Speaker Surround Re-Foam

[michaelman2]

Had a post up a few years back asking for advice on speakers. Started the quest on the fantastic suggestions some of you guys gave me. It finally came time to re-foam the Cerwin Vega D9 pair. My first inclination was to take the speakers to a pro and have them repaired. Guys, for once I did something like this without a complete mess. Ordered a kit from a recommended place in Florida, watched the YouTube tutorial and well... I think they are pretty damn good for someone who did not even know how to disconnect the speaker from the cabinet. The prep work of removing the disintegrating old foam and glue from the surround as well as the cone was time consuming but proved to be not as difficult as one might imagine ( seriously, I am not in anyway mechanically inclined ).

Got the gunk off of the speaker and then the re-foam kit had the new Cerwin Vega red/orange foams and a perfect adhesive. I just knew I would be throwing my hands up and schlepping the speakers to a pro to finish I am proud to say they look and sound like new. If you ever need to have the speaker surrounds re-foamed, do it. Also the suggestions you guys gave me were the best, with regard to which speakers would be good and could handle classic rock and dance music LOUDLY played. Vendor for the kit : Simply Speakers, St. Pete, FL.

 

[wayupnorth]

Simply Speakers is where I got my kit for my Bose Interaudio SA1000's and I recommend them. Next door neighbor was so impressed, I called Simply back and 2 days later their kit was in my mailbox and did his old Advent speakers in an hour. Both pair sound better than new.

 

[michaelman2]

Tim, I agree, mine sound great. I still cannot believe I had the patience or concentration to finish these. It took all of the Ritalin and Adderall I coulg get my hands on ( completely kidding)',,,I will take a picture of the completed speaker tomorrow and post it. You are right about Simply Speakers corp, very nice to work with. Very reasonable in cost and the tutorial on line was a godsend.

 

[gansky1]

Thanks for posting an update, Michael. Congrats on a satisfying job well done.

I've been putting off doing two sets of vintage Advents for a while now but I'm not great with glue and have been afraid I'd have to take the dog to the vet to have a cone removed.

I watched a couple of the Simply Speaker videos, they seem to do a good job explaining the procedure.

Post a couple pics of your system as well when you photo the speakers, I think we should have another vintage audio thread soon.

 

[swestoyz]

I did a refoam job on a set of 70's Advent loud speakers about three years ago, using a kit from the outfit in Florida.  The job wasn't too bad and the sound was - AMAZING.

 

Ben

 

[michaelman2]

Hey Ben...was a lot simpler than I could have ever imagined....glad your experience with Speaker repair folks was good as well. As promised I have photos of the finished product and the old reciever that started my quest for old school, heavy duty audio. Sorry the pic of both are not great quality. Both the speakers and the reciever are as heavy as can be. Cumbersome and heavy, but boyyyyy they sound great.

Also Gansky...I am not by any stretch coordinated with glue of any kind. This adhesive is really perfect for this kit. It is somewhat fast curing/drying, however it was not like some contact adhesives that once it is stuck it is STUCK. This provides enough immediate adhesion to allow for the adjustment of the surround (if necessary ) Really neither of mine had to be readjusted, the tutorial says that they really center / adjust themselves, and they do.. The adhesive smells like the old model airplane glue and the viscosity is somewhat similar to what I remember of that type of glue

 

[wayupnorth]

Funny that it is always the woofers that the original foam dries up and dies, no matter which brand. I love that old Marantz you have Mike.

 

[lordkenmore]

Incompetence with glue is one reason I never got around to refoaming one pair of speakers. Unfortunately, I don't have them any longer--I sent them packing a few months ago, thinking that'd I'd probably never get around to fixing them, or if I did, I'd make a huge mess of it, anyway. Now I sort of regret that decision, although in some ways I don't miss the speakers (they have some personal history I want to forget).

But...having read the above, I may give the idea of refoaming some thought if I encounter intersting speakers that need to be refoamed.

 

[lordkenmore]

"Funny that it is always the woofers that the original foam dries up and dies, no matter which brand."

I can't remember for sure. But I've looked at many, many speakers over the years in thrift shops that needed refoaming, and as far as I can recall, it was always the woofers. Maybe speaker makers used some other technology for other drivers, maybe it's just the larger movements of the woofers that cause the problem.

There are other surround materials that don't have the ripping problem of the foam. For a long time, I thought that would be a better idea. Interestingly, though, I've read suggestions in the last year that other surround materials have their own aging problems, and aren't so easily fixed. So the foam surround may have one advantage in that it can be easily replaced.

 

[lordkenmore]

Nice Marantz receiver. No direct experience, but older Marantz has a good reputation.

I actually know an audio industry professional who has a Marantz receiver or amp at home. I don't knwo what else he has, apart from a high end digital to analog convertor. He has had better systems, but downsized when he moved to this area. While I gather he plans to eventually get a better system, he's happy with what he has. And when you think about it, it's a huge endorsement that someone who is a professional, and works with audio equipment all day long, can go home and be happy with a 30-some year old Marantz.

 

[michaelman2]

Hey Way up and Lord.... Yep believe me I never thought I could do the repair and I have to say that the tutorial and glue made the difference .

