Optimus Pro LX5 Teardown!

i made this as a video response toward the recent questions i have been receiving about the horrible "pro lx5 refoam" video
this video takes you through the disassembly of the speaker itself and was done unscripted as you will see.

[@williamallen6310]

Thanks man.. you are my HERO ! Well.. at least today. Excellent job.. I'm retired, and have been collecting and restoring vintage audio for over 30 years.. I have re-foamed over 1000 sets of various brands/models of speakers and am a perfectionist w/ the job. I just picked up a pair of these PRO-LX5's at an estate sale this morning (Mar 6 2021 in Greensboro NC), and knew I'd have to replace the 5.25" surrounds.. but I could not figure out how to open up the cab's??? Seeing you pull off the grille recessed pieces to gain access the screws, to release the front baffle was the ticket... ah ha ! Also, I was trying to pry that damn mesh grille off the top to clean out the dusty area, and started to get a putty knife blade up under not the grille but that rubber/plastic gasket under the grille, and it didn't want to move..so I knew to STOP.. Now I know how to gently/slowly remove the tweeter grilles... did I say "You're the Man!" yet ? Also, I would have done exactly as you did, and add some "acousti-stuff" type dampening material to the cab's .. that 1 piece of flimsy foam in there could not have been doing much... great job brother. I love finding solutions on KZbin.. and your tutorial was perfect... made my day !

[@poormanselectronicsbench2021]

Good tear down video, even though it took you more than 3 minutes.....🤣🤣🤣🤣 Considering that there is no "exact" replacement for that woofer, installing a new replacement surround is definitely the way to go ( if you or someone else didn't smoke the voice coil) . I always liked the pair I had, especially with the tweeter's ability to bounce its output from the rear off of a wall and add to its output. I am planning to try the butyl rubber surround that Springfield Speaker repair has, its only $3 more (currently) and is almost identical in every dimension and should work fine but never rot.

[@keithhutchins5443]

Awesome vid, thanks. 21 years later and these are still the best speakers I’ve ever owned, pound for pound.

[@afzaalkhan.m]

The bass reflex design requires airflow at the ports ,overstuffed padding will overdampen the cabinet.

[@jameslkieb]

Thanks. I need to replace old degraded foam surrounds and was nervous about the force needed to remove the front bezel. Seeing yours come off, I worked a guitar pick in the gap and mine popped right off. Before that I was afraid I had missed something. Also surprised to see how little damping material was in the box from the factory. I will certainly be adding more to mine. Thanks again.

[@gavincurtis]

These speakers are magnificent. I have several pairs of these and was wondering how to open them without damage. Realized the screws were there but have not started the repair yet. Thank you for this video.

[@yesterdayspapers6057]

The Dollar Guy A friend purchased a pair back in yesteryear and I remember the quality of sound that they produced , quite remarkable. I have them now and the new surrounds (simply speakers.com) just arrived today ~2018

[@ractonymontana]

What size speaker would you replace these with?

[@bobadkins7377]

Thanks for the video. I was just given a set of these that were hardly used. Needs cleaning though, and the D/A portion alone was well worth the watching.

[@carlosoliveira-rc2xt]

Great video. The lx 550 midbass kevlar driver is much better than the lx5 driver. I added about 1" of dense fill glued all around the inside of the cabinet which improved the sound. The mid drivers still don't need refoaming. I occasionally pull them out of the closet and play them in a secondary system. Quite pleasant sounding.

[@4142Wilb]

Yes! I didn’t need to almost trash my ancient Optimus Pro X77 due to the foam breaking. You helped a lot. Thx!

[@KrogenDragon]

Nice same here! Did you re-foam your X77? I have the same set, and I just re-foamed it and I ended up trying to glue the foam on the back of the cone. That was a pain in the ass. I'm curious, did you end up doing the same thing or did you glue it on the front?

[@PAINFOOL13]

Thanks for the great Vid, You have helped me ..much appreciated

[@Rainemaker]

Thanks for posting this.

[@realjaxon]

Yes. It helped me. I have an Optimus Pro X77. The woofer speaker on yours is the same as mine. The ribbon tweeter is a bit different. Mine has a ET-5 6 ohm rather than the ET-6 that yours has. I am replacing the surround ring, and I hadn't noticed that it was glued to the bottom of the cone until I watched this video. Thanks for the info about it not mattering if I glued the new surround to the top of the cone.

[@chuncham1]

Where do you get that white poly fill? BTW, nice little details and descriptions of taking it apart, hugely helpful.

