My Phantom voyage

[Jean-Marie]

That's really a multi hop trip! thanks for sharing with us.

Jean-Marie

[ragwo]

All good things have to come to an end, so does the Phantom slaughter saga.
The newly discovered PCB with a 22 pin socket holds the connections on the back of the speaker and the power socket.
   

It also contains the fuses for the mains connection. Quite annoying to have to disassemble almost the entire speaker to change the fuses if they're blown. 
   


When all was picked to pieces, I went to work on the other speaker, continuing loosing screws and battling enormous thermal pads. Finally the assembly of the speaker could start. The hardest part, apart from finding lost screws, was fitting the different multi pin sockets while connecting the treble and mid without bending any pins. Attaching the left side PCB first was the way to go. I hope you don't mind the kindergarten art made by my youngest daughter. It actually looks like litter, even to me. 
   

If you want to se the whole assembly process, please look at the pictures in reversed chronological order. Yes I added generous amounts of high quality Norwegian locktite to the screws, and yes I tested the speaker before starting on the last and most difficult part of the assembly; the fitting of the dust caps. The fit had to be perfect to secure an air tight seal, the Phantom definitely doesn't profit on being ported. That was easier said than done due to the bodge job I did removing the caps in the first place. They were bent out of shape and bending them back without proper tools was next to impossible. After literally hours of work I was ready to seal off the glossy swan. 
   

A generous amount of adhesive was used and with high spirits the last dust cap was glued on. 
   

Unsurprisingly the last part of the assembly went tits up. It didn't take much testing to realise that I had made the first double ported Phantom. What an achievement!

[ragwo]

Finally!
After some more trial and error the speaker was sealed. It does look somewhat homemade, but then again it is.
   

The most important thing, how does it sound? It sounds splendid! Can't hear any difference compared to a non tampered one.

   
Happy days!

[streamy]

So, you made it! You’re the man! Congrats on fixing a Phantom with spare parts of another. It can be done. Probably not economically, but ecological. When the time you spent would have to be paid at a salary justified by your skills, it would cost a fortune Well done, I see you had lots of fun.

[ragwo]

@streamy
Thanks!
Actually, I believe most people would manage the build. It's not that difficult, the sealing of the speaker is the tricky bit. I used about 8 hours in total, included disassembling and assembling the speaker three times due to me being lazy and not checking if the fuses in the power intake were blown (of course they were), a test assembly just to see if the speaker actually worked before using locktite on the PCB screws, and the final assembly. Economically it was OK; I paid less than €1000 in total for the speakers, so I can't complain. The speaker is now sold, with a big warning about my bodge job, and a new Phantom I 108 dB should arrive in a few weeks. The glossy swan is being transformed to a matte one. Looking forward to that. Phantom center isn't as good as, ehhh, a Phantom center.

[Jean-Marie]

Very impressive journey, especially the resealing!

You are very persevering in addition to being industrious and ingenious.

Congratulations!

Jean-Marie

[ragwo]

@Jean-Marie
Thank you for the kind words!
I believe most people would manage the job with some patience. If I had some brand new dust caps it would actually be an easy job now that I've done it once before. Spoiler alert; I used 10 minutes in total to open another Phantom the other day, included removing the dust caps. The Phantom Slayer Saga continues!

[BoyScout]

Congrats ragwo,
I was a silent and hardly credulous witness during your saga.
That´s a challenge not available to anyone.

[tsmithpam]

Amazing journey!
Thanks for taking the time to share, and we’ll done for result!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ragwo]

@BoyScout and @tsmithpam
Thanks a lot! It's been great fun.
Changing the internals is one thing, but I have no idea how to change the mid and tweeter. If anyone has given it a try, please let me know. I believe they're glued in place.

Edit:
Maybe the assembly of the mid and tweeter requires the 20 tons of pressure Devialet bragged about (and some glue).