# Paradigm 5SE alterations



## AsRock (Nov 18, 2016)

Well i picked up some a little while ago damaged surrounds which i posted in another thread but since then been doing some experimenting with them.

First idea kinda failed as i cannot afford the crossovers as i thought i would try some of the newer Paradigm woofers but apparently i cannot get them match the tweeter and ended up being noticeably more vocal.  Which i may get still but i might just sell the pair of woofers.

Anyways was looking in to foaming them as i did with my Tannoy Mercuy F4's which are all so front ported and as a result made them to clear for my liking and to punchy which i do plan to have another play around with but that's another story.

So had a shop around looking for some foam and found some pretty dense ( 1.8Ib ) which is way better stuff than i used for the Tannoys which was some crap from Walmart cheaper too. 

The wading in these Paradigm is the pink stuff which i believe is very fine fiberglass type stuff which filled the sides and back to the port near the bottom of the box.  

I was trying it out as i thought the bass was to much in some cases so originally tried putting some white filling top and bottom of the boxes which deadened the sound a lot more than was expected so that had to go, although taking it out for the other woofers helped some but it was not what i was aiming for and sounded still to strong on the vocals.

So anyway i spent some time cutting some foam up to put in these and just did the rear and sides so it was just a replacement for what was there and it's really cleared the sound real nice too very accurate bass which at the same time helped to clear up the mid range too a little, how ever in my experience foam don't work in closed cabinets. If working with closed ones i find personally the white stuff is best.

Need to just find some decent vinyl  now to cover them, not the wood stuff i don't have the tools for that but the plastic covering but having a problem of sourcing some good stuff out.

Anyways a few pics all so redid the cone cap so it looks much more black now i guess the sun\light had got to them some liquid boot polish is good for this if they are indoor speakers.


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## Recon-UK (Nov 20, 2016)

Nice.


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## AsRock (Dec 10, 2016)

Less of a alteration but a re do on ferro fluid in the tweeters, ferro fluid is used in tweeters to keep them cool and helps to get rid of distortion.

Often this fluid dry's up but depends on age and how they been used over there life time, like if they been played loud throughout their life.

Not hearing the Paradigms before i was a little concerned about my 5se's which are 25 years old now and i guess the American version of the Tannoy Murcury of the 80's early 90's i so like.

Well i decided to replace the fluid after doing some research and seeing that they have fixings which centers the coil made it a real simple so i thought better to be safe than searching ebay for a new one, as when it does dry up the coil and lock up and buckle and even burn up.

Anyways some pictures in order,  i did find the gap about 70% filled but looked like a lot had leaked on to the dome in the center which is there to combat sound reflections.  So i filled them both to the rim and they do sound a little clearer more so on the T's and S's.

Original before replacement of fluid





Cleaning, please be careful of the wires and i like using the harder cotton q tips. 









Used some card and masking tape in the gap to make sure it was as clean as possible. After that i like to take more pics to check for dirt hair or any thing esle.





All cleaned up





Kinda shows how far the ferrofluid is on the inside as i wanted to make sure the coil was covered.




















If you do try this please do research on the tweeter your planing to do it on as not all are like this.  Some are glued and some are free so from the time you loosen the screws on the front plate.

Like with the Tannoy Mercury M20 once you loosen the screws it's no longer centered which requires minor tightening of each screw while listening at very low volumes for centering to make sure there is no scratching or distortion until fully tightened.

One day i might do my Tannoys but you need time and a quite house .

Well i hope some one liked the update, happy tinkering.


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## Frederik S (Dec 28, 2016)

Nice read and good pictures!! Keep it up


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## AsRock (Feb 13, 2017)

Well i hate plastic even more when it's old, anyways one of the spring clips had broken, a little notch of plastic had snapped, and epoxy became my best friend .

How ever it was not as easy as just gluing the notch back on and clipping it back the hole had to a spring but that was not worsted still, for the small plastic part to fit back in correctly it needed de soldering and un gluing a little panel which of course broke to although no harm was done. 

Anyways some pictures of course.

The problem











Surly was not made to be unglued, how ever getting the clips back in place this was required.





After




TaDa





I knew this transformer would have a use sooner or later






My handy dandy vice i like makes a showing.









All done just a matter of screwing it back in.


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## AsRock (Feb 6, 2019)

Due to a request adding a little info on the foam i used.

Before i changed the  damping in my boxes the front and the bottom did not have any damping and i did test by putting damping in the bottom of the boxes and found it took away the extended bass.

Anyways 
Foam is 1" thick and the density of 1.8 ( 24lb compression ) and is Fire Retardant.

I did the back first following with the top then the sides this way help them to support each other in the cabinet.

If you know your sizes these will all so cut to size,  sorry i don't know the sizes offhand i just cut it to size.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/High-Densi...var=510943281608&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

Again if you put damping in the bottom of the box you will most likely loose bass due to it.


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## shred666 (Apr 2, 2019)

High or medium density?


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## AsRock (Apr 2, 2019)

Hello again, not letting me edit the thread so, i used high density going by that link which is were i got mine from.


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## shred666 (Apr 3, 2019)

Thank you @AsRock!


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## AsRock (Apr 3, 2019)

Any time, Happy tinkering.


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