Bottlehead Forum

Other Gear => Speakers => Topic started by: ccmccull on July 17, 2022, 10:05:29 AM

Title: I restored my Paradigm 3SEs!
Post by: ccmccull on July 17, 2022, 10:05:29 AM

I thought someone might be interested in my latest project restoring the the first good speakers I ever owned, received for my 17th birthday in the late 80s. Over the years I've kept them mostly for nostalgic reasons as I moved up through better and better speakers.

At one point in the 90s for some reason I even decided to paint them with this horrible black flat paint. Horrible. It's all scratched up and even comes off on your fingers.

So a few weeks ago I decided to restore them. Beyond refinishing the surface, one of the foam surrounds was coming off slightly, and I also wanted to try replacing the crossover caps.

So first I acetoned off the paint. I was expecting to also take down the finish on the veneer but it turns out the veneer is vinyl and it just cleaned up to like-new condition with the acetone! The whole job took around an hour for both speakers.

Then I bought $6 Jantzen 4.7 microF caps to replace the cheap electrolytic original caps in there. Before replacing them, I took a REW measurement @ 2 inches from the tweeter, and then re-measured after replacing. The new caps reduced drop-off above 15kHz measurably, bringing up the 20kHz by ~4dB.

But the real test was the listening! It's surprising how much cleaner and brighter they sound now. Now I remember why I bought them at 17!

This was a very fun, satisfying, and cheap project which I'd highly recommend if you have any similar vintage speakers lying around.

Title: Re: I restored my Paradigm 3SEs!
Post by: Paul Birkeland on July 17, 2022, 10:11:05 AM

You may find that renewing the ferrofluid in the tweeters is also helpful.
https://www.parts-express.com/Ferrofluid-100uL-General-Purpose-for-1-Diameter-V.C.-340-540 (https://www.parts-express.com/Ferrofluid-100uL-General-Purpose-for-1-Diameter-V.C.-340-540)

Sometimes the fluid can get pretty nasty and roll off the top end a bit. 

Title: Re: I restored my Paradigm 3SEs!
Post by: Thermioniclife on July 17, 2022, 11:04:55 AM

I always liked Paradigm, I worked for an AV company that were dealers, I have a lowly pair of Atoms that sound great with a Stereomore 2. I had a pair of Mini Monitors until someone liked them also and stole them.