Stereo Speaker Tribulations

[auld argonian]

I'm sure that there are a decent number of audiophiles on the forum and I need some commiseration on the saga of these speaks...

I actually have a set of the Large Advents...which, I find, is a good thing. I bought these from my sister-in-law when she moved and didn't want to schlep the "big" stereo along. These dogs have got to be. like. twenty-five years old and when I brought them home and cranked them up (John Williams Superman Soundtrack...) the rubber on the woofers blew outta those cabinets like you never seen in yore life. Age and ozone did the rubber in and I was there for the payoff....I seriously doubt that my sister-in-law ever turned this thing up past 2 and that would have been when she was really feeling wild.

So...there are no replacement speakers out there and I have to venture into the unknown couontry of refoaming the speaks. Apparently this is now no big thing and the new foams, adhesive and all are available form several vendors on ebay. Doesn't look like too delicate of an operation...should be relatively easy.

The one other thing that's needed is to clean the dang cabinets. I have to assume that the "wood" is veneer but I'm guessing that what I have to deal with is twenty-five years worth of Lemon Pledge buildup that just feels sticky as duct tape. Thus far the only thing that I can use to successfully remove this yuck is turpentine...not one of the things that I want a lot of exposure too but at least I'm not one of the unlucky hyper-sensitive types that goes into anaphylactic shock when I'm near the stuff.

But in the end...I'm going to have a working set of some truly choice and vintage big old cabinet (like the good old days) speakers...and then I'm gonna play that John Williams at 10 and follow it up with Led Zep II on LP!

Boo-yeah!

Any other members having a time of it keeping their vintage stereos up and running?

Best

AA

[BEEDEE]

Try Goof Off or similar to clean the gunk off, or Murphy's Oil Soap.

Brian

[ChubRock]

I found a speaker repair shop here in Minnesota that replaced the foam in some Advents at our school for a few dollars more than what I would have bought online. In and out in a couple of days.

Believe it or not, I use WD40 to clean old gunk. Then a simple window cleaner and paper towels to take the oil off when the WD 40 has done it's job. There is a solvent in the WD40 that works well. And it is after all man cologne!

[auld argonian]

You know, I tried the Murphy's because it has always been good at getting the unusual shmutz off things in the past but it didn't work. I've very carefully tried just about everything including mineral spirits, every kind of soap I have, alcohol...so far only turps will do it. Just a lesson to anybody who thinks that they're doing a good thing by Lemon Pledging their furniture.

Best

AA

[Kilted_John]

If you're not already a member of the AudioKarma forums, I'd recommend joining. http://www.audiokarma.org

There are tons of speaker restoration tips on that site. I've personally been a member of that forum since 2006 and have found it to be very helpful as I go about restoring a 1971 vintage Sony FM receiver.

-J

[KiltShot]

I agree with ChubRock's advice. Some solvents are too harsh on wood finishes. If they were my speakers I would have them restored by someone who does that kind of work all the time. Experience often yields better results.

[fluter]

AA, by "Large Advents" do you mean the ones labelled "The Advent Loudspeaker?" If so those are probably collectible to certain auld geeks. The cabinets are quite nice, be a little careful with 'em.

My wife has a pair of AR 3's that she inherited from her brother (not the 3a mind you, the 3). I don't have any tubes, but was able to push them with a vintage Crown.

[auld argonian]

These guys are Advent 5002's. Having pulled the woofs to get an idea of the work needed to do the refoam, it's pretty apparent that the cabinets are a composition material with a wood veneer over it. If you think about it, it makes much more sense...the composition material is very dense and makes a really heavy cabinet. These are a sealed cabinet as well...no venting.

With respect to their collectibility...they're worth more to me as practical speakers right now. I have refinished a thing or two in my time and have a pretty good idea of what I'm doing. Cleaning them with turpentine is the only practical way to get this gunk off and it's a very good quality artists' turpentine, not the cheap stuff from the home improvement center. It really isn't even as if they need to be refinished, just cleaned.

There's a set of Allison CD speakers down in the basement right now that succumbed to the same malady (rotten foam) about two years ago so I'm just going to order the refoam kit for them as well. Those guys were my absolute favorites and when they're back up they're going to get a present: a sub woofer to help them deal with some of the very, very low end stuff.

I guess that I just will never get over that 70's stereo system thing...decent sized speakers and actual components...it just sounds right somehow...

Best

AA

[SteveB]

AR-7s fan here. Have had fun with them since I built a nice interface from the wimpy computer audio system to my Fisher amps. The input network to my system looks like an explosion in a spaghetti factory.

Light emitting Hollow state devices rule. (A.K.A. tubes)

Slainte

[KiltedCodeWarrior]

Cool stuff AA. I love good music and quality components and I love restoring things, but I don't think I would ever have thought about restoring some older (vintage!) speakers.