Should A Masterpiece Be Updated?

When bringing a vintage piece back to its original glory, whether as a DIY project or with the help of a professional, you have to decide if the restoration is going to attempt to use vintage parts from the same era (if that's even a possibility), or whether newer and better components should be used.

This is more of a temptation with speakers, as material science advancements have wrought incredible performance increases over the years. But it's also more challenging with speakers.

Speaker drivers can be so unique and quirky that entire speaker designs can revolve around minimizing the unique issues that arise. So the act of updating a speaker means you'd really want to understand the speaker fully, from drivers to crossover components, and in the end an update may not be possible without a total crossover overhaul, threatening to entirely change everything that made the speaker worth restoring to begin with.

This is some of the thought process behind Hifi Podcast hosts Darren and Duncan's plans to modify their Dunlavy speakers. Armed with a decent understanding of the crossover and a growing understanding of the drivers, the guys take this episode to talk about epiphanies learned and consider possible next steps.

Neither of their sets of Dunlavys are broken, per se, although Darren's does need a new tweeter. But that's a simple fix -- the more tempting option could involve beryllium or textreme. Tune in to find out where the projects are headed.

This week's listener questions are about bass traps and the above DIY projects, and the album of the week, Afrobeat Revolution by Tony Allen gets an enthusiastic recommendation.

This podcast is powered by CommonGround Cables Whisper power cable. Read customer reviews and order your own at www.commongroundcables.com.

Find all of our album recommendations in one place, at www.thehifipodcast.net.