Refurbishing Vintage Speakers: What Parts Do You Need To Fix Old Speakers?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 พ.ค. 2021
- If you've been hanging on to a pair of loudspeakers you loved years ago you may be wondering about refurbishing vintage speakers. What parts are likely to wear out over time and which ones are highly unlikely to be the culprit? What should you beware of when replacing parts? And how do you decide if it's worth repairing an old pair or not?
Andrew covers all this and more in today's video on saving and resurrecting old speakers.
Have you saved any old speakers for just this reason?
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The exception to the resistors not going bad is if they are the old carbon composition resistors. Those can drift usually up in value from age.
Thanks for sharing your expertise. Great information and nicely explained.
Great advice. I built some speakers from a kit in the late 1970's and I still use them. I looked into recapping when I felt the treble was a slightly more subdued. I spoke to 2 different suppliers and one highly recommended film capacitors but the second one made very similar points to you and and highlighted that the designer created the crossover in a specific way using electrolytic capacitors. He recommended replacing like for like. I did as he recommended and it just brought the treble back that small but noticeable bit. I really agree with your comments. The size issue of the larger film capacitors and the affect on bass response was an interesting point you made which I hadn't considered. Excellent video.
Thank you for sharing your experience with two different suppliers. It's the main point, are you trying to bring your fave speakers back to their former glory, or are you changing things because you want to change the original design and have some DIY experimentation with speaker design. Thanks for watching, glad you enjoyed the video.
Great video. Thanks for the graph.
You’re welcome, glad the graph was useful!
This also applies to exchanging a Mylar with a polypropylene. It changes the transfer function and you end up with a much brighter speaker. It also removes any EQ resulting from the higher ESR of the Mylar, since ESR changes with frequency.
You seem to know what you're talking about, and in response I would say that it is still worth improving the signal path even if some attenuation is necessary. Good to see some real knowledge.
Great explanation. Have been seeing this topic a fair bit here on you tube. Some change so much on their stuff it seems crazy.
It's a great hobby to have, but agreed, there's a lot of changing so much, that it simply seems change for the sake of change.
and here's the guy who knows what he's talking about 👍👍
Upgrade is very important to bring out the potential of the speakers. Merchants concerns their profit margin more than the sound quality and use the lowest cost parts.
The is truly the best audio channel for honest, unbiased information! Thanks for weighing in a bit on one of the prevalent snake-oil topics out there. Keep up the awesome videos!
Glad you liked it! Thanks for taking the time to comment, it's appreciated.
Dan's right, still the best
. I seriously wouldve lost $$ if not for this guy 😮❤
Great honest information shared. Awesome channel ! I woulld like to get an advise from you Andrew if possible. Is it gonna make a difference if crossover cables and drivers are soldered directly on cross circuit boards ? I own a pair of Mirage OM-10s and impo are great built for value with a freq response down to 28hz.! Im using a class A valve hybrid amp to drive'em and sound is great ! May I should also consider replacing those two BP electrol.caps 15uf+22uf on crossovers due to their age 20+yrs old .. thanks in advance!
was thinking of replacing the electrolytic caps in some 90s speakers , but I can't seem to find the same spec , mine are 50v and all the ones of required microfarad seem to be 100v , does it matter ? great vid btw
Don’t forget the ferrofluid…😊
How can i tell if my old loudspeakers needs crossover recapping? Will they start to distort or unbalance in the sound? Or else?
I do have an old set of bookshelf speakers that were made by Radio Shack I think realistic brand name.
I believe the boxes themselves are made at a diecast or aluminum.
I would like to find another pair of acoustic suspension drivers to put back in there, and perhaps give it a Fresh coat of paint.
I'm not sure if there's even any kind of crossover is in that little box of that have maybe there's something on the Tweeter to protect it.
You guys definitely put out a lot of great information. keep up the great wor !
Thank you, much appreciated! If those are Minimus 7s there are many fans out there, so I’m sure replacement drivers are available.
@@AxiomHomeTheaters
Awesome...I didn't know that.
Thank you.
I bought a pair of ADS L710s a couple of years ago ($25), they seem to sound fine to me and I now used them regularly as part of a home theater set up for both movies and music. Should I consider taking them apart to check or leave them alone? I know that parts for them are near impossible to find. I also have no soldering skills and don't know of anyone trustworthy in the area who could reasonably do the work if needed.
hi, could you shed some light on high end speaker cables...as I've always thought what's the point as those puny tinsel leads on drivers always remain in place and are the weak link in the chain ?
One day I’ll try to put together a video on the topic, but it’s fraught with difficulty as no matter your position on the topic, it usually becomes a flame war!
Sir, I know this was not meant to be a comedic video....but I am doing exactly what you are discussing.....however, I am making the correct decisions. Thanks for your guidance!
Great video as always and very informative. The highs on my vintage speakers seemed a bit dull to me - I don't know if this was in comparison with today's newer speaker designs or because of what some claim are the deteriorating of ferrofluid over the years (30) I had the electrolytics replaced and I replaced the ferrofluid myself, twice. The tweeters are certainly brighter now so that I can hear brushed cymbals again with them but I don't know if they may be too bright now, hard to tell without measurements. This is my second go around with the fluid as I learned you have to use precisely the same amount in each tweeter or they won't sound the same. Do you have an opinion on the need to replace ferrofluid on tweeters as they age?
