Hello everyone,
I've been a traveller for many years, moving from country to country, working little jobs where i went to pay for rent and food, after some 10 years of moving around the world, i settled in Canada.
I had alot of belongings i had put into storage while i travelled. in this storage was a pair of wharfedale III floor speakers from 1971, moving them to canada, and getting a system up and running was a bit of a mini dream for me, these speakers have been in my life for many years and I've never really got a chance to use them.
recently i've got them up and running with a quality amp. listening to music on them is simply magical.
I need help with repairing the woofers, the edge gasket has started to crack. i realised that the gasket has become very brittle, most likely due to age and being in storage for many years, then being boated around the world in frigid cold.
anyway, I'm a techy, I like fixing electronics and repairing things. when i seen that my speakers where in need of some first aid, I went searching for help online and found your forums.
Thank you for having me.
Pat
I've been a traveller for many years, moving from country to country, working little jobs where i went to pay for rent and food, after some 10 years of moving around the world, i settled in Canada.
I had alot of belongings i had put into storage while i travelled. in this storage was a pair of wharfedale III floor speakers from 1971, moving them to canada, and getting a system up and running was a bit of a mini dream for me, these speakers have been in my life for many years and I've never really got a chance to use them.
recently i've got them up and running with a quality amp. listening to music on them is simply magical.
I need help with repairing the woofers, the edge gasket has started to crack. i realised that the gasket has become very brittle, most likely due to age and being in storage for many years, then being boated around the world in frigid cold.
anyway, I'm a techy, I like fixing electronics and repairing things. when i seen that my speakers where in need of some first aid, I went searching for help online and found your forums.
Thank you for having me.
Pat
Welcome to Canada and welcome to diyAudio. I moved across The Atlantic in two suitcases back when one could do that without incurring luggage fees. Have since then settled in Calgary.
Tom
Tom
Welcome. And I assume the cracked gaskets you're referring to, are the convex foam or rubber surrounds at the outside of the cones? Easy to fix with replacements. I'd recommend Midwest Speaker Repair. I've just ordered a pair of surrounds from them, finding them less expensive than Simply Speakers (also in the US). A bit of measuring your drivers and matching the provided dimensions on the website should get your speakers restored.
Thank you for the welcome. I'm happy to be here, but sad for the reason i'm here haha ^.^
sounds alot like me, except the luggage fees. haha.
I got kidnapped by a pretty Quebec girl, and had to leave my life to live in Montreal. over the past 10 years i've been building a life here now.
thank you, i wish i checked this thread again before ordering already haha. but i'll order some from midwest anyway incase the others I've gotten are not the correct size.
and yes, its the surround on the woofers that have cracked, i assume they're the original because i was given these from a family member some 25 years ago, he still had proof of purchase in the only Dublin Ireland store that sold Wharfedale at the time. I've then had them, used them a little at first, but started travelling, got the mshipping with the rest of my things to a few countries i stayed in a few years, then back into storage for the 10 years i was in Canada, and got them moved over a couple of months ago when i finally finished my citizenship. I didn't want to move thousands of dollars of things over to Canada before hand incase i was refused. so they waited for me.
i never thought of checking the surrounds when i got them, so I don't know when they started to crack. i know the sounded perfect the last few weeks, but i've not pushed the speakers at all, ever really, the current amp i have is the strongest thing thats ever been connected to them and i've not pushed it over 25% volume.
when i was testing them at my friends house (before buying his amp for him to upgrade to another)
he was blown away by the quality of them, he's an audiophile, his setup runs into the 20+ k ( i can only imagine setups that costly) he has a pair of bowers and wilkins, double the power of these dovedales, but my speakers gave his a run for his money, except for the tweeters. the high notes in certain songs were better on his, but mine blew him away on anything else.
regardless though i was more than happy to listen to my speakers again after so long. but now I've got to take care of them, the need some love and I plan on getting them sorted.
Thanks again very much for your point to check midwest speaker repair. i'll email them right away with info and try get a set to get my speakers back in good form.
I'm planning to drop by them tomorrow i had a look around for Montreal speaker repair places. I rather fix them myself so if they sell the parts i'll for sure get them locally. thank you for pointing them out.
if i get any extra surrounds with my ording online i'll just keep them in an air tight bag for emergency replacements incase anything happens in the future. (or if my audiophile friend needs help with one of his setups)
the handy thing with the 12" surrounds is, they fit alot of sub-woofers too, so its possible my wasting of money now will be a blessing in the future. (or at least i hope so haha)
in the freezer? i didn't know the foam surrounds would survive in -18 cold. but i'll make a spot for them in the freezer if thats the best place for them.
Welcome! Replacing a surround is sort of an art project with lots of scraping and gluing. I have a pair of surrounds to replace myself. It is great to keep an old woofer going. I would be careful not play those woofers until you get the surrounds replaced. It is easy to do damage to the voice coil when the surround is not intact and any misalignment occurs.
While in the freezer, there can be no jostling around as they will be brittle. The cold slows the off-gassing and the dark prevents UV damage.
Aye, I'll be looking for a box to place them into so they're protected. i have room in my chest freezer so this shouldn't be an issue.
depending on which pair arrives first i'll do my best to follow the advice from everyone here.
depending on which pair arrives first i'll do my best to follow the advice from everyone here.