I've been Un-Surrounded

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I was cleaning up a closet today and found a pair of Boston Acoustics
A40 speakers that I hadn't used in years. I hooked them up to see what
they sounded like. One didn't sound too bad, but the other sounded
like it had a blown woofer (though I don't remember doing anything
that would have blown it.

I removed the grill and found that there was no surround whatsoever,
not even dust. I'm surprised that I could hear anything at all from
it. I looked at the other one and there was a hole about an inch long
and 1/8 inch wide in the surround, but at least the cone was still
suspended.

I know that re-foam kits are avaiable but I figure you have to do that
wrong a few times before you get it right and this isn't a skill I'm
particularly eager to learn. I wouldn't mind just dropping in a new
pair of woofers if they're not too expensive. I remembered that often
when someone asks about a replacement speaker, one name comes up more
often than others. Speaker-something, I'm sure. I thought it was
Speaker Factory but a web site from a company by that name makes
speaker systems, not replacement drivers. Anyone remember what I'm
thinking of?

They may not be worth salvaging, but if I can get a pair of new
woofers for $50 or so, they'll be good enough for something or other.
It's 6.5", by the way.

--
I'm really Mike Rivers (mrivers@d-and-d.com)
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

In article <znr1112729495k@trad>, mrivers@d-and-d.com (Mike Rivers) wrote:

> I was cleaning up a closet today and found a pair of Boston Acoustics
> A40 speakers that I hadn't used in years. I hooked them up to see what
> they sounded like. One didn't sound too bad, but the other sounded
> like it had a blown woofer (though I don't remember doing anything
> that would have blown it.
>
> I removed the grill and found that there was no surround whatsoever,
> not even dust. I'm surprised that I could hear anything at all from
> it. I looked at the other one and there was a hole about an inch long
> and 1/8 inch wide in the surround, but at least the cone was still
> suspended.
>
> I know that re-foam kits are avaiable but I figure you have to do that
> wrong a few times before you get it right and this isn't a skill I'm
> particularly eager to learn. I wouldn't mind just dropping in a new
> pair of woofers if they're not too expensive. I remembered that often
> when someone asks about a replacement speaker, one name comes up more
> often than others. Speaker-something, I'm sure. I thought it was
> Speaker Factory but a web site from a company by that name makes
> speaker systems, not replacement drivers. Anyone remember what I'm
> thinking of?
>
> They may not be worth salvaging, but if I can get a pair of new
> woofers for $50 or so, they'll be good enough for something or other.
> It's 6.5", by the way.
>
> --
> I'm really Mike Rivers (mrivers@d-and-d.com)
> However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
> lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
> you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
> and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo


We bought dozens af A-40s and A-60s in the early '90s. Not one has managed to
avoid the foam rot. One of our grad students has recently mastered surround
replacement on some old Ed Long Time-Align monitors that now sound pretty good
again, but I'm not sure the Boston Acoustics are worth the trouble.

I used to have plenty of replacement woofers, but now all I have left are
tweeters forthe A-40s. The step up to ADAMs has sort of cooled the enthusiasm
for the old Boston Acoustics.

-Jay
--
x------- Jay Kadis ------- x---- Jay's Attic Studio ------x
x Lecturer, Audio Engineer x Dexter Records x
x CCRMA, Stanford University x http://www.offbeats.com/ x
x---------- http://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jay/ ------------x

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

On 4/5/05 3:34 PM, in article znr1112729495k@trad, "Mike Rivers"
<mrivers@d-and-d.com> wrote:

>
> I was cleaning up a closet today and found a pair of Boston Acoustics
> A40 speakers that I hadn't used in years. I hooked them up to see what
> they sounded like. One didn't sound too bad, but the other sounded
> like it had a blown woofer (though I don't remember doing anything
> that would have blown it.
>
> I removed the grill and found that there was no surround whatsoever,
> not even dust. I'm surprised that I could hear anything at all from
> it. I looked at the other one and there was a hole about an inch long
> and 1/8 inch wide in the surround, but at least the cone was still
> suspended.
>
> I know that re-foam kits are avaiable but I figure you have to do that
> wrong a few times before you get it right and this isn't a skill I'm
> particularly eager to learn. I wouldn't mind just dropping in a new
> pair of woofers if they're not too expensive. I remembered that often
> when someone asks about a replacement speaker, one name comes up more
> often than others. Speaker-something, I'm sure. I thought it was
> Speaker Factory but a web site from a company by that name makes
> speaker systems, not replacement drivers. Anyone remember what I'm
> thinking of?
>
> They may not be worth salvaging, but if I can get a pair of new
> woofers for $50 or so, they'll be good enough for something or other.
> It's 6.5", by the way.