[@knighthawk86855]

Have you ever replaced and or fixed the fuses for the tweeters?

[@NinaYo401]

I have the RCA LX55. I cant seem to get the face off my speakers after removing the screws. They don't seem to want to budge the way yours pryed off. Did that take significant effort the first time you removed them? Pretty sure my faces are plastic. They have a single port. Any advise?

[@fliptophiphop1894]

what size speakers would replace these?

[@gboy64]

Same speaker, tweeters no longer work, can it be replaced or not?

[@williamking7420]

Great video... My problem is that their seems to be no replacement tweeters for these. 😣

[@gavincurtis]

Radio shack used to sell the linaeum tweeter as a separate driver in a box with the rest of the raw drivers for a short time. Check ebay etc. Hopefully it can be removed from its stand alone enclosure an refitted into the LX511 speaker.

[@mac11380]

@@gavincurtis I have two of those new in the box in the basement.

[@MadLikeDog]

Thanx !!!

[@kentsmith4426]

Thank you for this video! Question: when you replaced the surrounds did you scrape the front rim down to metal or just glue over the old remaining base of the old foams, if I'm making any sense?

[@padrino505]

remove all you can on the frame...use alcohol and sharp blade/xacto. careful with the old stuff on the cone though.

[@robdavis6130]

I'm about to refoam my old Pro LX5's too! I really liked those old speakers, so it's good to know I can fix them. Question for you; why all the polyfill? Does it help the sound in some way?

[@easypete975]

Kinda late but poly fill can eliminate resonaiting frequinses and makes the sound much better.

[@virendrabhishm1808]

Saman kahan se kharidi ho

[@Reasepilotte]

Why do you keep taking you speakers apart if you improved them already???

[@d3115uxor]

This was the 2nd pair that needed to be refoamed. Also, there wasn’t a good disassembly video at the time I posted this years ago.

[@padrino505]

If the foam did not fit UNDER the cone, then you used the wrong foam....the cone should not extend under the round like you said as an excuse....

[@d3115uxor]

This video is many years old. I was able to make the next pair work under the cone

[@padrino505]

@@d3115uxor Have you found any threads on fixing the tweeters? Some have the ferrofluid gunk up...

[@robertcrouch7328]

LOVE these speakers - had them for decades finallysufferedFOAM rot - I am not eager to attempt the gluing process of refoaming so wondered if anyone knew of replacement speakers - plug and play so holes line up and drop in replacement - doesn't have to be OPTIMUS-- the LX5 speakers ae marked MALASIA 12120 and the same size speaker as their Center Channel CS-5 but those Malasia 12124 have deeper magnet structures - I need 4 to redo my LX5 asnd the 2 center channels ones in the CS5!

[@d3115uxor]

Bob Crouch honestly, I have 2 pairs of these and had to re foam one pair already. It’s not hard to do. I recently did another set a month ago easily. Get the speaker foams from Springfield speaker inc. they come with complete instructions, videos, and all the tools you need to complete the job.

[@d3115uxor]

Bob Crouch if you do want a direct replacement, you have a couple options.... Hi-Vi L5-8R is a Great choice, Dayton Audio DC130A-8 is another option if you want to Save a few bucks. Other options that are kinda hard to find are the SEAS MP14RCY/P and Audax HD13B25H8-4CP12

[@d3115uxor]

But in all honesty, the best and cheapest way to get these up and movin again is just do the re-foam and add a bit of polyfill in each box.

[@mick5416]

@@d3115uxor I'm in the process of replacing the foam on mine too. Any tips on the best way to get the foam centered?

[@d3115uxor]

@@mick5416 if you are gluing the foam under the cone like factory, I glued to the cone first and visually aligned then left overnight to set. I found the speaker pretty much landed on the frame where it wanted to be and glued. One video I looked at said to run a tone so the motor would center by itself. Tried it on 1 pair and it worked, 2nd pair didn’t bother and it was fine also.

[@audiovidiot5315]

I have lx8s

[@jamiethornton6101]

I always wanted a pair of those and could never find a set! So sad about it.

[@sergeymartyn2255]

Next time please don't forget to disengage your parking brake to make this video watchable. It shouldn't exceed 3 miniutes max.

[@d3115uxor]

?

[@sergeymartyn2255]

!

[@chuncham1]

@@d3115uxor I like it. Ignore that comment it shouldn't exceed 3 min. although it can be a little bit shorter. But without little nuance, many mistakes would have been made.