B&W 802 series 80 project

[gary_3]

The midrange driver on one of my B&W 802 stop moving. i listed it at ebay but decided to pull it out and make it a project to fix it. Madisound suggest replacing the capacitor which i did and to my surprise, it did work and it sounds damn good. now i am in a process of replacing all the capacitors since they are about 30+ y/o (the bad speaker first to compare the sound between original and modified). i am installing different brands of capacitor (mostly poly cap some electrolitic) to match the value and fit the tight space. I bought some Mundorf Supreme and Clarity Cap for the tweeter and midrange section and will install them soon.

The base is a little louder with the new capacitors. hopefully they will balance out once i replace the capacitors in the tweeter and midrange area.

Any other suggestions?

i also uncouple the 6 diodes to eliminate the protective circuitry.

These are my speakers, they are 32 y/o

Crossover at the bottom of the speakers, tight space

replace electrolitic capacitors

disconnecting the diodes

disconnecting the diodes

[Torpedo]

By base I guess you mean bass, don't you?

[gary_3]

Here are better pictures

[gary_3]

yeah i mean bass.....too much partying last night

[jvlgato]

[cetoole]

Maybe add a bit of series resistance to compensate for the lower ESR of the new film caps compared to the old electrolytic caps.

[gary_3]

i don't know how much resistance to add. i'll wait until i got all the capacitors replace and compare it to the other speakers which is currently unmodified. if i don't like what i hear, i'll just revert back to electrolytic. they are pretty cheap. all of the original base caps are electrolytic and some in the midrange are......the tweeters on the original are all poly and i plan on replacing them with "better" poly from mundorf....

[gary_3]

i keep typing base rather than bass....)

[Sharpie]

How did this work out for you?
This is the project I am about to start.

Here is another thread where they addressed the same project
 

[Matt]

Hi fellow B&W 802 Series 80 Owners,

   I'm listening to my speakers circa 1981 right now and the first thing I did was grease every single connection with No-Ox-Id Special A  electrical conductive grease I bought for $12.95 from Sailor's Solution in Mass. This includes the Molex connectors in the crossover. It's a bad choice for connection because they oxidize and will make drivers cut out, sending you on a wild goose chase to find the source. Take a pipe cleaner with some grease on it and ream the female connections and an old toothbrush with grease on the males. Happened the same with my B&W DM5's. All spade connectors and any and all detachable connectors,to the binding posts, woofers, midrange and in and around the environmental controls. The grease does NOT short anything, just makes the connection clean and prevents oxidation. Read about the history of No-Ox-Id. I have revived expensive components that were abandoned by owners who had given up on them. I may decide to replace the old caps some day but my speakers are sounding pretty nice as is.  .