CX100 removing drivers

I purchased a pair of very nice bare aluminum(?) CX100s yesterday for $100. The seller said the foam was rotten and so I knew this going in and was looking forward to a project. I've ordered new foam and grille cloth and will start the project in a week or so.

My question is about removing the drivers. I don't really want to operate on them in the case, but when I popped off the back cover last night I noticed that the drivers are connected directly to the crossover with soldered wires (no connectors). I was thinking about cutting the wires either near the driver or the crossover and installing spade connectors inline. One of the benefits would be that I'd be less likely to confuse the connections when putting the drivers back in after the re-foaming.

Are spade connectors fine? Any other ideas? I used to have a good soldering kit but I've thinned out a lot of tools and stuff I almost never use.

You don't need to remove them to refoam them. I've done several in their cases.

As for spade connectors, there are several speakers in the B&O range that use them rather than solder - the S45's I'm working on at the moment have spade connectors on every terminal.

Dave.

Interesting, because my CX50s had spade lugs, not soldered. Almost sounds like someone was in there before you.

I've put new drivers in a couple of pairs of CX50s and both were soldered.  You can always use a small battery connected to the speaker terminals to check the +ve and -ve.  Connect correctly and you will see the cone move outwards.

The CX range was produced for almost 20 years so I'd imagine there were some changes in the build process over the years which would explain the difference in connections. I think I will put in inline connectors since I'd imagine it'll be easier to do the foaming with the driver sitting on the table.

I'm really looking forward to fixing these up. The solid cases are impressive, and they are way more interesting looking than my Monitor Audio Radius 90s I have for TV speakers right now. I hope they will sound better too.

One more question. I found older threads where people said the drivers were still available. Is that still true? I'm wouldn't plan on replacing them unless one or more are still bad after the re-foaming, but just curious.

Thanks for the responses!

 

Mark the wires is no problem, and desolder at the driver, you then have no wires dangling around when you work on them, solder on connectors if you want or just solder back the wires where they were before, if refoaming went well you dont have to do it again for 20 years.

I never saw any spade connectors in any of the CX50 / CX100, and I've seen many of those.
All were soldered.

You remove the drivers from the front.

Martin

make sure you remember which drivers came from the top and bottom positions, they are different.  The part numbers are printed on the drivers (different part numbers) and the magnet structures are different so it's easy to tell them apart.

 

Good luck

Push-on spade connectors are the work of the devil! I always re-solder previously soldered connections and if I find spade connections inside any speaker I'm working on, they get chopped off and soldered!

Quick question, what wire gauge do people use to connect the CX100s to a receiver? My speakers didn't come with cables so I bought some female DIN connectors to make up some cables, but the screw terminals inside these connectors are TINY. I can't see getting normal speaker wire under the screws. Then again, the wires inside the CX100s between the drivers and the crossover are also tiny (18 AWG?). They can also be soldered which might help but I don't have an iron anymore...

The refoam and re-cloth went great! These were $75 (local pick up) and the refoam kit with 4 surrounds, glue and brushes was $25. They're in great condition, brushed aluminum, with some light scratches on top of one of them (I think someone flipped one over at one point and didn't realize it. Anyone know how to buff out scratches on these? I tried Scotch Brite on the bottom of one of them and it changed the finish...

 

That"'s the problem with the brushed aluminium. The metal is coated afterwards and if you try to do anything it normally makes it worse. I suspect that's also why we see some of those horrendous coloured spray jobs of theses speakers on eBay as it covers up scratches like this. I think ex member 'Leslie' has restored the finish on these but I can't remember how. If you search the forum you may find some information.

I don't know what gauge the B&O speaker wire was but some of it was pretty small but with a lot of coating around it.

Good job so far. Let us know how they sound - they will improve over time as the foams flex themselves in.

Dave.