Lord ... I worked all summer as a lifeguard while in HS I had my eyes set on that Marantz receiver and when I purchased it I was in love with it. It has moved with me more times than I can count and had been put in storage, unused for over twenty years. I got a hankering for my iTunes to be played LOUD so I went to a Best Buy, on line everywhere looking for a system that could handle loud classic rock and dance tunes. I really could not find anything except the surround sound types of systems and then the high dollar audiophile systems. I decided to go in the attic and pull out that Marantz system.

Got on here and asked for suggestions for speakers that could be driven by the receiver. Got some great suggestions and ended up purchasing several types of speakers. The Cerwin Vega D9 set was one set I found on the advice of a member here. I took the Marantz receiver to a guy to make sure all of that storage had not affected it in a negative way. I go in and the guy said " I will buy this from you , now, you will not find anything produced today that will sound as good as this thing for under five thousand dollars". I wanted to keep it and it checked out it worked like a charm, no adjustments or replacements needed. I am sure my neighbors have heard a subsonic boom within the past few years and just not known the origin. Lol.

Funny, each time I power in that receiver I fall in love with that blue glow all over again. The cool thing is that I can use that receiver with an external power amp and it will really throw a punch. This idea was given to me by one of the members. I always learn something here!

 

[lordkenmore]

The Marantz as "reward" for a summer of lifeguarding was a pretty good reward! In the late 1990s, I casually knew a high school kid who rewarded himself with some sort of pocket computer. I got the impression the computer wasn't terribly useful then, and--if the guy still has it--it's probably little more than a novelty to play with a couple tiems a year. Meanwhile, that Marantz receiver is giving you real service.

 

[DADoES]

 
Timely discussion!  I have a pair of Advent Legacy IIIs dating to March 1995.  Haven't examined them in several years.  Pulled the covers and found the woofer surround on both completely disintegrated.  :-(  Time to seek-out a repair kit.

 

[lordkenmore]

Oh, yes, if using the Marantz seriously with iTunes or other digital files, it would be worth paying attention to the digital equipment used if you aren't doing so already. A cheap dock (iPod/iPhone/iWhatever) or a cheap PC sound board is probably not going to have the sort of quality the Marantz has. Keep in mind the system is only as good as the signal fed into it.

I have no idea what products are good choices. I am, I'm afraid, horribly behind the times as for digital audio. Most of my serious listening uses LPs. A local dealer had a system on display with Peachtree digital to analog conversion that sounded decent--at least for digital. I think this link is for the product in question:

http://www.peachtreeaudio.com/dac-it-x-digital-to-analog-converter.html

 

[lordkenmore]

Peachtree also makes a cheap product to connect phones/tablets via BlueTooth to a regular audio system. No idea how good this product is, but it certainly is convenient, and would probably be miles better than cheap docks found at Wal-Mart.

http://www.peachtreeaudio.com/bt1-bluetooth-receiver.html

 

[lordkenmore]

Note that there are a zillion other digital to analog converters out there. As always, one needs to figure out what one specifically needs (features, performance, price, etc), and then find the right match...

 

[michaelman2]

DAD. Simply Speakers has the surround kit for those Advent speakers. Which by the way are great speakers! Believe me, as I mentioned several times above.. If "I " can do this repair anyone can. I seriously had to call the Simply Speaker place to ask how to get the speakers out of the cabinet.

I actually have the input on the Marantz fitted with the double male cord with a small plug that fits into my iPad and phone .. The entire library is digital and I have a mixing board where I am able to adjust the level of each frequency. There may be something better that I do not know about. And Lord, you are right I saved and saved for that Marantz receiver..

.. That entire summer I would go the the local store that carried Marantz ( HiFi Buys) and the sales people must have f thought I was obsessed and I was obsessed.

What I did not know that my grandfather had actually bought the receiver for me and my mom made him hold it and not tell me until I had earned the money for it. It was 620.00 USD and that is a lot now, but in 1979 it was a used car. I would pick up any shift they would have me and by the end of the summer I looked like a pirate in an Errol Flynn movie, was all teeth and eyes. Lol

 

[lordkenmore]

There may be something better that I do not know about.

As I said, there are a lot of choices out there... I'm not very well versed on the possible choices--this is not something I've even contemplated for myself (I have "just a phone cell phone" and I have neither a tablet, nor an iPod).

However, it should be possible to better the sound from an iPhone/iPad. There are ways one can take a digital signal from iPhone/iPad, and then convert it to analog. This should--in theory, at least--give better sound, since better converter chips and analog circuitry can be employed. Both Peachtree products above can be used in such a scheme, although the one in #13 would apparently need additional hardware to interface with an iPhone/iPad. Also there are iPhone docks from serious audio companies. One (as an example) is at the link below.

In reality, of course, I suppose it's subjective as to how much value there may be in doing this. It's one of YMMV deals. Plus, of course, one needs to find the right product--there are probably plenty that sound worse than an iPad alone, and many that probably aren't worth the money.

Arcam - rDock-uni(Discontinued) - iPhone / iPod / iPad Dock

The i-device has reached every corner of the globe and is the home to a vast majority of consumer's music libraries. Arcam has engineered a sim...

www.arcam.co.uk

 

[wayupnorth]

I had the same sound problem with the Sirius XM home receiver. I never thought my Bose speakers could sound so bad with that input. Promptly took it back. I wished there was a way to get great sound from a newer device you can plug into your stereo.