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November 8, 2008 - 4:47pm
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mjalazard
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Joined: Sep 8 2005 - 4:38pm
MiniGrand Saga Part 2

I originally posted pix of my MiniGrand restoration back in August:
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=177213&highlight=apogee+nudies

Much has gone on since. While cleaning off residual adhesive from one of the frames holding the woofer panel, a small tool fell of the table and crinkled the lower part of the panel:

OUCH!!! I had a crisis on hand. Fortunately I found a pair of Stages in pristine condition near Sacramento. We borrowed our neighbor's minivan and headed to Auburn CA.
We visited several friends and family as well.
I purchased the pair. I swapped out the older Graz ribbon on his pair with the new XLM2's I had purchased.

The speaker to the right is the NOS speaker with the XLM2 ribbon and the North Creek crossover. My rebuild crossover can be seen on the left speaker.

I now use the NOS MiniGrands as my front-fill loudspeakers:

I also reinforced all 4 frames with "L" brackets inside each corner.

I now use my original pair with the older Graz ribbon as rear ambience:

I'm really happy with the results.
Mike

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November 11, 2008 - 5:28pm
dbowker
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Joined: May 8 2007 - 6:37am
Re: MiniGrand Saga Part 2

Nice work, and thanks for the posts! Ribbon speaker work is, as you found, kinda hairy given how easy it is to damage them. I knew a guy who's cat cut through some of the ribbon with it's claws. The cat lived, but was banned from that part of the house forever...

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November 11, 2008 - 6:46pm
mrlowry
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Joined: May 30 2006 - 1:37pm
Re: MiniGrand Saga Part 2

The material in the ribbon tweeter is incredibly delicate. When taking a tour of the Magnepan facility I got a chance to "play" with the thin, aluminum ribbon material. The people that work there are artisans.

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November 18, 2008 - 9:19am
ROLO46
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Re: MiniGrand Saga Part 2

Congrats on the rebuild
They can be very frustrating as you experienced
I was replacing the speaker protection in my Meridian DSP 6000(thermistor). Restoring the boards after delicate soldering a screwdriver fell across the v large power supply caps.
Big splash, expletives and back to the factory for a new board.....
Roger
PS what amps for the Apogees
I needed Krell 250 for my Scintillas
They had enough energy to boil a bucket of water with bare ends from the amp!

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