Thank you! As long as you used the correct type of ferrofluid and the caps were replaced with the same type, you are likely hearing the speakers as they were originally designed. Ferrofluid can get gummy after many years and it should be replaced. The best place to reach out for the correct type and amount is always the original manufacturer of the speaker or tweeter, assuming they are still around.
Our hearing also changes over time.
As for dynamic (moving coil) loudspeakers, in most cases rebuilding them with "exotic" components won't accomplish anything. The driver surrounds can deteriorate and may need to be replaced. The only vintage speaker I would spend money on rebuilding would be a QUAD ESL57 but that's an entirely different story.
Absolutely, there are many parts to refurbing a pair of vintage speakers, including surrounds, controls, and possibly some crossover components. The ESL57s are certainly worth repairing, but require a serious level of expertise!
I just found a cabinet replaced 10" woofers with some new Dayton audio and a 1.5 soft dome tweeter reinforced and sprayed the inside with flex seal which actually works great and I painted the speakers the color of my entertainment center and don't use the grills but those speakers with 10 woofer has bass but not to much for music
I'm doing the same with a set of cheap Yamaha bookshelf speakers that came free with an old receiver that I bought about 20 years ago. Just sitting in the garage for the last ten years the mids basically disintegrated. The woofers look ok, but I'm going to replace them anyway as I'm sure they are the cheapest ones Yamaha used at the time. As I said, the speakers were free. lol. Bought new 8 inch Dayton woofers and 4 inch mids. I don't plan on doing anything with the crossover unless they don't sound good. I'm going to leave the tweeters alone for now and replace if necessary. I didn't spend a ton of money as they are only garage speakers, but with tax I spent about $135 on the 4 drivers. Hopefully my measurements were good and they fit right in for a simple part swap. They arrive in a day or two and little project will hopefully only take a half hour or so to complete. We'll see how they sound.
@@Barneyrubble241 that sounds like a fun project! I ended up changing the original drivers I bought from Dayton to the Dayton Reference woofers with paper cones and silk dome reference tweeters. I redesigned the crossover to a third order, re wired with ofc wire, silver solder, all air cole inductors and solen speed capistors. The cabinets that I originally painted I used flooring adhesive and adheres .75 oak and clamped it on top of the original cabinet. I used tung oil and polyurethane. They are not even close to being the same anymore. They sound amazing. My friend asked what happened to those speakers you had and I pointed and said that they are right there and he doesn't believe it.
Do you use first order cross overs in your speakers or another variant?
It depends on the specific model. There are some networks that are first-order.
This is a fantastic channel!
You manage to give honest advice, that could easily annoy the snake oil lovers, without seeming condescending to those who “know better” than you (they don’t).....
.....on a different note, please could you cover the amazing sonic benefits of cable lifters, I’m certain you will be shipping them as standard in the near future given the improvements in bass, treble, soundstage, air, pace, warmth, detail, tightness and overall passion a hi-fi *can* offer! Perhaps you could pump a few grand into anechoic measurements of the lifters too 😂 obviously the measurements will back my scientific listening tests as they are infallible!
P.S. if the measurements don’t back my bias I will unsubscribe!
Thank you so much! Maybe next April 1st I’ll consider covering your topic. In the meantime, those red plastic beer pong cups work well as cable lifters and will be easy to grab when a game breaks out. 😉
completely disagree. why removing series resistance (replacing high ESR with low ESR cap) can change the characteristic of the speaker? Electrolytic caps were (and still are) used, because they are CHEAP and the crossover designer agrees for trade-off using them. I believe in 70s they didn't care at all and designed crossovers as the components were IDEAL. Ideal capacitors, ideal inductor and resistors. which is false. your example for SPL graph doesn't tell whole story, this is not only SPL vs Freq matter, most of the deal especially with mid and high frequency is about time domain - electrolytic caps smear the sound because they store energy longer than we want and recharge is far too slow for the good sound. Today sources and amplifiers are able to deliver even, nice frequency range and clean, fast sound along the hearing spectrum. Adding device which smear the sound destroys all good. Listening and comparing such crossovers in the same speaker tell the story. It is REAL change in sound. if you do not recognize this difference - I am not blaming you, but do not tell, that it doesn't matter, this way you just disrespect and make your audience fool. If you want to learn more about it, have a look on GR Research YT channel, you will find basics if speaker and crossover design, which you visibly miss....
research and development for speaker production is carried out using the best products available, once it gets to the stage of production decisions are made based on cost which almost always results in the component quality being reduced. Upgrading components has an easily identifiable and very noticeable difference. That is a ridiculous example of a large capacitor. High quality capacitors are usually bigger, but not that big. It does not screw up the measurements, but rather returns the response to be near to the ideal strived for in r and d. None of these points are true or relevant. I hope he meant well.
Thanks for posting this video. I wish I had your nice wavy hair.