What to do with a wet speaker

[jadewombat]

Use it! OK, I'm somewhat of an audiophile for quite a few years now. Not a super snobby type, but I appreciate a decent setup and analog still rules. So from the flooding here in Houston, well pretty much all of South Texas, got 51" of rain in less than a day. The result is a vast majority of houses have to be gutted. Each street looks like the houses puked up their wooden floors, drywall, and furniture to the curb.

I'm not a hoarder or a scavenger and I really didn't think this would work either. I saw a pair of speakers being thrown out. Water damage to the base of the cabinet? Of course, but maybe the tweeters are still good I thought. Here's the weird thing, I've picked up about 12 speakers so far, JBL, Pioneer, Infinity, and RCA--and they ALL work. The electricals anyway. OK, one woofer on one speaker sounds distorted and they stink on the inside with a musty smell.

The cabinets? Not good at all--swollen and separated. I didn't realize how many "decent" brands like these used particle board or presswood and artificial wood grain vinyl covering. The bottoms of almost all of them need to be replaced. Even the Infinity towers have the inputs at the base and they still work. Weird.

So my plan is to take them apart, cut the base off, and repair them with 3/4" MDF board. Another one had a crossover, tweeter, and two 6s which I will build a center channel enclosure for out of solid wood.

Just figured I'd pass along speakers can be pretty tough.

 

[scrumblero]

ya, the new ones are all plastic, not paper like back in the day.. sounds like you'll be rockin!

 

[LukeTheJoker]

I believe they use particle board for acoustic reasons.

 

[horsefarmer]

I'm surprised at some of the stuff I've seen in piles in front yards of flood areas on tv. Even metal stuff like cookware and bikes!

 

[Dr. Tankenstein]

My best friend lost his house due to flooding back in 2009. At one point, he just started chucking everything into a dumpster, out of exhaustion. He felt, unless it was a priceless family treasure, 'forget' this, I'm starting over'.
His wife inventoried every that was tossed and insurance replaced most of it.


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[late for dinner]

I guess if you have wet speakers that still work you just sit back and soak in the sounds.

 

[clouseau]

Yes the particle board isn't used because it's cheap, it's used because its less prone to resonate or vibrate like solid wood or plywood does. I'm kind of surprised you didn't find any fiberglass insulation in those old boxes as well. Some of the older 80's and 90's MDF material was sometimes almost hard to tell apart from particle board once it got wet.

 

[jadewombat]

Particle board does have decent resonance, I was just a bit surprised seeing Infinity speakers with the the fake wood vinyl peeling off considering how much those cost new (well over $600 IIRC).

And yes, a lot of stuff gets thrown out because people don't want anything to do with the storm memories and just start over, but the larger cabinet Pioneers I got have a real stink to them, too. I'm hoping to get the smell out of them somehow.

I also found a neighbor throwing out several hundred records. I looked through maybe a 100 or so and grabbed a dozen. They also had piles and piles and piles of different vacuum tubes in their boxes, but I have no idea if they work or a way to test them.

 

[jadewombat]

It's been almost a month since the storm hit. Stuff is starting to get hauled away now, but passed a house today and saw a pair of these sitting out front. The cabinets are shot and the woofers need to be refoamed, but they work. It rained a lot last week and the things still work. Neither flood nor rain can kill a set of speakers.

 

[jadewombat]

I saw this image on the Pinterests about a cut-away of high end speakers, Sammy Innerchoics. Whooeee. Incredible stuff. Gives me an idea to try incorporate some of that into a pair. I didn't look that hard, but these things are crazy expensive. One "lesser" set was $15K a pair.

Been working on some other stuff, too. A tool cabinet was being thrown out. It's not a nice one of course, but a great starting point for my daughter to keep her stuff in. I cleaned it up this morning.

A radio flyer trike was being thrown out also. OK, the wheels were bent and I got some cheap ones from Harbor Junk to replace them as the originals are a little too pricey, but still it works and isn't rusty.

Also have a new shop buddy. Yes, that is what you think it is behind the cat. It's a '66 11-window.

 

[RustyGold]

The market for audiophiles has shrunk considerably...most the cool old brands of speakers are pale shadows of themselves being marketed as cheap 'home theater' systems. If you want to buy quality, and often gimmicky, speakers now...expect to pay $5k to $100k (no kidding, they are out there). It has become a small, yet expensive market. No more going down to the local stereo store to test out all the Polk, Bose (uck), DCM (my fave), Infinity, Klipsch, etc for your home, or garage, stereo rack system ...now its just creep on CL or ebay until something comes up and hope it isn't thrashed.

Jason

 

[jadewombat]

OK, so I had the tweeters fixed on the Pioneer cs88a speakers and got a good deal on some woofers from the ebays. Did some work cleaning up the cabinet inside and out and one of them is working again.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad there not only is a market and pretty good sized interest in vintage speakers and not to sound like an audiophile snob at all, but for all the hype, etc. about these old Pioneers I'm not that impressed. They're good and all, very clear but technology has evolved quite a bit.

Compared to the cabinets I built last hear to house a pair of Niles AT8000s, the Pioneers aren't that much better. I thought the Pioneers would have that great warm vintage sound. The highs are a hair more crisp on the Pioneers, but the mids sound a lot fuller on the Niles and the bass is a lot tighter. The Niles cabinets are about 1/2 the size of the Pioneers.

 

[RustyGold]

I had a pair of CS88s way back when...I thought they were 'good', but they didn't give my ears what I wanted...which was tight, crisp, strong bass. I replaced them with a mid-price set of technics (not exactly a premier brand for speakers) that had the bass I wanted...but, I kept blowing tweeters...luckily I had access to a manufacturer's rep who could keep me in supply of replacement tweeters .

If you don't like the sound, if you can get them to look pretty decent, you should still be able to get a healthy return on the ebay.

Jason

 

[jadewombat]

Yeah, I'm thinking about selling them. They all have the FB on the speakers which is most important for the resale value. "Freebeat" is what it means I'm told.

 

[RustyGold]

I didn't get the bass I wanted until I stumbled on to DCM...and, Polk of course...I'm a long time fan of (vintage) Polk.

Jason

 

[jadewombat]

Hmmm, yeah I should look into those again. You're gonna hate me Jason, but about three years back I picked up a pair of Polks, about 16" or 18" tall and about 10" wide or so from Goodwill for $17. Turned around and sold the pair for like, $75 or something. Didn't keep 'em because I didn't have room. Goodwill has gotten pretty adept to selling decent brands so cheap though. I lucked out another time and got my center channel JBL for $15. I still use it in my garage.

So, I got another Pioneer up and running. Sounds awesome. Was made back in '82 and fills up the whole house. Clear as can be. The woofer has been replaced obviously, but didn't cost me a dime on this one. I cleaned up the wood, the back, redid the inside, and the seams. This one had a serial number on it also, but it was only a sticker instead of the earlier models that had a metal stamped plate.

 

[RustyGold]

No hate ...sounds like modern polks, there isn't really much special about them. Cool Pioneer's!

Jason

 

[jadewombat]

It took quite a few Sundays, but I made a new cabinet for components from a Pioneer T100 speaker (after all, the speaker is only as good as the enclosure). It sounds awesome. All beautiful hardwood, airtight, and really brings the room together as a center channel.