# Look What I got! Two EV Sentry 500's



## tonyvdb

I think this could be the score of the year for me, I was at church this morning and our music director came up to me and said "come with me for a second" so I did and he took me to our AV storage room and said " I know that you like these speakers so feel free to take them home if you want" FREE! 
Pointing to our EV Sentry 500's that we used in our recording studio for many years! 










Here is a PDF of the actual specifications.

These speakers worth about $8,000 in 1986 when we had them donated to us and have not been really abused although the cabinets need a new paint job they still sound fantastic and i may just have to use these as my two channel speakers at some point.
I know from experience that these are fairly flat to well below 40 Hz and are very solid speakers weighing 70lbs each. They are 96db efficient and are fully bi-ampable The main drivers are 12" and put out some serious DBs even at moderate levels :bigsmile:


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## drdoan

Nice! Nice! Nice! Have fun. Dennis


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## Jungle Jack

Wow. I cannot imagine just how loud those Speakers must be capable of going. That is a huge score. Congratulations and I hope they bring you years of joy.
Cheers,
JJ


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## tonyvdb

I used to go into the studio and bring my favourite Jazz CDs along and just sit back and listen as the music would just come alive with these speakers. We had an H&H V500 amp driving them through an old Soundcraft 32 channel board with a couple of White audio 1/3 octave eqs in line. The bass they produce was just awesome its the feel in your chest kind of clean bass.


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## BrianAbington

wow, talk about a score. 

Large studio monitors are just something else.


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## tesseract

That is awesome, Tony! :T


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## tonyvdb

I just hooked these up to my Onkyo and they sound fantastic! Hmmm what to do? now I almost want these as my mains for my theater system. Not saying my Missions dont sound great also.
The foam surrounds are still as good as if they were new. Just amazing for 25 year old speakers.


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## tonyvdb

Ok, so had these running for a few hours yesterday evening and one of the speakers is intermittently cutting in and out even without a signal you can hear static. I have eliminated cabling or the Amp so I wonder if its a bad connection in the speaker or a bad crossover.
anybody got a idea?


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## drdoan

If you want to get inside the box, you could try cleaning all connections. If you are techy enough, you could check the capacitors in the crossover to see if there is a problem. Have fun. Dennis


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## tonyvdb

Thanks Dennis, Im going to pull the driver tonight (there is no access from the back) and see if I can find anything obvious. They sound so good I want to get them running properly for sure.


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## tesseract

+1 on the contact cleaning and the cap check.

I replace those old electrolytics if you are going use these as mains.


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## tonyvdb

tesseract said:


> +1 on the contact cleaning and the cap check.
> 
> I replace those old electrolytics if you are going use these as mains.


I will take some pics of it once I am inside and post them here.


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## tesseract

tonyvdb said:


> I will take some pics of it once I am inside and post them here.


Oh yeah! Please, drivers, box and passives if you would.


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## tonyvdb

Ok, here we go, lots of pictures.

*Click on images to enlarge*
First we have the interesting mounting brackets for the 12" drivers. Made of metal and the bolts are threaded.



Next we have the 12"driver, seems like a well made basket.


The speaker cabinet is stuffed fairly well with insulation.
 

The bracing and ports


The crossover


The normal and bi-amp plugs (switch these and I can bi-amp the monitors)









The tweeter.


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## tonyvdb

Cant really see any viable decay or damage to the drivers or crossover parts, Not really sure where i should go with this to find the problem? I am thinking of first retouching the solder connections on the crossover?


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## tonyvdb

Well after close inspection of the 12" drivers the one drivers foam surrounds is cracked. I have dealt with a repair shop here before and I just called them, they charge $80 per driver to repair. Do you think thats a good price? I dont really have the patience or the time to try doing this myself.


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## tesseract

Reconing speakers seems to be a hassle, mostly ensuring that the voice coil is centered around the pole piece properly.

