My Phantom voyage

[ragwo]

Fast forwarding to the finished result, a working Phantom Gold.
   

   

I have to work a bit more with the center cups to secure a proper fit and sealing. Hopefully it will be better than my last try.

Next up; the exciting part. 
The tweeter has a quite noticeable hole in the membrane. 
   

Forunately it's big enough to get a Q-tip inside and I was able to push out the dents. By all means, it's not perfect but it's better.
   

The membrane is coated with a matte substance. What looks like cracks in the membrane is actually missing coating. I haven't really figured out how patch the hole, but I'll probably buy a sheet of first grade titanium online and try to patch the hole. I don't know the thickness of the existing membrane and my micrometer is magnetic and would definitely make havoc with the membrane. The magnets in the tweeter and mid are surprisingly strong. I'll have to buy plastic tweezers before trying to patch the hole. Anyhow, I might remove the small loose part of the membrane to the measure its thickness.

Next up, the woofers.

[Jean-Marie]

@streamy and @Jean-Marie Thanks a lot!
An update is in place, and I started with the easy part, the gutting of the banged up Phantom. Using the original packaging makes the opening process a lot easier. 


There are some noticeable differences between the Phantom Gold and first generation Silver, even for a guy like me who finds it hard to tell the difference between a capacitor and transistor. The metal cover is matte and perforated in the Silver and polished without perforation in the Gold. It seems like Devialet considered another metal cover in the first version but skipped it.




The Sliver has four transistors? Gold has six. 




I should have compared the wireless network cards while at it, but I forgot at the time. Maybe next time the PCBs are out in the open.

The 4 vs 6 are probably the inductors of the class D part of the ADH amps in the phantoms. 

The more powerful you are, the more inductors you need. 

Jean-Marie

[ragwo]

@Jean-Marie
Thanks for the information! Nice to learn something new.

[ragwo]

Getting a bit impatient
   

One done, one to go. Hopefully the sealing will be OK on the first try. 
   

[Jean-Marie]

We are all crossing fingers

[ragwo]

Back to the drawing board.
   

I'll try not to be impatient next time.

[ragwo]

Back on track, woofers next. Starting with the one with the most dents. Isn't she a beauty!
   
The picture was taken before shipment, its actually a bit worse now. Here's how she looks without the casing. 
   

The speaker has been really abused, I would believe it takes some serious force to snap off one of the fittings for the woofer. 
   
Fortunately glue is still in stock, so it will be as good as new(ish). 

I'm not surprised the voice coil is hitting the magnet gap. It's actually squeaking when I move the woofer. Hopefully I'll be able to adjust the placement of the magnet a tiny bit, it's screwed in place as you can see. 
   
I can't adjust it too much, I'll might get in trouble fitting the casing and woofer as the bolt holding the egg shell in place goes right through the magnet.

[ragwo]

What to do on a Friday night with the in laws visiting? There's only one alternative, trying to fix the Phantom woofers. Removing the screws holding the magnet didn't do much. 
   
As I suspected the magnet was glued in place too. It wouldn't budge at all, so the solution was obvious; when in doubt, use brute force. A little preparation was required before pretending to be Hulk Hogan. 
   
I needed to make the holes in the chassis larger to have a bit more play before using my Hogan powers, and later adjusting the magnet. You can see the carefullyish placed masking tape of the cheapest kind and the nozzle of my vacuum cleaner. What you can't see is my lovely drill with an 8 mm metal drill bit attached used for enlarging the holes. I haven't grown a third arm yet, so there's no action picture of the drilling operation, sorry. I'm working on growing a third arm on my forehead for taking pictures, but I haven't succeeded. Anyway, after enlarging the holes it was time to release my Hogan powers! A simple screwdriver was my accessory. 
   
I didn't need to use my super powers to loosen the magnet, my body weight was enough. Firmly pressing down on the screwdriver, one hand on each side of woofer, the magnet came loose. It's a smart move to still have the screws attached to avoid damaging the voice coil. I had to use all my weight to get the magnet loose. Next up, the dreaded magnet adjustment. 
   
That turned out to be quite easy. On the first try the magnet was centred and the scraping noises were gone. It turned out to be beginners luck, more on that later. Carefully tightening the screws a tiny bit at a time not to get the alignment off again, it was time to play this evening's tune. 
   
Before I could play the lovely piece of music I had to assemble my high tech woofer testing rig. More on that in the next post.

[ragwo]

Here's my high tech woofer testing rig.
   
It's an old Trends Audio TA 10.1 with a really big volume knob connected to my phone. 
Would the woofer actually play this evening's tune without audible distortion and noises? Yes it would! That was a relief! 
Next up, would the off center magnet still fit onto the bolt fastening the woofer and shell? 
To be continued, it's way past bed time for an old f*rt.

[ragwo]

Will it fit, or will it fail?
   
It fits! Thankfully Devialet has made room for quite a lot of play fitting the bolt through the magnet. Thanks Devialet!

As you can see, the magnet is far from centered, as it was before I adjusted it.