Blog, Speaker Repair Info, Speaker Sense

Don Lindich: Consumer Advice

Posted on by Cathy
26
Oct

masonite ringQ: In preparing our living room for the new additions, I was moving some 1978 vintage Advent Bookshelf speakers. To show my 5-year-old son what a speaker looked like, I removed the front grill and found that much of the “foam” that surrounded the woofer had disintegrated. Because of its age I assumed that was normal, but is it” I then thought of a second question. Can it be fixed and, if so, should it be fixed”

Carl Tabacjar, Allison Park, Pa.

A: It’s normal for the foam to rot out, especially after 25-plus years. It is no reflection on the quality of the speakers.

Though your speakers are older, quality classic audio equipment such as your Advent speakers can still sound very good. I myself own and enjoy some classic audio equipment and could not imagine being without it. It has a quality that much of today’s mass-produced, cookie-cutter electronics and speakers seems to lack somehow. Call it soul, if you will.

This is an easy one for me to call. If you enjoy the speakers, they are worth fixing. It’s just a matter of removing the old foam and attaching new surrounds.

If you want to have someone do the work for you, I recommend The Speaker Exchange®, located in Tampa, Fla. You can visit them online at www.speakerex.com.

The Speaker Exchange® has an incredible reputation among audiophiles restoring classic gear. I’ve corresponded with people who have sent older exotic, costly speakers and The Speaker Exchange® has been able to restore them as good as new, even when the manufacturer said it could not be done.

According to the Web site, it would cost around $65 to have The Speaker Exchange® refoam your Advents for you. You can’t get new speakers that good for that much money. I’d refoam them, sit back and enjoy them for another 25 years.

Don Lindich is a national columnist and author of “Digital Photography Made Easy.” To submit a question, visit www.donlindich.com.

 

Cathy

Cathy grew up in NY, moved to Florida in 1975 and graduated from the University of South Florida, with a degree in broadcasting. She and her husband Glenn started The Speaker Exchange in 1977. (Glenn later moved into Audio/Video sales and installations). In 1979, Cathy went to California for JBL speaker repair training and later received advanced training from Frank Spain, the then head of the Electro-Voice service department. She has continued to advance her audio education through many CES, NAMM, and CEDIA trade show classes.

1 thoughts on “Don Lindich: Consumer Advice”

  1. glenn says:

    most people dont realize that a reconed speaker is at least as good as a new or factory repaired unit and sometimes better. The team at The speaker exchange has many years of real in field training. The factories use the service dept to train new reconers or new employees. Who do you want working on your favorite speakers, a small company with 30 years of repairs or a newly set up dept in a large corp with little or no experience.

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