Sony speaker project

[floydfan]

Hi All
Been following the threads on speaker modifications and thought it would be fun to have a go. I found a pair of small Sony speakers (SSH5500) in among my junk. Not sure where I got them. I think I had them linked to a small Panasonic amp. They seem solid enough so I took them apart with
a view to lining with steel plate and changing the crossover. There are three drivers with the mid and tweeter combined in a small plate.
The crossover seems simple with only 2 inductors and one capacitor, no resistor. Would it be ok to just cut the leads to the bass driver and connect the driver directly to my A60 then just leave the existing crossover to the mid and tweeter pair and using my A30 to drive them? There is a port but I will seal this up. Should the box be air tight with some sort of sealant round the drive units, silicone possibly?
The speakers are probably not hi fi but I would like to have a go before trying a more expensive pair of speakers.
Cheers

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Sounds fine have a play. Just don't accidentally wire a short circuit to the amplifier. To check for air leaks when assembled just press in the bass driver, if it stays in and slowly comes out you have a leak. It should feel like spring when you press it in.

[floydfan]

Wow that was a quick reply. Thanks I will get right on to it and let you know how I get on.
cheers

[Daniel Quinn]

Good luck floydfan , you may never look back .

Got the day off tomorrow to finish my speaker mods - removing the internal partition , lining with carbon fibre and bitumen wadding [ sorry doc this stuff is lying around ] and adding additional bracing in the form of cut to measure broom handles .

quick tip Floyd fan - don't use sealant on the drive units till you now they are working and wired in correct phase , its a bit of a ball ache :D

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Use carbon fibre and bitumen and you ruin what you have done with the steel plate.

[Daniel Quinn]

I Haven't used steel plate as of yet, the boxes are as when purchased ,just hard wired and removed x-over to date . I'm using the c/f as it is lying around . bitumen is only 2mm thick and im using it between the mdf and the carbon fibre .

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

It is still adding a mechanical filter - remove *all* wading or compliant lining from a speaker and stiffen up the case. All you are doing is making the box waffle at a lower frequency.

[Daniel Quinn]

Not having doped the cones , my thinking was this may attenuate the higher frequencies of the bass driver . Eventually I will try both .

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

It wont do that, only doping the cone will do that. All you will do is lose musical information as you will create a mechanical capacitor that will store and release back information at a lower frequency and out of phase.

You are heading in the wrong direction - come back.

[Daniel Quinn]

You are convincing me :D