Ex ENERGY Model 3.1e bookshelf audiophile speakers which, although working great, were taken apart due to the sound engineer wanting to see what they used inside, then over time the front grille (cloth) became damaged and today I looked at the cabinets and they are not in great shape any longer either! - so out go the "interesting" parts for a high quality custom loudspeaker project or just a replacement if you are lucky enough to have an ENERGY 3.1e system.
WTF? ENERGY?
Energy are based in Ontario, Canada and still going strong. The company was founded in 1973 and the theme that runs through all of their products is audiophile at a "reasonable" price point - depends what you call reasonable, at the time of their market release (1991) these speakers were retailing for over CAD$500, thats 30 years ago so imagine the cost in "today's" money!
I don't think ENERGY marketed a lot of their product over to Australia, we had to hunt around before finally finding these 3.1e's but the search was well worth it. We had heard about these bookshelf systems through industry sources, so we had to get a pair to play around with!
This tweeter is Canadian made (assumed) ENERGY generally made their own loudspeakers or used high quality 3rd party products such as Klipsch. I have seen other tweeters from the 3.1e with JAPAN stamped onto the magnet but this particular tweeter has no such marking.
This tweeter has been salvaged from another of our "a cut above the rest" bookshelf speakers that we had "on hand" from time to time in my audio post production business from the mid 1980's until 2010. These were used as client "listeners" although the audio is startling good, clean and quite neutral - we used Tannoys as near fields in the editing studio but the sound engineer also thought these sounded pretty damn good for NF too.
ENERGY Loudspeaker
Tweeter
Type: 5DR53029 (543TND - serial or batch number?)
3/4 Inch diameter
"e" Hyperdome
COSMETIC CONDITION:
Excellent
Standard male spade connectors
NO damage to any part of the tweeter, particularly the central dome - this is vital because unlike drivers/woofers, this dome is NOT a dust cover but the actual voice coil. If this becomes damaged, disaster has struck!
Keep this in mind when mounting the tweeter, the dome attracts people's fingers "Oh, there's a button thing, let's push it!" Ok it's time for you to leave now, I am very upset!
TESTING:
We have used these 3.1e's for years, since we purchased them in the late 1990's, and the high frequency audio is very good. Not bright or "coloured" just nice clean high end sound above 3Khz giving plenty of "air"
DC resistance of the voice coil has been measured as 4.1 Ohm - the impedance is not indicated (nor is the power rating) but I suspect this is either 4 or 6 Ohm impedance.
The tweeter is permanently mounting in a square black plastic frame which measures 85mm x 85mm. Four mounting holes (4mm diameter), one in each corner and spaced 73mm apart from each other.
Thickness of the tweeter is 30mm EXCLUDING the dome. The dome is 21mm diameter and rises approximately a further 5mm. It is vital to not only allow a clear soundwave pathway at the front of the dome but at the same time protect that tweeter dome.
In the original 3.1e design, ENERGY used a large formed plastic fascia behind which sat this tweeter. The only way to get at this tweeter was to carefully remove the driver/woofer soft foam ring which gives access to the multitude of screws holding the larger speaker in place. Disconnect the terminals and remove the speaker. Then you reach into/up and behind the tweeter which was mounted using 4x wing nuts (thank goodness because if a "normal" screw had been used it would have been VERY difficult to remove the tweeter!) Once those wings nuts are off, carefully extract the tweeter from INSIDE the cabinet and take it out through the hole used for the larger speaker. ENERGY used a completely sealed cabinet design i.e there is absolutely no way you can get access inside from the rear panel or front panel, the only access being via the driver/woofer hole. Its all a bit tight inside, with tons of damping waddling and internal braces/porting.
Since removal I have now packed this tweeter within a custom box which will protect the speaker properly (the dome in particular).
NOTE: This advertisement is for ONE dome tweeter, I do have two available but have split them in this advertisement because often just one is required for a client's 3.1e loudspeaker ("blown" tweeters is such a common issue when the speaker system is overdriven) but if you should need two tweeters, an automatic 30% discount will apply when BOTH are purchased through my website checkout area.
