I finally had time to upgrade my front three speakers this weekend, and had a few minor issues. and a few questions:

Speaker 1: When removing the leads to the binding posts, I notice that one of the lock washers had split apart. It wasn't very tight (in fact, none of the binding posts were very tight), so I'm not sure how it had broken. I looked to see if there was a comparably-sized washer in my tool box, but no luck. My wife makes chain mail jewelry as a hobby, so she volunteered one of her brass jump rings as a substitute. It seemed to work, but will this be a problem (corrosion)?

One thing I learned about the leads from the new crossover to the binding posts, is that the flat pare of the connector should go to the back of the cabinet. That probably just sounds like common sense, but I didn't notice it on the first lead, and when I tightened down the nut, it deformed the connector. I took it back apart and gently straightened it out, so it should be fine.

The next problem was with the small-sized leads from the new crossover to the woofer and NrT tweeter. I could not push either of them on, and had to open them up a little with the tip of a screwdriver. The large ones slipped on just fine. The same was true for the other two upgrades.

Speakers 2 and 3: These both went pretty much the same. Everything was fine until it was time to install the new crossover. On speaker two, I could not get the back left screw to go down all the way; there was a gap of about 1/8" between the bottom of the screw and the board. I unscrewed the other screws and pulled out the crossover, and tested all the screws in the holes. All of them went down fine, but when I replaced the board, the back screw just would go down all the way.

One speaker number 3, I had the same problem, except the front two screws would not go down all the way. I'm not sure if the holes are slightly out of alignment, or what might be causing the problem. I even made sure that I noted where each position each screw came from, and replaced them with the same exact ones.

These speakers are only a little over six months old, so it's not related to the problems other were experiencing with the early-generation models.

Both boards feel solid in the bottom of the speaker. Even if they're not screwed down all the way, they are tight enough to prevent any side-to-side movement, but not any up-and-down motion. Will this be a problem? Should I open them up and try to reseat them? I'm not sure what else I could try, I spent about 20 minutes on each one.

Other than those issues, the rest of the upgrade went fine. It was really kind of neat to see the inside of the speakers. I had never actually opened up any speakers to see what's inside before. These really are some finely-made and solid pieces, even on the inside.

Scott