Our philosophy.

A REPAIR SHOP WITH A PHILOSOPHY?

If you've read our about us, you will see that the only thing we have in common with each other is a love for loudspeakers. There's probably a Latin name for it, but I failed Latin. We enjoy fixing speakers and try to make our customers’ experiences less stressful and less expensive. On the stress reduction side, we are easy to get along with, and the quality of our sleep is enhanced by telling the truth, even if it is not good for our business.

Repairing old speakers is a lot cheaper than buying new, and keeps them out of landfills. For example: A pair of Advent Smaller speakers cost $139 a pair in 1972, or about $688 in 2008 dollars - so a lot in whatever year it is today’s dollars. The Advent Smaller was highly regarded in its day, and still loved by thousands of owners. Replacing the foam surrounds costs $120 plus taxes. Now that's close to the original cost, but if you have been looking for speakers recently, you know the dreadful grade of speakers that $150 would buy. We do a beautiful job, ensure the sound quality is as good as new, and we divert a mountain of waste speakers from landfills. And if your old speakers are truly not worth the cost of repair, we will tell you so, right up-front.

Incidentally, the pair shown in the linked article (see photo below) have been repaired poorly. Firstly, they used a 'generic' edge, and had to cut it to fit. The joint is at the top centre. Then they installed it on the front of the build-ring instead of the back - easier and lazier, but biases the voice coil forwards by 5mm, increasing distortion. At the risk of labouring the point, the dustcap is also badly glued, and the white putty should be behind the rim, not plastered around the outside.

We promise your speakers will never come back looking like the dog's breakfast.

Speaker repair is part science and part art. The 'science' is understanding exactly how loudspeakers work and their mechanisms of failure. Speaker theory is reasonably well documented but speaker failure modes are rarely acknowledged, except by those promoting worthless innovations to 'make speaker failure a thing of the past'. A thorough understanding of the behaviour of materials under simultaneous thermal and mechanical (vibrational and flexural) stresses, allows us to repair existing faults and to anticipate future issues. 

Knowledge ensures that our repairs never compromise performance. An internet search regarding "foam-edge rot" reveals a mountain of misguided opinions, blind speculation and general ignorance. The simple truth is - the foamed polyurethane material that edges are thermoformed from is just not stable. When exposed to environmental accelerants (humidity, UV light, and elevated temperatures) it degrades. Here in Western Canada, this can take as little as 10-years, but if protected from accelerants (maybe a cool basement in Arizona) they survive for up to 22-years. An associate of ours in Hong Kong finds they last a mere 4 to 6 years in that hotter, damper, more polluted atmosphere.

If foam edges are thermoformed at a slightly higher temperature, its surface is smother, and its life expectancy is slightly improved, but its damping performance is poorer than normal edges. Rubber edges (nitrile, butyl, SBR or EPDM) don't rot, but they weigh at 3~4 times as much as foam, so cannot be substituted without serious negative effects on performance. 

Tweeters have a high failure rate if the copper wire of the voice coil-winding passes across the suspension, on its way to the terminals. The copper wire fatigues and breaks when subjected to repeated flexing, yet some tweeter manufacturers still employ this poor termination technique, because it is pennies cheaper than using a CdCu tinsel wire from the coil to terminal, a technique which eliminates such failures.

Subwoofers, especially those in very small enclosures, suffer from fatigue. As the voice coil pushes and pulls on the neck of the cone, the paper can crease and tear, polypropylene cones soften and deform with even modest heat from the coil, and the spider, (thermoformed using heat to create its characteristic shape) attempts to reform into flat fabric. Any one of these problems can cause the voice coil to rub, and woofers that have been 'enjoyed' rather too loudly, may suffer these and other problems. 

Where 'art' comes into play is in removing the cone, voice coil and spider from a speaker that is 30, 40 or even 50-years old, without damaging it. If this can be done, the voice coil can be repaired or replaced, and the unit returned to original performance and (ideally) unblemished cosmetics. The sight (and sound) of a Tannoy speaker that has undergone an amateur foam edge replacement, is frankly horrifying. Besides dramatically reducing its value, amateur repairs may buzz because of poorly fitting parts, incorrect adhesives, poor technique, or the inability to test it properly. If the owner is truly fortunate, the problems will not include a (soon to be terminal) voice coil rub at normal listening levels.