Replacing Tinsel leads

[BassAwdyO]

A buddy of mine has a pair of JL10w3v2's which recently stopped working for him(and they're out of warranty). He knew I have a way with speakers, so he asked me to take a look and brought them by.

The first thing I did was check the amp, it worked, then I looked at the subs for physical damage. The cones moved in and out without any scraping or noise, and they didnt look to be in bad shape. I then tested the voice coils with a small battery. It turned out that only one coil each speaker actually worked. The other coils werent working for some reason. So I figured the voice coils arent fried, but one isnt working on each speaker, so maybe theres a bad connection somewhere.

I checked the tinsel leads at the "binding posts" and they were soldered on well and I checked for continuity across the tinsel leads and they didnt have it. So I removed the dust caps and took a look inside. The tinsel leads run into magnet wire as soon as they come into the speaker cone and I'm assuming that is where the connection failed. I got some magnet wire exposed and bare and tested again with the battery. both voice coils worked on BOTH speakers.

So what I need to do now is solder in and run some new tinsel leads. I guess I could use the old ones, but they're burried in muck and goo that is supery sticky and hard to remove. I'd rather just cut them out and put in new ones personanly. Is there any online source where I could get tinsel leads from? If not, would super fine stranded copper with a thin rubber sheild work? Any suggestions??? These subs dont have any insane excursion or anything. At most 1" one way linear but its probably more like .75" or .5"

Any ideas are appreciated, Thanks guys

[djk]

Call these guys

http://www.orangecountyspeaker.com/

[dnsey]

Desoldering braid works fine for me, or you could use screening removed from suitable cable and folded flat.

[BassAwdyO]

Orange county speakers little page on speaker repairs cracks me up.

"As a rule of thumb, speakers double in price about every 10 years. What this means is the speakers you bought in 1976 for $200-$300 would now cost about $800-$1200 to replace with equal quality today"

all I have to say is riiiiiiight

I think I'm just going to go with super fine strand copper with rubber insulation. I think that should hold up pretty well and considering the flexibility it should have a negligable effect on the drivers parameters. Does anyone see a problem with this?

[Raoul]

I bought a Brahma 15 MK I with a burnt tinsel lead off of ebay for $75 some time ago. I repaired the lead with Radio Shack test probe cable. Maybe not the best replacement, but it has worked fine for the past few months. As you suggest, you need a wire with a flexible insulation. Just make sure the wire is rated for the wattage you are going to send through it.

[pinkmouse]

I've used desoldering braid many times too. It works well.

[BassAwdyO]

Desoldering braid eh? I've never really heard of that....

After doing a bit of googling it seems that its just a woven braid to soak up hot solder... Well most of the ones I've seen are pure copper. Wouldnt that oxidize after a while? Would aluminium or something else be better? I know aluminium oxidizes too... Kinda makes me wanna stick with my orginal thought to go with the flexible insulated fine strand wire

[Tweeker]

Hmm, well Ive seen pure copper recommended over its alloys when burying pipe/cable for grounding due to it corroding less than alloys. I think copper alloys are generally more for mechanical reasons than corrosion resistance.

Aluminum oxidizes almost instantanously, but usually the outer oxidation layer prevents any further oxidation. Spill some mercury and watch out. Id use copper of some sort in this application though.

[Raoul]

Desoldering braid eh? I've never really heard of that....

Radio Shack sells desoldering braid, if you decide to go that route.

[djk]

Suggestions about using copper wire or braid of some sort are misguided at best. The life span will be quite short. Real tinsel lead is available, use it.

Lead out wires on speaker that look like they are copper are actually phosphor-bronze or beryllium-copper alloys, not just plain copper.

The ones that look aluminum are actually a silver alloy.

Most larger towns have somebody doing re-coneing, call them, or order from someone like OCS, Millersound, etc.

You generally only get one shot to do it right, so take the time to do it right.