NS-10 Rebuild

[gearboy]

Some questions from a guy who has only replaced guitar electronics.

I bought a second pair of NS10s (old tweeter version, vertical aligned writing) last year for $130. They have tweeters, but no woofers. So I picked up a set of woofers for under $200 last summer, and this project has sat. The total that I paid for these things is equal to what I have paid for my other pair with the newer tweeters. I want them to be a backup. I'm thinking that it will be cool to use this older pair for remote gigs since they have the screens.

Last week I opened them up, pulled off the fiberglass from inside (nasty ••••), and expected to simply hook the woofers up to the leads and be done with it. Unfortunately, there are no leads for them inside. I don't read schematics. So strike two. I have figured out where the woofers should be hooked up to the crossover's circuit board, and I can obviously check my finding with my other pair. There is also a tweeter that has a disconnected lead, but I know what needs to be done.

What I want to do is remove the older woofers from my main pair (that I use daily) and replace them with the new woofers. Then I want to rebuild the older pair with the older woofers, hook them up, and see if the tweeters are good or bad. From there I'll figure out whatever.

I've noticed that the internal wiring on these things is thin (crossover to tweeters/woofers). I'm wondering if I can simply take speaker cable (nice speaker cable), which is thicker, and use it to hook up the woofers. So the positive and negative will have hi-fi speaker cable instead of the cheaper thinner cable. Will this provide better internal wiring, or is this simply not a good idea? I could wire the tweeters the same way. Or I have some four conductor XLR cable that I can pull apart and use that to wire it up. I simply do not want to put this project on hold unless I need to pick up specific cable to do the job. To me, cable is cable, and in my mind the speaker cable that I use to go from the power amp to the NS-10Ms is better than the internal wiring that already in there.

Any advice is appreciated. If I am being an idiot please tell me.

Jeff

[OldTimey]

careful, changing the internal wiring might make them sound better...and isn't the reason people mix on NS-10s the trashy sound?

joking of course

i say go for it, but hey i'm an idiot too

[johnnytucats]

Regarding using speaker wire: Don't. It's usually of the twisted thread variety and has a tendency to oxidize quickly. Just get some decent, solid light-gauge wire for your internal connections.

[gearboy]

Could this solid light gauge wire be, say, the internal wiring from decent xlr cable?

thanks,

Jeff

[johnnytucats]

Could this solid light gauge wire be, say, the internal wiring from decent xlr cable?

I don't see why not. Sounds like some good recycling.