Is it possible to repurpose my RCA 200W center speaker model 40-5011
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Hey all, love your YouTube channel! I’ve been binge watching them and trying to figure out what to do with my old center speaker.
I’m wondering if any of you have opened a closed speaker box like this? What would be the best strategy? And the best speakers to replace what’s worn out?
Appreciate your thoughts/help! Keep up the great videos!
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It’s kind of hard to tell from the photos, but from what I remember of the RCA speakers at Radio Shack, they had a plastic face plate and a chipboard box. The box was glued together and finished, then the faceplate was assembled and glued on last. Does this describe the speaker’s construction?
If so, you’ll need to find something thin and sharp, yet relatively strong, to try to loosen the faceplate without totally destroying it. That would be the first option. The second option would be to use a small circular saw, a vibrating saw, or a jigsaw to cut the back out along the inside edges of the box.
As for reusing the drivers, when you finally get access to them, you can look up the info printed on them. You may get lucky and find the T/S parameters, but I doubt that. If you don’t have a DATS, you can follow the directions for manually doing the measurements on Elliot Sound Products (esp), a great website if you want to learn so many different aspects of electronics / related content.
Let us know what you’ve found.
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“It’s kind of hard to tell from the photos, but from what I remember of the RCA speakers at Radio Shack, they had a plastic face plate and a chipboard box. The box was glued together and finished, then the faceplate was assembled and glued on last. Does this describe the speaker’s construction?
If so, you’ll need to find something thin and sharp, yet relatively strong, to try to loosen the faceplate without totally destroying it. That would be the first option. The second option would be to use a small circular saw, a vibrating saw, or a jigsaw to cut the back out along the inside edges of the box.
As for reusing the drivers, when you finally get access to them, you can look up the info printed on them. You may get lucky and find the T/S parameters, but I doubt that. If you don’t have a DATS, you can follow the directions for manually doing the measurements on Elliot Sound Products (esp), a great website if you want to learn so many different aspects of electronics / related content.
Let us know what you’ve found.”
Yes, it does seem as if the speaker is glued together. I’ve tested some of the plastic seams to see if I could find a cover that would pop-off but no luck. I think it is glued together.
I’ll likely replace the drivers with a similar model, fingers crossed.
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I figured as much.
What is the actual issue? Are the midbass drivers bad, or is it something else?
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Its the foam that’s the issue, it is incredibly brittle, l was simply trying to clean off the speaker and was applying wood oil, while doing that I just happened to lightly touch the foam that surrounds the cone with my cleaning cloth and it crumbled away EXTREMELY Easily.
So.. does it play? Yes.. does it sound great past like 5-10% max of the stereo system MAX no.. and frankly I don’t wanna turn it up more and have the foam break on the other speaker just from the cone movement. So looking to see if I can turn this into a personal fixer-up project, or just trash it, get the spare parts from it, and get another. ( I was looking for something used cause I have 2x under 3 kids, and they’re disassembling everything haha)
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I was hoping that circular gasket would pop off and give me access to the screws for the speaker, but I think its just a design of the plastic.. I’ll try it again to double-check.
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Hope these photos help.
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Can you remopve the back panel on this or is it fully sealed?
My studio monitors have a decorative plastic surround covering driver screws that snaps in with a few tabs that are hot glued in place on the inside, if i need to remove a driver I just unscrew the back plate, free the tabs and pop the plate off
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Unfortunately the back is clearly glued. I’ll see if i can pop off that plastic ring around the speaker with a thin flathead screwdriver.
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Depending on the adheasive type used some IPA may help release it
Not a hard reccomendation more something to consider
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And possibly some heat from a hot air gun, though you’d have to be careful to not warp the plastic.
If all else fails, it looks to be a simple box you could recreate with your own wooden face plate design.
This era of RCA speakers at Radio Shack were not really meant to be serviced. But with enough gentle perseverance and glue melt, you should be able to gain access.
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Another path of attack could be unscrewing the terminal plate and seeing if any pins/clips are visable going through the front panel
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Thanks for the tips!
I’ll keep you updated. I’ll try it out this weekend! I was able to get a refund and keep it so now I’m more at ease with testing out strategies to take it apart.
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I figured it out!
I happened to stumble on a video with this guy ( https://youtu.be/Nz2hYqanzAQ?si=Naou2tYheyBgew68 ) taking apart a speaker which was a similar style to JVC, apparently Optimus (00:12:40 when he takes out the rubber grommets?!) .. and thought.. Hey, my speaker has those rubber grommets?!?!
We have success, Gentlemen!
Now the question is, do I use a refoam kit or buy a comparable/slight upgrade to these? Thoughts?
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BTW, why is the speaker 10 ohms when the back of the box says 8 ohms nominal? just an Average?
I think I found a fair replacement too either:
– https://www.parts-express.com/HiVi-M5N-5-Aluminum-Magnesium-Midbass-297-436?quantity=1
– https://www.parts-express.com/HiVi-F5-5-Bass-Midrange-297-435?quantity=1Thoughts? Thanks again ya’ll! You’ve been a huge help!
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This is all good news. At least now you have a fighting chance, no matter which way you go.
Let’s start with impedance question.
Not sure how they designed the crossover or how the drivers are wired (individually on the x-over or parallel), but I bet that the minimum impedance in circuit is somewhere near 8-ohms. That just gives you a good suggestion of what amp will work well for you.Replace speakers or replace foam.
Least complicated would be to replace the surrounds. This way you don’t need to calculate or change anything about the crossover or box size / ports. I would suggest watching either XrayTonyB or 12voltvids for their ways to replace surrounds.If you go with replacement drivers, you’ll need to run some calcs to see how they’ll do in the existing box and it’s design. You may need to redo the crossover to accommodate the new drivers. You also need to make sure the new drivers are compatible with the existing tweeter, both in crossover point and SPL level.
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Thank you!
I think new speakers are a bit too involved until I have the right tools, so I’ll go with the re-foam kit!
I can’t seem to find a re-foam kit that fits these speakers perfectly. Would it be better to buy a slightly larger or smaller kit?
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The drivers are listed as 5″. Regular places I look are void of 5″ sizes. But doing a search shows a number available all over the big websites. If it comes up, there was a listing for Radio Shack / Optimus style surrounds on the big A. They should work.
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Ah ok, I guess I’m overthinking this then. I used this website: https://www.speakerworks.com/foam-surround-sizing-s/63.htm
And the measurements I found were in between the two sizes highlighted in the image.
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Well, since you have the physical drivers in front of you, you should be able to narrow in on a proper replacement. I still think you’ll need to search the big A or the big E for replacements.
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Well, I found a store on the big A, and went to the actual website. This lists your model #. Springfield Speaker. If you go to their store on the big A, you’ll save a few bucks. If you have Prime, you’ll save shipping cost.
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Thank you! I appreciate it.
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You’re quite welcome. Happy to be able to assist.
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Quick Update:
The refoam worked out great for one of the two speakers. I’ll need to refoam one of them. I didn’t notice this until recently, when I started listening to Voices/narration. One of the refoamed speakers was most likely not centered correctly, after I did a quick G-search.
It’s giving off a very distorted noise when listening to voices or narration. Oddly, when listening to music either low or loud, it sounds completely fine!?! So no big deal. I’ll gently peel off the outer refoam and try it again.
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Hurrah for at least one of them. 😁
The one that is a touch off: slow and steady for removal. Did you see the videos I linked in a post above about how 12voltvids and xraytonyb do their surround replacements? Might help.
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Yes, I did. This will be my new project for the end of this month! I’ll keep you updated! Thanks again @Tvor-Ceasar
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