thanks for the photos, and for the Corus (hope to mount it this weekend).

Richard

Re: Gale 401

Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2010 2:53 pm
by Adrian
Great stuff JAW,

Thanks for the effort of showing your new project.

It's great to be able to carry out a project if you have the interest the time and the space. Its much more enjoyable that way.

I'm sure your efforts will pay off with many hours of pleasurable listening. I like your "Using the Force" comment!!!

Adrian

Re: Gale 401

Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2010 6:21 pm
by cybot
Adrian wrote:Great stuff JAW,

Thanks for the effort of showing your new project.

It's great to be able to carry out a project if you have the interest the time and the space. Its much more enjoyable that way.

I'm sure your efforts will pay off with many hours of pleasurable listening. I like your "Using the Force" comment!!!

Adrian
Yoda Rules ok :-))

Re: Gale 401

Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2010 10:49 pm
by JAW
Getting there with these. Got these shimmed and glued, one left to do, I didn't have enough clothes pegs!! Very nervous about shimming the first one, but it's not as difficult as I imagined. When the glue dried, the shims removed and the dust caps replaced they were all given a quick dart of a 1.5V battery and all seemed ok, so things are looking good.

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Also, these little puppies arrived today to replace the missing mid. They're not an exact fit, but fortunately they're a little larger than the original Peerless units so with a bit of luck the rebate will look natural.

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Re: Gale 401

Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 12:58 am
by Gussy Finknottle
Great thread.I actually rebuilt a pair of Celestion Ditton 66 which took me 12 months to finish and they will always sound better than any other speaker to me.Its a great moral uplift to achieve something like that.Carry on with the great work you are doing,it will all be worth it in the end

Re: Gale 401

Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 5:26 pm
by cybot
Great stuff John! I bet they'll sound amazing when you're finished with them! Keep pegging away :-)

Re: Gale 401

Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 6:58 pm
by fergus
cybot wrote:Great stuff John! I bet they'll sound amazing when you're finished with them! Keep pegging away :-)
Oh no....groan....I thought that I had weaned you away from those comments before LOL!!!

Re: Gale 401

Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 6:31 pm
by cybot
fergus wrote:
cybot wrote:Great stuff John! I bet they'll sound amazing when you're finished with them! Keep pegging away :-)
Oh no....groan....I thought that I had weaned you away from those comments before LOL!!!
'fraid not fergus :-)

Re: Gale 401

Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2010 9:48 pm
by JAW
Well, this started as a project for a long wet summer! Who knew? I had planned to rebuild the crossovers, bypassing the mid and treble pots, as these were supposed to be set in the factory to match pairs. Anyway, I decided today to assemble them, with the new mids, to see if they worked and how they sounded, before I did anything to the crossovers.

Here they are, waiting for the first few notes in years! (White Stripes, Elephant).

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Looking good with the new mid

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Cabinets came up well as well!

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So, the sixty million one, how do they sound? Well, I would say beguiling. They are certainly not as fast as modern speakers and they do have a boxy sound, however, it's all there and I'm sure when the mids burn in they'll be better. Also, the capacitors are the bones of forty years old and changing them will improve the sound. My immediate impression is that they're a little bass heavy (and that's coming from somebody with PMC FB1's). I just listened to Nick Drake Five Leaves Left and they sound good wth acoustic guitar, strings and acoustic bass. Working through Sergeant Pepper now and that's pretty good too, and then onto Disraeli Gears. I'm trying to listen to music from the period these would have been produced to get a feel for them before going onto more modern stuff.
These have a reputation for being amp eaters due to the two bass cones being wired in parallel, but so far my Meridian 556 is happy enough and not glowing red.
Actually, I'm starting to really like these!!!!!!