I'd gladly pay an experienced shop to do it as long as the work is warrantied. Ask for a group (2) discount! $80 seems too high.


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## tonyvdb

what do you think about the intermittent sound issue, do you thinks its a crossover issue looking at the photo?


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## tesseract

It's hard to tell by looking at the pic, but the likelihood of a short somewhere seems high. Sorry that doesn't help much.


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## ironglen

tonyvdb said:


> what do you think about the intermittent sound issue, do you thinks its a crossover issue looking at the photo?


I would think that the surround separation is causing voice coil rub, resulting in noise. If you find only one speaker creates the noise, first try switching the drivers.


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## tonyvdb

Thanks, but its not noise but actual intermittent cutting out and only the one speaker. The odd thing is it its random on the tweeter and the lows, (sometimes the highs will cut out and other times the lows only will) I can hear noise (like static) if the speaker is at low volume as well.
I eliminated the amp and the cabling to the speaker.


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## tesseract

Have the repair shop troubleshoot this issue. Or, get in there, play some music, and start jiggling wires. Be careful not to cause a short!


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## ironglen

If it sounds good when it works, check those connections and get it fixed!


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## tonyvdb

Ok, the drivers are in the shop getting re-foamed and should be done by Monday. This weekend Im going to repaint the cabinets while the drivers are out so it will look much better.
I re soldered all the connections on the crossover so that should (fingers crossed) fix the dropout issues.


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## tcarcio

Nice get Tony, Congrats. I hope you fixed the problem but if it continues I would think you have a crossover problem. Good luck.:T


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## tonyvdb

Well, my drivers are now back from re-foaming and I must say they did a superb job! I am very happy, Both drivers look better than they did before, a nice clean job.


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## tesseract

That looks great, Tony. Might I suggest that you push gently and evenly on the driver and listen for voice coil rub? Just a quick QC check. If there is none, you are good to go, driver wise! 

Got them hooked up, yet?


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## tonyvdb

Yup, hooked them up and listened to them for over two hours last night, They sound great! I did the push of the cones on both and they do not rub or make any noise at all. I also re soldered the connections on both crossovers and they do not have any issues any more.
The imaging on these speakers is fantastic.
I am a happy camper, now I just need to decide if I want to use these as my mains for my theater system or put them up stairs in my livingroom on my two channel system The issue of using them for my theater system is that I wont have matching speakers but it alows me to lower my screen as its too high.

Thoughts?


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## tesseract

I've recently introduced constant directivity speakers into my two channel system, and found that I really have no use for a center channel, even with movies.


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## tonyvdb

I guess it cant hurt to try, There is nothing wrong with my mission 765s though as they have two 10" drivers in each enclosure and play down to 36Hz but the height is making me have my screen higher than I like. But with the EVs being 96db efficient they are not power hungry at all for their size.


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## tesseract

tonyvdb said:


> I guess it cant hurt to try, There is nothing wrong with my mission 765s though as they have two 10" drivers in each enclosure and play down to 36Hz but the height is making me have my screen higher than I like. But with the EVs being 96db efficient they are not power hungry at all for their size.


A high sensitivity speaker gains efficiency by giving up a little at the bottom end. Throw a subwoofer into the mix with those EV's and hold on!


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## tonyvdb

Well, Ive got them running as my mains right now in my theater setup and coupled with my SVS PB13U :bigsmile:


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## tonyvdb

Update: Ive had the opportunity to listen to alot of music on these now and I am finding that I am hearing things in the recordings that I have never heard before. Last night I had a friend over who we used to spend alot of time in the studio where these came from and both of us had smiles on our faces listening to various tracks. 
In pure direct mode on my Onkyo the imaging as well as clarity is just beyond words, To somone who has not heard a good pair of speakers before this is probably just nonsense but trust me Speakers costing $5000 or more really do make a huge difference.
The only issue is that now a poorly mastered CD really shows on these speakers but a really well recorded one shines :bigsmile:


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