4 replies to this topic

[GWC]

Hi All
I picked up a pair today. They are the dirtiest pair of speakers I have ever seen. That said, all of the drivers function (one of the tweeter wires was broken, but enough left to do the job). First short listening test was pleasurable. One woofer has seen a repair on the surround. I have my work cut out for me cosmetically, I am looking for advice on sonic restoration. I think the surround on the one woofer will be replaced, should I do all four? A source for surrounds? I have replaced capacitors on many of my vintage speakers, is this an improvement on these? there are a couple of cracks in the covers, but no missing pieces, so I think I can repair those.
Any and all advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance for your time.
Glen

Update this eve. Turns out the former owner had doped all of the woofer surrounds, dope on foam. So definitely replace. I have found a seller in Tennessee with an 8" surround kit for Approx $36. Comments?

[Dave S.]

Hi All
I picked up a pair today. They are the dirtiest pair of speakers I have ever seen. That said, all of the drivers function (one of the tweeter wires was broken, but enough left to do the job). First short listening test was pleasurable. One woofer has seen a repair on the surround. I have my work cut out for me cosmetically, I am looking for advice on sonic restoration. I think the surround on the one woofer will be replaced, should I do all four? A source for surrounds? I have replaced capacitors on many of my vintage speakers, is this an improvement on these? there are a couple of cracks in the covers, but no missing pieces, so I think I can repair those.
Any and all advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance for your time.
Glen

Update this eve. Turns out the former owner had doped all of the woofer surrounds, dope on foam. So definitely replace. I have found a seller in Tennessee with an 8" surround kit for Approx $36. Comments?

That kit is fine. Geoali is a reputable seller and I have used their foam on Ones, Twos and several other speaker brands. As for the cabinets, if the veneer is good but dirty without water stains and such a good cleaning with Formby furniture cleaner and then Watco Danish oil will renew the finish. If there are stains and light scratches then I use Howards restor-a-finish dark walnut with 0000 steel wool. You may want to tape a sheet of plastic over the driver boards to keep any steel wool from collecting on the speaker magnets. As far as crossovers I think many here feel there isn't a need to re-cap unless there are major deficiencies in the sound quality not related to the condition of the drivers. I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm mistaken. Somewhere I read about a method to inhibit the cracking of the grills through the use spray paint or adhesive on the grills but I'm not sure of the technique. Check over at the Yahoo Allison group for other tips.

[dynaco_dan]

You may want to tape a sheet of plastic over the driver boards to keep any steel wool from collecting on the speaker magnets. .

Hi Dave

That is the first time I ever read about your extra very important preventative maintenance step, well done posting it here, thank you.

[GWC]

Thanks for your input Dave. I will be ordering the surrounds soon. There is quite a bit of dust that has accumulated on the drivers, pretty hard to remove. I will likely leave most of it in place in order to prevent damage to the drivers. I am up to the challenge with the wood, as I have refinished quite a few cabinets for myself and others. Surprisingly, for the amount of grime on the rest of these, the wood is in very good shape. I am pretty sure they hadn't been moved in 20 years. I have a trusted friend to do the surround work. I am very excited to get these restored.
Any other tips of tweaks will surely be appreciated.
G

[teknofossil]

Cracks in the ABS grilles may be repaired with ABS plastic pipe cement. Properly done repairs will be a sound chemical weld. Also, MEK, which is the primary solvent in ABS cement, may be used on fine cracks (use a fine artist brush to apply). M Sound sells good quality surrounds of the proper radius of the surround "roll". Many generic surrounds may be of the proper inside and outside diameter, but the surround roll will be too small. Also, some surrounds are made of foam which is too thick (less compliant). This may result in the fs increasing in frequency. I have a set of Allison 1 (10") woofers which were refoamed with improper surrounds by the seller (bought them from a EBAY seller). These had a fs of between 26 and 29 hz. My Allison 1 woofers (repaired with the M Sound supplied surrounds) had fs between 18 and 22 hz. (Nominal rating for Allison 1 woofers was 22 hz)FYI: Neither group had many hours of break when I performed the tests using the Dayton WT-3 (from Parts Express).
-T