Speaker renovation

[Speakerman]

Hi, I have some vintage speakers I would like to renovate. Please could someone advise the best way to remove any finish, repair light scratches and small indents and finally refinish. Thanks, Colin.

 

[MARK.B.]

Do you know the finish that is on it as that can make a difference to what might be best, those that know about this stuff will be be better able to help you out with words of wisdom ,a picture might help as well

 

[Speakerman]

Thanks Mark for your quick response. I don’t think there is anything on them at the moment apart from perhaps some silicone based polish. Great idea with the pics though. I will add some soon.

 

[Old.bodger]

Important starting point. Solid wood or veneer? Your comment ‘perhaps some silicone based polish’ brings a cold chill to the heart! Silicone is a nightmare in the world of wood finishing. Investigate ‘fish eye’ defects in polishes.

 

[Speakerman]

They are veneer. I have been using pledge on them before reading that silicon based polishes are a no, no. I will look up the fish eye defects now, thanks.

 

[Craig22]

What speakers are they?

Craig

 

[Richard_C]

I restored a pair of AR25s a couple of years ago. Mid 1970's, used them until the early 2000s then they went into the roof. Not the poshest top end ARs but good enough.

The cosmetic bit was easy, teak veneer on heavy chipboard-style body, most speakers were like that because it's 'dead' accoustically. I wiped repeatedly with white spirit and then warm water with detergent to wipe off years of accumulated polish then a quick wipe over with danish oil to bring back the 'zing'. A decent wax polish would have done as well. The fronts were tatty but you can buy accoustically transparent fabric easily on amazon or the 'bay. Cut to size. Search for speaker cloth.

The more interesting bit was getting the sound back to how it was. The 'foams' - the ring that seals the cardboard cone to the driver chassis - had become hard and brittle and in some places disintegrated. Again you can buy these easily online in various diameters. Fitting is not complicated but needs real care - you need to remove all the old by scraping and then glue the new being sure to keep it all centralized or the speaker cones will bang the magnet sides. Time, glue and clamps. Search for speaker refoaming on you tube and you will get many differect methods, choose the one that suits you. I also replaced the capacitors in the crossovers ( the circuit board that send the right frequencies to the right driver), the capacitors degenerate over time and are cheap enough to replace while its all apart. ARs are unusual becsue they use a sealed cabinet rather than a vented one, the last thing to go in is the main driver from the front and need sealing round the edge but most makes don't need that.

I found a good forum (classicspeakerpages) which is 'geeky' in the extreme but very helpful, unsure of the capacitors I needed I got an instant and authoritative reply. It's mainly New England kit, but (little known fact) AR set up a small assembly factory in the UK to avoid import duties. If you start to search for speaker information and forums be warned, its a rabbit hole into which you can disapper for hours.

Restoring the record deck was more challenging but I got there. So now I can listen to Miles Davis analogue trumpet recorded in an analogue studio played through analogue kit to my analogue ears. I'm not saying its better, let's not have a technical argument about sound quality, it just sounds 'right'.

 

[Speakerman]

Thanks so much for such a helpful reply. I am looking forward to my project all the more now. Thanks again, Colin.

 

[Stuart Moffat]

I restored a pair of AR25s a couple of years ago. Mid 1970's, used them until the early 2000s then they went into the roof. Not the poshest top end ARs but good enough.

The cosmetic bit was easy, teak veneer on heavy chipboard-style body, most speakers were like that because it's 'dead' accoustically. I wiped repeatedly with white spirit and then warm water with detergent to wipe off years of accumulated polish then a quick wipe over with danish oil to bring back the 'zing'. A decent wax polish would have done as well. The fronts were tatty but you can buy accoustically transparent fabric easily on amazon or the 'bay. Cut to size. Search for speaker cloth.

The more interesting bit was getting the sound back to how it was. The 'foams' - the ring that seals the cardboard cone to the driver chassis - had become hard and brittle and in some places disintegrated. Again you can buy these easily online in various diameters. Fitting is not complicated but needs real care - you need to remove all the old by scraping and then glue the new being sure to keep it all centralized or the speaker cones will bang the magnet sides. Time, glue and clamps. Search for speaker refoaming on you tube and you will get many differect methods, choose the one that suits you. I also replaced the capacitors in the crossovers ( the circuit board that send the right frequencies to the right driver), the capacitors degenerate over time and are cheap enough to replace while its all apart. ARs are unusual becsue they use a sealed cabinet rather than a vented one, the last thing to go in is the main driver from the front and need sealing round the edge but most makes don't need that.

I found a good forum (classicspeakerpages) which is 'geeky' in the extreme but very helpful, unsure of the capacitors I needed I got an instant and authoritative reply. It's mainly New England kit, but (little known fact) AR set up a small assembly factory in the UK to avoid import duties. If you start to search for speaker information and forums be warned, its a rabbit hole into which you can disapper for hours.

Restoring the record deck was more challenging but I got there. So now I can listen to Miles Davis analogue trumpet recorded in an analogue studio played through analogue kit to my analogue ears. I'm not saying its better, let's not have a technical argument about sound quality, it just sounds 'right'.

I remember saying years ago that I’d buy a CD player if I had digital ears, but until then I’d stick to analogue. The friend I was with said, your ears may be analogue, but they pass the signal to your brain to interpret it, and whilst the brain isn’t simple binary, it is effectively digital.

 

[AES]

I remember saying years ago that I’d buy a CD player if I had digital ears, but until then I’d stick to analogue. The friend I was with said, your ears may be analogue, but they pass the signal to your brain to interpret it, and whilst the brain isn’t simple binary, it is effectively digital.

Yeah, but I don't think the brain "removes" most of the top and bottom ends of the analogue signal so that it ends up with a "manageable" fist-full of noughts and ones for a signal! I think (only think) that that is what all but the most expensive ("multi-million dollar") digital stuff does. But no matter for me, these days I can't hear the top end so well anyway!