FREE! Absolute Spirits 4P. But....

[kitaa]

Yes free. I was doing a house clearance for a guy who owns a studio and he said 'they're broken take them with you'. Sure slight tear on the bass cones but I thought I'd risk carrying them home.....
They powered up.
And sound sweet.
But-
one cone is torn (10mm) and one punctured (3mm hole). So I haven't pushed the gain too much but I imagine it would make the damage worse or lead to some sort of popping/clipping noise.

Anyway

-DIY repair options for the cone foam? I have read about kits on the forum but what is recommended?

-Alternative driver units. Soundcraft stock replacement bass drivers but they cost £100 ($200) each new (http://www.sound-light-company.co.uk...soundcraft.php). I will contact spirirt but any ideas on the forum. Haven't found anything by google searching the board.

Some detail on the driver and amp characteristics:

"The woofer has a 30mm voice coil, configured to allow the cone to operate over a long throw (to give good power-handling capabilities), and the use of the acrylic polymer gel (Aerogel) for the cone material gives it very good break-up characteristics. The bass driver also incorporates a phase plug at its centre.

The 4P in the name of these monitors refers to the four power amplifiers used to drive the units. Each loudspeaker has a pair of 100W amplifiers directly connected to their own drive units via short lengths of cable. The crossover is performed at input signal levels by active circuitry designed to give precise fourth-order filter curves with linear phase characteristics and time-alignment between the drivers. The crossover frequency is set at 2.4kHz and the input circuitry also includes a switchable 40Hz, 18dB/octave low-frequency filter."

Thanks

1997 review: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1997...bsolute4p.html

[pinkmouse]

Is it the surround that's damaged or the cone? Pics would be helpful.

[Moondog55]

All I can say is lucky you, even if you had t pay to have the woofers repaired you would be ahead of the game

[kitaa]

re coan/surround
-it is the (aerogel foam) cone itself not the rubber surround. I will try and get pics up tomorrow

re lucky me
-yeah thats true but I still want to minimise the cost of repair if I can do it myself...

[pinkmouse]

For the Aerogel cones I've used two methods successfully. For small tears, superglue with a layer of tissue paper on the back surface as reinforcement works well, and for greater damage, I've used epoxy adhesive on the back of the cone, again with tissue reinforcement. I'd have to see the pics before I recommend one method over another.

[sreten]

Hi,

FWIW the maker of the drivers is Audax (France).

Most cones can be repaired without having any real effect on
sound quality as long as a chunk of the cone is not missing.

Tease back into shape and use tissue as a bridge for any gaps.
I've always applied the adhesive along the joints from the front.
Never fixed an aerogel cone but twp part epoxy sounds right.
I do not think superglue is an ideal adhesive long term.

/sreten.