I LIKED those little guys!

SPEAKER FACTORY used to be up in north Rockville but he was rent-rasied into
doing it out of his house over a year back and has a pitifully minimal
website now at

http://www.speakerfactoryusa.com/

You can CALL him and see if he has reccomendations and will get parts for
you.


.. MADISOUND has a plethora of drivers and info on designing around them

http://www.madisound.com/



http://www.simplyspeakers.com/

Has foam kits and other stuff...

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

In article <BE789196.4CDB%ten@nozirev.gamnocssj.com> ten@nozirev.gamnocssj.com writes:

> SPEAKER FACTORY used to be up in north Rockville but he was rent-rasied into
> doing it out of his house over a year back

Thanks for that lead. I see that he does repairs. A foam kit from a
place I found on the web was $27, so if he'll do the job for about
twice that, it'll be worth it, and no shipping to deal with.

> . MADISOUND has a plethora of drivers and info on designing around them

That's the other place I was trying to think of. Maybe they have a
suitable replacement. Apparently Boston Acoustics A40s were pretty
popular, as was their surround degradation.

> http://www.simplyspeakers.com/
> Has foam kits and other stuff...

Found that one. It looks simple enough but I dunno. I'd probably want
to take off the dust cap and put shims around the inside of the voice
coil to make sure it stays centered when massaging the surround.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers (mrivers@d-and-d.com)
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

In article <BE789196.4CDB%ten@nozirev.gamnocssj.com> ten@nozirev.gamnocssj.com
writes:

> SPEAKER FACTORY used to be up in north Rockville but he was rent-rasied into
> doing it out of his house over a year back

I had a nice chat with Ray this morning. He said it would be about
$100 to re-foam them, and that he had a speaker with a polypropylene
cone for about $40 (the original is paper - these are the original
A40s, not Series 2) that he thought might be a good replacement.

I got a response from Boston Acoustics this morning, too, with a part
number for the genuine replacement, at $36, so I think I'm going with
that. I doubt that I'd find a new compact speaker that sounds as good
for $75 for a pair.

Now that I think about it, before retiring these speakers, one channel
always did sound a little fuzzy. I attributed it to a dirty switch on
the receiver that was driving them. I never thought to look at the
speaker itself, but I'd probably been listening to one half-suspended
speaker for quite a while. Guess nobody's going to trust my opinion
about how things sound, eh? I wouldn't.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers (mrivers@d-and-d.com)
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

On Wed, 6 Apr 2005 09:18:21 -0500, Michael <ra3035@NOTfreescale.com> wrote:


> I recently redid a set of 12" woofers for an old Infinity speaker,
> just to see if I could. I got the kit from Orange County Speaker
> (http://www.speakerrepair.com), and was surprised how easy it was.
> The spider (I'm pretty sure that's the name; the springy [usually]
> clothlike thing that attaches to the cone where the cone attaches
> to the coil) held the voice coil centered while I glued the
> surround on to the cone and frame. I was careful to let the cone
> float after I glued the surround on, then I simply glued it to the
> frame where it was floating at. There's no evidence of rubbing,
> and the speakers sound fine. Now I've got some better speakers
> I'm going to try my hand at, since that worked...
> This place will also do it for you as well, if you wish it.

I recently reconed a pair of Tannoy 15" speakers after the foam had
deteriorated and found that centering the spider was the most difficult
part of the job. There's a company in Australia called Speakerbits who
sell foam surrounds and I think that just replacing the surround might be
just as easy next time.

Cheers.

James.