Audiophiles, reconing a speaker?

[Splat]

Hey gang,
I have a older set of Cerwin Vega DX-1's with 8" Woofers. They were beautiful sounding speakers when I bought them years ago, but have been in storage in my basement for sometime. I went to use them last night and the foam that supports the cones is dry rotted and cracking. Has anyone ever tried to re cone them? Is it really a DIY project, or am I better off taking them into a shop somewhere to have it done? They aren't top of the line by any stretch, but they are decent enough I don't want to just toss them.

Any input is appreciated.

Bill

 

[MTboatguy]

I have reconed a few speakers over the years, I would recommend taking the speakers to a professional, they have more chance of getting the correct cone material that maintains the actual true sound that the speakers had when new.

 

[salty87]

check prices against replacing the woofers

 

[NYBo]

check prices against replacing the woofers

That would be my recommendation too.

 

[sangerwaker]

Sounds to me like only a re-foam is necessary, not a complete re-cone. If only the foam or rubber surround on the speaker is rotting, you should be able to get them fixed for less than $50 each easily. I also would recommend having a pro do it. I've never tried to do one, but have had several speakers re-foamed. I've always used a place in the Twin Cities called Midwest Speaker. Here's their repair prices so you have some idea of costs.

https://www.midwestspeakerrepair.com/speaker-repair-prices

Hopefully you have a decent speaker repair shop in your area.

 

[MTboatguy]

I did my last set of Bose 901's last year and I was able to purchase new surrounds on ebay to redo them, the surrounds I purchased were the same surrounds that Bose sells to speaker shops for doing this type of work. If you are intent on doing yourself, I would look on ebay for the exact replacement surrounds for that particular speaker model and then do some searching and a lot of reading on the net about the process. Older speaker cones are very easy to damage as they get brittle over time. Due to the cones becoming brittle is one of the reasons I recommend taking them to a professional. Another thing to be aware of, it is not hard to jam a voice coil in an older speaker.

 

[no704]

I got lucky a few years back. Was looking for a replacement set of woofers and found a local car audio shop that had a miss ordered pair of 8 ohm CV 15's they sold me for $80.

 

[Splat]

Thanks for the help guys. I found a old school mom and pop audio app that put new surrounds in them for me. $50 for the pair. Not super cheap, but better than buying new.

 

[MTboatguy]

Thanks for the help guys. I found a old school mom and pop audio app that put new surrounds in them for me. $50 for the pair. Not super cheap, but better than buying new.

Actually for that age of speaker, that is super cheap and a really good deal, glad you were able to get it done and now back to the music!

 

[Scott Danforth]

My uncle owns a shop that provides re-coning. most of the time it is cheaper to simply replace the speakers.

 

[MTboatguy]

My uncle owns a shop that provides re-coning. most of the time it is cheaper to simply replace the speakers.

Sometimes, the only way to preserve the OEM sound of a set of speakers is to re-cone or do new surround as there are not exact OEM replacement speakers available to put in them. I have a fetish for Bose speakers and once I put some new speakers in a set of 301's and the sound was just not the same, so I got a hold of Bose and they were able to sell me an exact replacement speaker that was made at the same time as the speaker I had to restore the original sound of them. That is just like the 901 series, you can get close, but you are never going to duplicate the same sound that they had from the factory.