I got a pair of speakers for free on Craigslist.  They are a pair of twenty year old Advent Heritage speakers.   The nice thing about speaker drivers is that they only get better with age.  However one thing that can happen and frequently does is that the foam surround that allows the paper cone to move back and forth deteriorates and turns into dust.  If not corrected, this can allow the voice coil to rub against the magnet and break.  That would be the end of the speaker unless you can replace the coil.  The coil is held suspended away from the magnet by the equally opposing forces of the circular foam surround.  You can see from this picture that the previous owner attempted to use silicone caulking to repair the disintegrating foam surround.  Props for trying!



So I got the speakers home, disassembled them and gave them a thorough cleaning.  This consisted of cleaning with Howard's Restore-a-Finish.  I swear by  that stuff.  These speakers are fronted with Pecan wood.  It's very ridged and I think it accounts for the accurate and 'present' sound of these excellent speakers.  I have found five pair of these things over the last six months, all on Craigslist.  I paid $40 or less for each pair and they make excellent HT speakers.  Just take those little plastic jobs your HTIB (home theater in a box) came with and throw those things away.  Replace them with some vintage wood speakers for an incredibly cheap upgrade that can't be beat.  Your speakers are the mouthpiece of your stereo and the rest of the system lives or dies at their interface with the air.  Buy a good pair of speakers and they will last you a lifetime.  No kidding.







Now with this little tutorial and less than $20 in parts, you can take any old crapped out pair of speakers and replace the ruined foam surrounds and have yourself a proper face melting system like the gods of rock intended.  Ear buds are for losers!

After removing the drivers from their cabinets I inspected the connections and noted the wiring in these things was pretty thin.  It's amazing they put out as much sound as they do with those little strands.  You have to remember that these speakers were made after Mr. Koss sold the Advent name to Jensen and they basically ruined all respect they had.  These speakers, though, with the pecan fronts, are a gleam of sunshine in the dark.  Even with the thin wire and decomposing foam surrounds, they put out a very good sound.  In fact no matter how many times I've listened to other speakers, I just can't bring myself away from the conclusion that their really is nothing better for under grand a copy and even then, the difference isn't worth the money because it's just a difference, not necessarily better.  I can't bring myself to pay the difference.

OK, time for surgery.  The first thing I did was to use a stiff nylon brush to remove the rest of the ailing foam surround.  I ordered the replacement surrounds from Ebay from an outfit : http://stores.ebay.com/GeoAli-Vintage-Stereo-and-More.  They put together everything need to do the job except screwdrivers and ship it out by USPS priority mail.  They were kind enough to provide personal help when I couldn't get the plastic vanity surrounds off the front of the speaker cage.  Hairdryer!








So after scrubbing all the old stuff off and gently prying off the vanity plastic surrounds by judicious use of the hair dryer, it was time for the real scary part.  In order to recenter the speaker driver coil on the magnet to keep it from rubbing, you have to shim it into place using the included paper shims.  I first tried to cut the dust cap off by getting in between the layers where the original glue was.  This proved to be too much work.  After doing it that way for one speaker, and then just cutting the cap off through the fibers, and re gluing them when done, I can't tell the difference between the two jobs.  If anything, the one that I cut the simpler way looks better because by cutting the hardened glue, I left more damage.






After cutting the dust caps almost all the way off, I folded them back on the last flap of skin.  If you ever seen a radial keratotomy done, you will recognize this as it looks just like what happens after the dermatome is used to cut a flap open in the cornea of the eye.  After the surgery is complete, the flap is placed back on. 



Time to shim this bad boy up!  Using the paper shims supplied, I placed them in in the gap between the voice coil and the magnet one at a time. I kept going until I couldn't get any more shims in.  This centers the speaker cone on the magnet/voice coil assembly. 





Using the supplied, clear drying glue and paint brushes, I painted a layer of glue on each surface.  One layer on the speaker and one layer on the rubber surround.  The instructions say to do the inside first then the outside.  I did that for one but couldn't' find a reason to do it on all the speakers so I did everything at once on the other three.  You just have to remember that you can't have an uneven pull between the cone and the surround.  The plastic beauty surround made for an excellent way to apply force to press the edges together evenly, and all at once.  In a couple of hours the glue was dry and it was totally transparent.  I was pretty careful with the glue job and that care paid off in an invisible replacement.






Time to break out the clamps!  If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times, you can't have too many clamps!




In order to evenly apply force to the rather fragile and easily deformable dust cap, I devised a special clamp using two small cups and a few drywall screws.  This allows the glue to make contact all around the dust cap.  The glue drys clear.  Even though it looks like I slopped it on, it came out looking great.




I removed the shims and let the speaker float free in its frame.  The speaker floated perfectly centered and there was no rubbing.  Success!  Time to button the top.  The dust cap on one was a little dented up.  A quick heating with the hair dryer and by using a form (golf ball), I put it back into a smooth shape.  The gluing of the dust caps was accomplished after I made sure there was no contamination in the voice coil area.  I used a can of air to blow out the area well. The glue dried invisible.  I can tell that they were re foamed but I doubt any one else could.  I let them dry overnight before putting them back in the boxes.  The cabinets came out really nice.  I used the Howard's Restore-a-Finish to pretty much erase a water stain off the top of the speaker.  It's not totally gone but it looks much better.  You definitely can't hear it!



I replaced the thin gauge wire with something thicker I had around.  You can't hear the difference but it's just a matter of principle to me.  You need big wires for big sounds as far as I'm concerned.  These need to play rock and roll after all.

Time to pray to the Gods of Rock!  Melt my face baby!