Improved Speaker Audio from Model 961

From the Ten-Tec Reflector December 11, 1998

Hi all, i thought that maybe i would share a mod i made about 6 months or so ago to my ten tec 961 speaker & power supply to get a little bit better sounding audio and volume.

I have had this power supply since 1990 and back then it seemed to have plenty of output, but since i am getting older (46) it seems that my hearing just ain't what it used to be ! and have been having a harder time hearing whats coming out of the speaker. At first i had thought about maybe getting another speaker with a higher power input to it, but soon discovered that would be nothing short of impossiable due to the oval shape of the original speaker. the next thought was to maybe try another small audio amp to boost the output, but that speaker itself will not take much more than what is already being put into it.

The next thought was to actually take it apart and see if maybe i could "box" the speaker in, actually enclose the speaker inside of a box, just like making stereo speaker boxes.and in this way i reasoned that instead of all of that sound getting lost rattling and bouncing off of all of the components and transformer inside of the power supply, i could force the sound to come to my "deaf ears" so, With a little bit of sawing, filing and fitting, i actually formed a box around the inside of the speaker, it only took about an hour or so, and did make a rather pleasant improvement, and best of all, didn't cost a penny, as i had the materials laying out in the garage (i just knew that piece of masonite that i had bought ten years or so ago would come in handy some day!)

The whole project consists of four pieces of 3/16" masonite,(you could use what ever you have laying around!)acutally, you can make five pieces if you want to box in the bottom to. I'll give the dimemsions below,and if you cut the pieces a little big, then file to fit,you will see that they will only fit one way ! with the two side pieces fitting between the four (two per side)speaker screws protruding out the back side of the speaker face.

  • one back piece: 5" x 3-5/8" x 3/16"
  • two side pieces, left and right side: 3-5/8" x 1-5/16" x 3/16"
  • one top piece: 4-13/16" x 1-5/8" x 3/16"

you can put in the optional bottom piece, or leave it out, i really did not notice much difference. Also, after you get all of the pieces cut and filed to size, you can put a little glue on the pieces, you will also have to put a little notch in the bottom of the back piece for the speaker wire to run under,so when your done, the whole darn box should slide right over the speaker !! custom fit !! and you have not changed anything on the outside, it just ends up sounding better and louder !

if anybody tries this simple mode, let me know what you think

vy 73…..ken…k7zum


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