[motamedn]

So I went with a friend who was buying a new TV to help him move it. The guy selling the TV was looking to unload his 4 nice looking speakers (which he played briefly) for a cheap price ($200 for 4).


I bit.


They were MTS 2605's and apparently part of that whole "white van scam". Found that out the next day but that's 1 day too late. Instead of suckering someone else into them, I was thinking: Maybe I could use the casings (seem to be nice to my newb eyes) and put a new speaker into it?


Anyone have experience w these speakers/know about this stuff?


Can I do this? Should I do this

?


Ugh, I can't believe I got scammed

 

[brandonnash]

From what I've heard, about all those are good for are holding down the carpet in those white vans.


Do you have any pics of them for us to start out with?

 

[vasyachkin]

so which part of it is exactly a scam ?


you bought a product that sucks. thats what 99% of people do every day. why do you suddenly feel special ?


if a person buys a car built in Detroit did he just get scammed ? yes. but he doesn't go crying about it on the internet.


good decisions take research. lots of research. more research than most people are willing to do. there are people on this forum who do more research before buying a subwoofer than an average person does before buying a house. if you aren't willing to do that i can't blame you but you also shouldn't complain.

 

[NoBS]



Quote:
Originally Posted by vasyachkin /forum/post/15490528


so which part of it is exactly a scam ?


you bought a product that sucks ? thats what 99% of people do every day. why do you suddenly feel so special ?

Are you 5 yrs old Vas? If so go out and play in your sandbox, instead of posting worthless nonsense.

 

[LHD21]



Quote:
Originally Posted by vasyachkin /forum/post/15490528


so which part of it is exactly a scam ?


you bought a product that sucks. thats what 99% of people do every day. why do you suddenly feel special ?


if a person buys a car built in Detroit did he just get scammed ? yes. but he doesn't go crying about it on the internet.


good decisions take research. lots of research. more research than most people are willing to do. there are people on this forum who do more research before buying a subwoofer than an average person does before buying a house. if you aren't willing to do that i can't blame you but you also shouldn't complain.

Uncalled for and in poor taste.

 

[swifty7]



Quote:
Originally Posted by motamedn /forum/post/15490306


So I went with a friend who was buying a new TV to help him move it. The guy selling the TV was looking to unload his 4 nice looking speakers (which he played briefly) for a cheap price ($200 for 4).


I bit.


They were MTS 2605's and apparently part of that whole "white van scam". Found that out the next day but that's 1 day too late. Instead of suckering someone else into them, I was thinking: Maybe I could use the casings (seem to be nice to my newb eyes) and put a new speaker into it?


Anyone have experience w these speakers/know about this stuff?


Can I do this? Should I do this

?


Ugh, I can't believe I got scammed

could you please post some pics of them, I'm curious how they look.

 

[Splicer010]



Quote:
Originally Posted by motamedn /forum/post/15490306


So I went with a friend who was buying a new TV to help him move it. The guy selling the TV was looking to unload his 4 nice looking speakers (which he played briefly) for a cheap price ($200 for 4).


I bit.


They were MTS 2605's and apparently part of that whole "white van scam". Found that out the next day but that's 1 day too late. Instead of suckering someone else into them, I was thinking: Maybe I could use the casings (seem to be nice to my newb eyes) and put a new speaker into it?


Anyone have experience w these speakers/know about this stuff?


Can I do this? Should I do this

?


Ugh, I can't believe I got scammed

I've yet to read how you were scammed???

You saw the speakers...You LISTENED to the speakers...You were impressed enough to purchase said speakers...You were pleased UNTIL you read that they were white van speakers...Was that the moment they stopped working or sounding good to you??? Just exactly HOW doe you feel you were scammed???

 

[LHD21]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Splicer010 /forum/post/15490896


I've yet to read how you were scammed???

You saw the speakers...You LISTENED to the speakers...You were impressed enough to purchase said speakers...You were pleased UNTIL you read that they were white van speakers...Was that the moment they stopped working or sounding good to you??? Just exactly HOW doe you feel you were scammed???

In most cases they dont have correctly selected drivers or properly constructed crossovers resulting in load dropping down below 1 ohm. In most cases thats not good for consumer electronics.

 

[brandonnash]

Scammed? Not really. Overpaid? Absolutely. Regardless of the thoughts of others on here, this person is asking for our help and no one seems to want to help him out, but rather kick him while he's down. I wish I could help him out, but my knowledge in putting together speakers that output more than 80-100 hz is limited to non existent.


motamedn, Can you post pics of the speakers you bought?


Can someone start to help him out?

 

[vasyachkin]



Quote:
Originally Posted by motamedn /forum/post/15490306


Can I do this? Should I do this

?

can you do it ? probably.


should you do it ? probably not.


why not sell them ? maybe the person who buys them from you only cares about how they look anyway. i don't think that is unlikely.


good cabinets should not only look pretty but be solidly constructed. rap your knuckles on the cabinet and listen to the sound. then go to a store and rap on a $10,000 speaker. if it sounds the same go ahead and use the cabinet. when you rap your knuckles on a real good cabinet there should be almost no sound at all.


i have $200 speakers that have amplifiers already built in ( Wharfedale ) that when i rap on their cabinets there basically isn't any sound. its not much louder than rapping on a brick wall. so if the entire speaker set which sounds good and includes four amplifiers ( two for tweeters and two for woofers ) costs $200 then the cabinets are worth maybe $50. here is a pic:

http://cachepe.samedaymusic.com/medi...5ffce0e68f.jpg


now i doubt that your cabinets are of equally high quality but you never know ...


you could simply remove one of the drivers and note the material and thickness of the front baffle. a high end speaker will have MDF baffle of at least 1" thick. a crappy speaker will have a particle board baffle of about 1/2 inch thickness.

