1. V41N1
of the BAS Speaker has been published. It features 2 meeting
summaries: the April 2019 Recording Panel by David Hadaway,
the Beolab 90 Loudspeaker by John S. Allen; and CES reports
by Kenneth Wacks.
2. Replacing Speaker Surrounds
Ive owned a pair of Acoustic Research
AR-9s for many years. About 10 years ago the woofer surrounds
for one speaker rotted out. I had heard of do-it-yourself repair,
but decided to buy two new woofers. I installed them and discarded
the old drivers.
Recently one of the woofers in the other
speaker rotted. I decided to try a kit from SimplySpeakers.com.
You get surrounds for two speakers, glue and instructions. The
instructions were good, but I watched the recommended video
on You Tube just for reassurance. The first step is completely
removing the old surround. It is in pieces and you have to scrape
it off the cone, then off the frame. If it is stubborn you can
use alcohol to soften it. You then apply a bead of the glue
on the edge of the cone and spread it smoothly around with your
finger, then position the surround and start pressing the two
together, working your way around. At first the halves dont
adhere it is a slow setting adhesive but eventually
they stick together. You need to lift the cone to get room for
your fingers to press the halves together. After an hour of
curing you do the same for the surround attachment to the frame.
Before you glue you want to exercise the cone to make sure it
is centered and not rubbing. You can skew it a little by the
position of the surround on the frame. You are mainly relying
on the spider to center the conethat is usually OK. In
advanced repair the dust cap is removed and shims are used to
center the cone. Usually that is not necessary.
At one point I had spilled some glue on
the surround so I used some alcohol to easily remove it. Then
the surround started puckering from the alcohol! I thought I
had damaged the surround. Fortunately after it evaporated the
surround returned to normal.
After installing the woofer everything was
fine. Then a month later, rattling sounds againthe other
woofer had rotted. So I used the 2nd surround kit and all was
good. As a test I played the Saint-Saëns from the BAS Test
CD 1 at high volume and there were no signs of any distress.
I wish Id saved the first 2 woofers.

email me here
Webmaster's Note: The
two great recone and parts companies are both right near each
other: SimplySpeakers.com
is in St. Pete and The Speaker Exchange
ReconingSpeakers.com is in Tampa. The third, a bit smaller
but still fascinating, is SoundSpeakerRepair.com ,
in Tucson, Az. Barry
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