A REPAIR SHOP WITH A PHILOSOPHY?

If you've read our about us page, you will see that the only thing we have in common with each other is a love for loudspeakers. There's probably a Latin name for it, but I failed Latin. We enjoy fixing speakers, and try to make our customer's experience less stressful, and less expensive. On the stress reduction side, we are easy to get along with, and the quality of our sleep is enhanced by telling the truth, even if it is not good for us. Repairing old speakers is a lot cheaper than buying new, and keeps them out of landfills. Speakers that are no longer needed or wanted may still be useful to others, and we strongly encourage their re-use by actively supporting refurbishing.

For example: A pair of Advent Smaller speakers cost $139 a pair in 1972 dollars, which is about $688 in 2008 dollars. The Advent Smaller was well regarded in its day, and is still loved by many thousands of owners. Replacing the foam surrounds costs $120 plus taxes. While that is close to their original cost, but if you have been looking for speakers recently, you know the dreadful speakers that $120 buys. We do a beautiful job, ensure the sound quality is as good as new, and we divert a mountain of waste speakers from landfills. If your old speakers are truly not worth repairing, we will tell you so, right up-front.

Incidentally, the pair shown in the linked article (see photo below) have been repaired rather poorly. The new foam edge has been installed on the front of the Masonite build-ring instead of on the back - easier and lazier, but it biases the voice coil forwards by 5mm, causing premature bass distortion. At the risk of labouring the point, the dustcap is glued rather badly, and the white sealant should be behind the rim, as a gasket, not plastered around the outside.

We promise your speakers will never come back looking like this dog's breakfast.

Speaker repair is mostly science and just a little art. The 'science' is understanding exactly how loudspeakers work, and their mechanisms of failure. Speaker theory is reasonably well documented, but speaker failure modes are rarely acknowledged, except by those promoting worthless innovations to 'make speaker failure a thing of the past'. Understanding the behaviour of materials under simultaneous thermal and mechanical (vibrational, flexural) stresses, allows us to repair faults and to anticipate future problems. Unfortunately, the majority of 'helpful' speaker repair advice is absolute rubbish not just on the internet, but also from unscrupulous or ignorant sales people

Our repairs never compromise the original performance. An internet search regarding "foam-edge rot" reveals a mountain of misguided opinion, blind speculation, and general ignorance. The simple truth is - the foamed polyurethane that edges are thermoformed from is not stable. When exposed to environmental accelerants (any combination of humidity, UV light, and elevated temperatures) it degrades. Here in Western Canada, this can take as little as 10-years, but if protected from these accelerants (a cool basement in Arizona) they can survive for up to 22-years. An associate of ours in Hong Kong finds they last a mere 4~6 years in that hotter, damper, and more polluted atmosphere.

PU edges that are thermoformed at a slightly higher temperature have smoother surfaces, and life expectancy is slightly improved, but damping performance is slightly poorer than normal. Most rubber edges (nitrile, butyl, SBR or EPDM) will not rot at all, but they weigh at 3~4 times as much as foam, so cannot be substituted without serious negative effects on performance. Cloth edges are lighter, but their stiffness and sonic characteristics are quite different to foam.

Tweeters have a high failure rate if the copper wire of the voice coil-winding passes across the suspension, on its way to the terminals. The copper wire fatigues and breaks when subjected to repeated flexing, yet some tweeter manufacturers still employ this nasty termination technique, because it is pennies cheaper than using CdCu tinsel wire from the coil to terminal, a technique which eliminates such failures.

Subwoofers, especially those in very small enclosures, suffer from mechanical fatigue. As the voice coil pushes and pulls on the neck of the cone, the paper can crease and tear, polypropylene cones soften and deform with even modest heat from the coil, and the spider, (thermoformed using heat to create its characteristic shape) attempts to reform into flat fabric. Any one of these problems can cause the voice coil to rub, and woofers that have been 'enjoyed' rather too loudly, may suffer these and other problems.

Where the 'art' of speaker repair is seen, is in removing the cone, voice coil and spider from a speaker that is 30, 40 or even 50-years old, without damaging it. If this can be done, the voice coil can be repaired or replaced, and the unit returned to original performance and cosmetics. The sight (and sound) of a Tannoy speaker that has suffered an amateur foam (or inappropriate cloth, as in a recent nightmare pair) edge replacement, is horrifying. Besides dramatically reducing its value, amateur repairs almost always buzz because of poorly fitting parts, incorrect adhesives, poor technique, or the inability to test it properly. If the owner is truly fortunate, the problems will not include a (potentially terminal) voice coil rub.

PRIVACY POLICY & LEGAL CRAP

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