Hi,

Would love to see pictures of your 'Penta White" project.

Real speaker cloth is not that difficult to find, though the colours are quite limited. DIY speaker builders shops often carry it. (try online?)

I have also been looking for metal grills to use as frets (think beosound1 or 3), but so far haven't found anything suitable yet. 

I have recovered some RL speakers with new cloth a while back (Though I don't advise use of white fabric on those)  I did use a non-yellowing clear spray-on contact cement.  Be sure to take one that dries non-tacky quickly. Messy, but did the job.  
I did the 2 middle ridges (where the straps go) first than worked my way around the rest of the frame. Took me a couple of trials before I got it right though....  

Regards.

O.

I've tried a few "real" speaker cloths, but none of them have resembled B&O OEM frets. Patterned ones that can be found in shops that sell vintage PA eq't restoration accessories are usually far too coarse, DIY speaker shops' cloths are plain smooth and colour range is limited. There's plenty of choice on eBay but you never know what they really look like until you see them in person.

One of the speakers I'd like to re-fret are RL35:s, which have white frame. Changing the fret colour to white has crossed my mind, especially after seeing a pair of great-looking all-white RL6000:s. My whole house is extremely black & white, with some subtle accents of ash & walnut, so white speakers blend in very well. Call it an obsession if you will... 😕

Here's a project picture of the Penta:

Hey Henri 🙂 your penta's look amazing !!!

I am very impressed on how much these great speakers look updated !!!

Just  like you, I live in a very black&white kind a place with wood tones and I know exactly what you mean with obsession .....😁😁

That's it ....you convinced me... I am buying some penta's.......😁 (only thing left is trying to convince the wife now......) 

Thanks! I like the modern, unique shape of Pentas and IMO white makes them really stand out (or, in my case, blend in.) A pair of polished CX 100:s with white frets would be a perfect match to them, as surround speakers, as well as a single ceiling-mounted center. Your pics of mirror-finish CX:s were truly amazing and now the all-white ones I have look bland in comparison.

Die-hard B&O purists may cringe, but modifying speakers to suit your taste can be really rewarding. Fortunately these speakers aren't that rare and mods aren't irreversible if you want to go resto some day.

Still... speaker cloth with OEM-style thickness and pattern is high on my wish list.

Henri wrote:

Here's a project picture of the Penta:

Excellent! I also planned ages ago that if I ever re-cloth my Pentas, they will be white - and this picture confirms it 🙂

Too bad the original frets are still perfect 😁

I love the white frets, so I am wondering how my cx's would look like with wite cloth frets...😕 ....must try that one ....

My current surround setup is a AV7000 in the tv area with 5 cx's , though front ones in black and the surround ones in white. I love my polished ones so much that I am going to change the front black ones with the polished ones (the back ones are white and ceiling mounted and will stay as is, as I want them to be as less visible as possible). The polished ones were originally supposed to go into my study.....I guess I'll just have to do another pair then ...... 😁

I agree purists may cringe seeing the mods made to B&O speakers.(different colours, other colours of cloth, build-in amps, updated X-overs etc.) However non of my speakers are premium specimens, often not complete or rare to start with and by no means my intention to make a museum out of my place.... Every piece I have, I absolutely love and is in daily use. 

My next project is a Cona sub... to complement my cx's. I bought one on ebay and though it works satisfactory, the plastic casing is broken[:'(] so I'll have to think of something to fix that ....and   don't think crazy glue is the answer ....😁  I will have to put my thinking cap on and come up with something B&O- ish looking ... any suggetions ?

I will check if I can get some more of CX style cloth if you want ?  I don't know about Penta or RL cloth though... would need a sample ..

tournedos wrote:

Too bad the original frets are still perfect 😁

White for (the rest of) the winter - the original for the other half of the year ... 😁

I also like these white Pentas - much more than the newer speakers in original B&O white. But a lot always depends on the interior etc. The more (sensible) colours to chose from the better, I guess.  

Interesting!

Henri, where did you get the cloth from? Can you point me in the direction of the supplier?

Thanks,

Steve

The cloth is from a local speciality warehouse that carries a huge selection of every type of garment imaginable. Lycra like this is commonly used it figure skaters' dresses, it's very flexible, transparency is relatively low and it comes in variety of colours. It's a bit like stockin material, only thicker. It just might work for RL as well, in plain matte instead of satin. I'll have to look into that if nothing else comes up.

Cooldude: thank's for the offer, I'd really appreciate CX-style cloth - white frets are somewhat hard to come by in eBay speakers and ones that are in decent shape fetch premium prices.

I've thought about finding a Cona, the worse shape the better. Changing the driver and modifying the bass reflex tube and x-over to match its specs could give it quite a bit more kick and having it sprayed in high-gloss piano black sounds like a plan. A more dramatic "SuperCona", possibly even with an Icepower amp... tempting.

Chances are Beoworld purist fraction lynch mob will be knocking on my door shortly... 😮