 

[smellyhash]

can you do it ? probably.


should you do it ? probably not.


why not sell them ? maybe the person who buys them from you only cares about how they look anyway. i don't think that is unlikely.


good cabinets should not only look pretty but be solidly constructed. rap your knuckles on the cabinet and listen to the sound. then go to a store and rap on a $10,000 speaker. if it sounds the same go ahead and use the cabinet. when you rap your knuckles on a real good cabinet there should be almost no sound at all.


Again, i think i hear that sandbox SCREAMING your name. I love the great point about the 10,000 dollar speaker rap with the knuckles. $10,000 speaker? Motamedn dont worry you are not the only guy getting scamed. I envision the black guy from the miller"high life" commercials. Man you bought 10,000 dollar speakers and then tried to tell someone else THEY got scammed come on boys lets get this High Life and go.

 

[bonehead848]

depending on the size and number of speakers in these I do not see why you could not do it. If you just added some intense bracing they should hold up fine unless they are really really cheap. Take a look at the designs like the tri trix and see if any of those speakers would fit.

http://www.geocities.com/cc00541/Tritrix_pg_1.html

 

[CZ Eddie]

Donate the speakers to a senior citizen center or an orphanage and then take the tax write-off. Then you'll not only recover a portion of your money, but the good feeling you get by being so generous, will balance out the feeling of having made an uninformed purchase.

 

[bvbull200]



Quote:
Originally Posted by CZ Eddie /forum/post/15492265


Donate the speakers to a senior citizen center or an orphanage and then take the tax write-off. Then you'll not only recover a portion of your money, but the good feeling you get by being so generous, will balance out the feeling of having made an uninformed purchase.

I like this option the best. If you are really in to trying to build a set of speakers, you could replace the drivers, add bracing, but always budget/plan to need to replace the cabinets. This, however, may just add time/cost to the project.

 

[LTD02]



Quote:
Originally Posted by vasyachkin /forum/post/15490528


so which part of it is exactly a scam ?


you bought a product that sucks. thats what 99% of people do every day. why do you suddenly feel special ?

that comment has me rolling. there is so much truth in it...you should put it in your signature.

 

[smokinghot]

Swallow your medicine and move on...


Why torture yourself by wasting time rebuilding the speakers and/or cabinets..? As the old saying goes...: No matter how much you try and polish a piece of sh!t. It will always be, a piece of sh!t. ..(something like that anyways)

 

[BIGmouthinDC]



Quote:
Originally Posted by CZ Eddie /forum/post/15492265


Donate the speakers to a senior citizen center or an orphanage and then take the tax write-off. Then you'll not only recover a portion of your money, but the good feeling you get by being so generous, will balance out the feeling of having made an uninformed purchase.

On the MTS web site it lists the speakers at $895 (doesn't say pair or not). So print that out and claim 50% value on the donation.

 

[DonoMan]

Well, $200 for 4 speakers isn't going to buy you much in any case. Those boxes are very cheaply built.


If you want to improve them, then make a cheap crossover for them with parts from Jameco. Even if you made, say, second-order crossovers, guessed the frequency given driver sizes/materials, and did no level correction or BSC, it would still be an improvement over what they sold you. White van speakers could compete fine with other cheap speakers if they put a little more money into the crossovers. Hell, some of them have just a first-order highpass on the tweeter and run the midrange and woofers uncrossed.

 

[dbldare]

A few years back, Home Theater Magazine had the white van pull up in the parking lot of the lab where they do some of the testing for reviews they write-up in the mag. The guys in the van didn't know who they were dealing with at all! BUT the guys from HT mag bought a pair so they could review them and post the results in the mag. As stated above, the results weren't toooooo bad but not even close to the price they were asking for them. It's a "scam" that's been around for quite some time "Hey man! I've got the get rid of these speakers or my boos will kill me. I just came from an install and had these left over!" I agree with above postings. Depending on the amount you have to spend on speakers (repair or otherwise) you should probably lick your wounds and move on and build a pair from scratch. Or maybe even pick some up from someone here in the forum?.?.?


I've gotta say this though. And this is going to come out "snobbish" but it's not intended that way at all! If the speakers sounded and looked "good" to you and your ears, that's what this whole thing is about. If you enjoy them......then enjoy them. AND if you like the way they sound/look and want to put a couple bucks into them to 'improve' the sound, then that will probably sound good to your ears as well. Again, not meant rude. The speaker and video world is often misleading. Someone may walk into a store and say that the Klipsch tweeters sound too foward or harsh, and someone else may say they love how 'crisp' they sound. It's also subjective to the area (room) you have them in. Maybe it's a 'dead' room so you might need some help with the highs so the Klipsch sounds better to you there.


Anyway.... my $.02.....


Good luck with whatever route you go,

Mike

 

[motamedn]

thanks for writing back guys, I'll get some pictures posted later tonight hopefully.

To those of you saying I didn't get scammed or whatever: I don't see why you came and replied here. Does it give you some satisfaction to kick a guy while he's down? Yes, the speakers DID sound good when I was there. Is that all there is to speakers? I thought quality, longevity, and validity of their listed specs played a role, no?


Anyway, I don't want to quibble-that wasn't the point of this thread. I'll post pictures ASAP. Thanks to those of you who are interested in helping.